Jackie Whitehouse


John Charles Whitehouse was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. He made more than 400 appearances in the Football League for Birmingham, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic.

Playing career

Whitehouse was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire. He signed for Birmingham from Redditch in 1916, and scored 48 goals in 87 games for the club in three seasons of wartime competition. He was one of many local players given a first team opportunity during the First World War at a younger age than would have been the case if regular players had not been away on military service. He was a combative forward who scored goals for Birmingham at a rate of about one every three games, which helped them win the championship of the Second Division in 1920–21.
He moved to Derby County in 1923, and formed a prolific partnership with Harry Storer and Randolph Galloway. He missed the last two games of the 1923–24 season with injury, otherwise he would have been ever-present, and Derby missed promotion to the First Division on goal average by one goal. When two years later Derby were promoted, Whitehouse was equally at home in the top flight, scoring 47 goals in less than three seasons. In a six-year career at Derby he made exactly 200 appearances, scoring 86 goals at a rate of nearly a goal every two games.
In February 1929 he moved to Sheffield Wednesday. The club won two successive league championships in 1928–29 and 1929–30, but Whitehouse's contribution was small. He failed to settle, and played only ten games in all. He then spent three seasons with Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, playing more than 100 times for the club in the Third Division South, went on to Folkestone Town and spent a further year as player-manager of Worcester City. He later scouted for Derby County.
Whitehouse died in Halesowen, Worcestershire at the age of 50.