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Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908)

British footballer (born 1908)

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 revisionJul 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ5490390 ↗
Source-derived summary

Frank H. Williams (1908 – unknown) was an English footballer who played as a wing-half. Born in Kearsley, Lancashire, he played for Stalybridge Celtic, Manchester United and Altrincham. He originally signed for Manchester United as an amateur towards the end of the 1926–27 season, but then returned to Stalybridge for the 1927–28 season, before joining United as a professional in May 1928. He was reinstated as an amateur in September 1929 and became a regular in the Manchester United reserve team. Standing in for Ray Bennion in the half-back line, Williams' professional debut came on 13 September 1930, in a 7–4 defeat at home to Newcastle United, and was followed by two consecutive 3–0 defeats to Huddersfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday. United finished the 42-game league season bottom of the table with just 22 points, their worst total since their first two seasons in the Football League, when only 30 matches were played. Williams later moved to Altrincham, where he was also manager shortly after the Second World War.

References

Bibliography

Dykes, Garth (1994). The United Alphabet: A Complete Who's Who of Manchester United F.C. Leicester: ACL & Polar Publishing. ISBN 0-9514862-6-8.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908)” is british footballer (born 1908). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Frank, Williams and footballer, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1908, 1926, 1927, 1928—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1908-01-01. For this dossier, Frank, Williams and footballer is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british footballer (born 1908)” 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

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5490390. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1926, 1927 and 1928.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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 “Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908) primary sources, Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908) archive and Frank 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 “Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Frank Williams (footballer, born 1908)” 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.