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John Richardson (footballer, born 1949)

English footballer

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 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ17479447 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Pattinson Richardson (born 5 February 1949) was an English professional footballer who played as a defender in the Football League for Millwall, Brentford, Fulham and Aldershot.

Playing career

Millwall

Richardson began his career in the youth system at Third Division club Millwall and made two appearances during the 1965–66 season.

Brentford

Richardson moved to Fourth Division club Brentford in May 1966 and went into the youth and reserve teams. He made his senior debut at age 17 in a 3–1 defeat to Lincoln City on 7 September 1966. Richardson came to prominence amongst the Brentford supporters in a match versus Tranmere Rovers on 10 February 1967. An injury to Peter Gelson saw Richardson included in the starting lineup and his performance led to a write-up in the Middlesex Chronicle. Richardson finished the 1966–67 season with 24 appearances to his name and played in the victorious 1967 London Challenge Cup-winning team. He was a virtual ever-present during the 1967–68 season, making 45 appearances. Richardson made four appearances during the 1969–70 season before departing the club, having made 96 appearances for the Bees.

Fulham

Richardson joined Brentford's West London rivals Fulham in August 1969 for a £12,500 fee.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Richardson (footballer, born 1949)” is english footballer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Richardson 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—1949, 1965, 1966, 1967—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1949-02-05. For this dossier, John, Richardson and footballer is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “english footballer” 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 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17479447. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1965, 1966 and 1967.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. 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 “John Richardson (footballer, born 1949)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Richardson (footballer, born 1949) primary sources, John Richardson (footballer, born 1949) archive and John 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 “John Richardson (footballer, born 1949)”?
  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 “John Richardson (footballer, born 1949)” 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.