A 16-time England amateur international, Charlie Fuller grew up in Dagenham, and played football for Dagenham Boys before the family moved to Plumstead when he was 16. He went to Grafton School and sat next to the marathon runner Jim Peters, who turned out to be a fellow Olympian. A powerful centre-half Charlie was introduced to Erith & Belvedere by his father, who played for the club in the 1920’s, and made his début the month before his 18th birthday. Charlie was an ever-present in Erith & Belvedere’s 13-match run to the 1938 FA Amateur Cup final which they lost to Bromley. At the time Charlie was a month away from his 19th birthday. He played around 100 games for the Deres before joining Walthamstow Avenue in the summer of 1938. He served in the Royal Artillery during the war and after the hostilities joined Bromley and captained them to victory over Romford in front of 95,000 fans in the first FA Amateur Cup final at Wembley in 1949 – his brother Tommy played in the same team. He turned down offers to turn professional, including one from an Italian, and consequently was honoured to captain the Great Britain side at the 1952 Olympics. Sadly, Britain were beaten in a qualifying match by Luxembourg three days before the opening ceremony. After the Games he returned to Erith & Belvedere as player-manager and was joined by brother Tommy. Charles Fuller’s playing career came to an end after twisting a knee in match against Grays in 1954, but he continued as manager until 1956 when he was replaced after a poor start to the season. Charlie later became landlord of the Duke of Wellington at Ryarsh in North Kent and after a couple of other moves he ended up in Sheppey where he died. A fearless and powerful header of the ball, the onset of Alzheimer’s later in life may have been as a result of that talent he had on the football field,
Great Britain