Historic silver medal presented to Bert Williams as a participation medal for representing England at the World Cup Finals in Brazil, 1950. Bert was the England goalkeeper, his home club being Wolverhampton Wanderers.
There were 21 players in the England squad which travelled to Brazil but as all football historians will know, England only played 3 games in the Finals, being eliminated early after a humiliating 1- 0 defeat to the United States. Consequently only 15 England players had any game time and Bert Williams was one of only 7 England players to play every minute of all three games, the others being:
Jim Dickinson of Portsmouth FC
Tom Finney of Preston North End FC
Lawrence Hughes of Liverpool FC
Stan Mortensen of Blackpool FC
Alf Ramsey of Tottenham Hotspur FC
Billy Wright of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC
Medal Weight: 12.0 gm. Width: 21 mm. Height: 35 mm. NOTE: The medal has the look & feel of solid silver but is unmarked & untested so may be silver plated (the value is what the medal represents than the material it is made of).
Provenance: Specialist sports auctioneers, Mullock Jones (formerly Mullocks). Came with a COA signed by Bert Williams (see photos) which will be passed on to the buyer. Also included is a printout of the Wikipedia page relating to Bert Williams.
Also included is a photo reprint showing the England team emerging for their first ever game at a World Cup Finals. The game was played on 25th June 1950 against Chile with England going on to win 2 - 0. Bert Williams is the second player to enter the pitch after his captain, Billy Wright.
World Cup 1950: This was the 4th FIFA World Cup and was held in Brazil from 24th June to 16th July 1950. It was the first World Cup Tournament in over 12 years as the 1942 & 1946 World Cups were cancelled due to WW2.
The World Cup Finals in 1950 were not the worldwide phenomenon seen today and many countries were reluctant to take part. Even Scotland could have attended but they withdrew.
England & Scotland had qualified through the Home Internationals and England agreed to attend the Finals for the first time but their preparations were not whole-hearted and fully focused. Even so they were one of the favourites to win the tournament.
England were placed in a Group with Chile, Spain & the USA and were expected to qualify from that group. Ther three results are set out below:
25th June 1950. England 2 - 0 Chile.
29th June 1950. England 0 - 1 USA.
2nd July 1950. England 0 - 1 Spain.
Although starting off well with a 2 - 0 victory over Chile, England were humilitated in their next game when they lost 1 - 0 to the part-timers of the USA. They then lost their final game 1 - 0 to Spain so it was Spain who qualified from the Group.
The 1950 World Cup was the only one not decided by a one-game Final with games taking place on a round-robin basis. Uruguay were declared the winners with Brazil being runners-up.
Bert Frederick Williams MBE (31st January 1920 - 19th January 2014): A goalkeeper, nicknamed "The Cat", he spent most of his playing career at Wolverhampton Wanderers where he won the League Championship in 1953 - 54 & the FA Cup in 1949. Between 1945 and 1959 he made over 420 appearances for Wolves. In addition, Bert was capped 24 times for the England senior team including playing in all three matches in the 1950 World Cup.
Summary: As can be seen from the photos & history (above) this is a rare medal in the long history of the England national football team. Identical in size & look to the gold England World Cup Winners medals of 1966, this silver example was one of the very few participation medals awarded to the England players in 1950 as they attended their very first World Cup Finals. Only 7 holders of these medals played all 270 minutes in those Finals with Bert Williams being one of those seven. Good luck!