Rowland Richard George Harper (April 1881 – August 1949) 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 made 34 appearances in the First Division of 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 ...

playing for

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

and

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

. Harper was born in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of the county town of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. He began his football career with Walsall Wood before joining Small Heath of the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

in 1904. He made his debut for the club, by then renamed Birmingham, on 16 December 1905, scoring in a 5–0 win at home to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

, and played fairly regularly for the rest of that season, but lost his place to Charlie Tickle when the latter recovered from injury. Towards the end of the 1906–07 season he moved on to Burton United, but never played for the league team, and left for

when Burton failed to gain re-election to the Football League. Harper played only twice for Villa before being sold together with Jimmy Cantrell to

in March 1908. After making only ten league appearances in two seasons he dropped into

non-league football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

with Mansfield Invicta. Harper died in

in August 1949 at the age of 68.

Notes

References

1881 births 1949 deaths Footballers from Lichfield English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Birmingham City F.C. players Burton United F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Notts County F.C. players English Football League players Walsall Wood F.C. players {{England-footy-forward-1880s-stub