Dennis Grainger (5 March 1920 – 6 June 1986) was an English professional

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 ...

who played as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Early career

Born in

Royston Royston may refer to: Places Australia *Royston, Queensland, a rural locality Canada *Royston, British Columbia, a small hamlet England *Royston, Hertfordshire, a town and civil parish, formerly partly in Cambridgeshire *Royston, South Yorkshi ...

, Grainger began his career with

South Kirkby South Kirkby is a town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England which is governed locally by South Kirkby and Moorthorpe Town Council. The town forms half of the civil parish of South Kirkby and Moorthorpe. The parish has a population ...

before joining

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

on trial in 1937, where his older brother

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

was an established first-team player. After being initially rejected, he re-joined the club on trial in 1938, signing for them as a professional in October 1938. In August 1939 he was given his Football League debut for Southport in a match against Darlington; ironically, his older brother Jack was one of the players who was dropped to accommodate his debut.

Wartime football

During the war he continued to play for Southport when possible, though in 1942 it was evident that his

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

duties were getting in the way and Southport were forced to look for a replacement. Where possible he combined football with his Royal Air Force commitments and made guest appearances for

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

, where his form was rewarded with a call up to both the RAF representative football team and the FA XI.

Post-war career

Following the war he transferred to

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

in October 1945, for a "substantial" fee, at his own request. When signing for Leeds in October he had already played for the club for most of the season. He signed for

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county ...

in November 1947, before moving to

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

in June 1951. He finished his career at Bangor City.

Personal life

His brother

and cousins

and Colin were also professional footballers, while another cousin

Edwin Holliday Edwin Holliday (17 June 1939 – 4 October 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as an outside left. Early and personal life Holliday was born in Leeds, or possibly Barnsley, on 17 June 1939. He married in March 1958. He was ...

played for England.

References

1920 births 1986 deaths Footballers from Barnsley English men's footballers South Kirkby Colliery F.C. players Southport F.C. players Millwall F.C. wartime guest players Leeds United F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Bangor City F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football wingers Royal Air Force personnel of World War II People from Royston, South Yorkshire Military personnel from Yorkshire {{England-footy-midfielder-1920s-stub