George Alfred Bellis (8 June 1904 – 1969) 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 lea ...

who played as a defender. Bellis' father was serving with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

in India when his son was born. The family moved back to England soon after and settled in Seaforth, Lancashire, where Bellis began to excel at football. He was playing open-age football for top Bootle league side Seaforth Fellowship when he was just sixteen years old and signed for Formby United in August 1921, aged 17. After two seasons he moved to

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

for three years before moving to fellow

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

side

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

in 1927. He scored on his debut for the Welsh club, the only goal in a 1–0 win at Chesterfield, and became a mainstay of the team's defence. Bellis graduated to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

to play with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in 1929, and was part of the championship-winning side of 1931–32. Bellis's stay in the top flight lasted only a matter of months before he joined

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

in December 1932. He was soon awarded the captaincy. In the close season of 1935 Bellis joined his final league club, Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in Division Three South. In 1937, aged 33, he left to join Wellington Town. He later moved back to Seaforth and died in the area in 1969, aged 64.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellis, George 1904 births 1969 deaths People from Seaforth, Merseyside Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Footballers from Merseyside English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Formby F.C. players Southport F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Burnley F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Telford United F.C. players English Football League players 20th-century English sportsmen