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Alfred Sellman

footballer (1881-?)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 26, 2025
Entity authorityQ4723421
Source-derived summary

Alfred William Sellman (1880–1935) was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Small Heath. He also played Southern League football for Leyton and appeared in the Lancashire Combination for Workington.

Life and career

Sellman was born in Chadsmoor, Staffordshire, in 1880. He played local football for Bridgford Amateurs before joining First Division club Small Heath in the 1903–04 season. His performances for the reserve team earned him selection for a trial, in which he scored the opening goal, and thence for the Birmingham & District Football Association team to represent England in a junior international match against Scotland Juniors at Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham, in April 1904. England won 2–1, and Sellman's Small Heath team-mate Charlie Tickle scored both goals.

He made his first-team debut on 29 April 1905, the last day of the season, and the club's last match before it was renamed Birmingham. He came into the side in place of Walter Wigmore, the regular centre half, and the Birmingham Gazette & Express's 'Spectator' thought that Sellman was effectively on trial, as he had had little opportunity thus far to prove himself. Despite the 1–0 defeat, he "created a very favourable impression in the centre-half position. Though somewhat ungainly, he was untiring in his efforts, and prevented the opposing forwards adopting united methods." He remained with the club until 1906, but made no more competitive appearances for the first team.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alfred Sellman” is footballer (1881-?). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alfred, Sellman and footballer, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1880, 1935, 1903, 1904—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1881-01-01. For this dossier, Alfred, Sellman and footballer is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “footballer (1881-?)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4723421. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1935, 1903 and 1904.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alfred Sellman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alfred Sellman primary sources, Alfred Sellman archive and Alfred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Alfred Sellman”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Alfred Sellman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.