Albert John Franks (13 April 1936 18 June 2017) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

wing half In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

and Lincoln City in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

for

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

and Queen of the South, and was

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Early life

Albert Franks was born in the mining village of Boldon Colliery,

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

on 13 April 1936. His mother was a Methodist preacher. He represented the Durham county schools teams at football and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, and once scored a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

in 25 minutes playing for Boldon Colliery in the Durham Coast Cricket League. He was a police cadet before becoming a professional footballer.

Playing career

Franks began his football career with Boldon Colliery Welfare, before signing for

in December 1953. Although his Newcastle career was interrupted by his

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

, during which he captained the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

football team, he went on to make 75 first team appearances and score 4 goals after making his debut against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

in 1957. Having fallen out of favour once

Charlie Mitten Charles Mitten (17 January 1921 – 2 January 2002) was an English football player and manager who came through the junior ranks at Manchester United. Over his career, Mitten also played for Fulham, Mansfield Town and Altrincham in England, and ...

became Newcastle

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

, Franks was sold to

in March 1960 for £6,500, where he was thought to be the first Englishman to join the Scottish club. Franks was named man of the match on his debut, in a 2–0 home defeat against

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

in April 1960, but made only two further first team appearances for Rangers. He joined Morton in September 1961 before another transfer, to Lincoln City, two months later. After a return to Scotland with Queen of the South in 1964, he ended his career as

in the

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

After football

Franks retired from football aged 29, after a proposed move to become player-manager of

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

fell through. He returned to his police career, joining the

Durham Constabulary Durham Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the council areas of County Durham and Darlington in North East England. It does not cover all of the ceremonial or historic area of Durham, parts of which are covered ...

. He served there for 22 years, principally with the

CID Cid may refer to: * Cid (soil) * Cubic inch (c.i.d., cid), a displacement unit for internal combustion engines * Cid, a slang term for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) * Content-ID, a URI scheme (cid:) that allows the use of MIME within email Peop ...

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555. The town's history is ancient; ...

, earning 13 commendations. After retiring from the police force, he moved into retail security working internationally as a consultant and lived in Vigo, near

Birtley, Tyne and Wear Birtley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead and is conjoined to Chester-le-Street across the county boundary in County Durham. Until 1974, Birtley and the a ...

. Franks died on 18 June 2017, aged 81.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Franks, Albert 1936 births 2017 deaths English men's footballers Newcastle United F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Queen of the South F.C. players Scarborough F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Footballers from Tyne and Wear Men's association football wing halves English football managers Scarborough F.C. managers 20th-century English sportsmen