Biography
Birmingham-born striker Edwin Arthur “Ted” Smith joined the 1910 close season. He was signed from Birmingham and District League side Brierley Hill Alliance, but had made his reputation playing for Army representative sides while serving in the Royal Field Artillery. He scored hattricks in the 1906 and 1907 Army Battalion Shield finals and played for the English Army XI against their Irish Army counterparts. He scored 37 times in to seasons for Brierley Hill and joined the Tigers in a tumult of hope and promise. Alas, he didn’t deliver – his time at City coincided with the emergence of teenage goalscoring sensation Tommy Browell, and Smith managed only 8 goal-less starts in his first and only full season. In 1911/12 he appeared just once and by the end of 1911 he was seeking pastures new.
Ted joined Crystal Palace in December 1911, then a Southern League side, and the Midlander found his scoring boots once more. He scored hattricks in both of his first two starts and spent 11 years playing for the South London side, or seven seasons accounting for the break in senior football during World War One. He scored 20-plus goals in each of his four pre-war seasons and in total he amassed 124 league goals in just under 200 appearances, placing him amongst Palace’s highest all-time goalscorers. Injuries curtailed his career in 1922, but not before his goals had helped Palace win promotion in the inaugural season of Division Three South. After football Ted lived in Liverpool and worked in a Job Centre. He died in his native Birmingham in 1959.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 28 February 1888, Birmingham
Hull City First Game: 3 September 1910, West Bromwich Albion H (Division Two), 22 years, 187 days old
Hull City Final Game: 9 September 1911, Glossop H (Division Two), 23 years, 193 days old
Clubs
Brierley Hill Alliance (1908-1910), Hull City (1910-1911), Crystal Palace (1911-1922)
Hull City Record
Career: 9 apps, 0 goals
Edwin Smith| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1910/11 | 8 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1911/12 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |