Jackie Pearson

Jackie Pearson was born-and-bred in Crewe and spent nearly all of his life in the railway town, until ill-health forced him to move to the south coast resort of Bournemouth. He was a keen footballer as a schoolboy, and at the age of 13 played for Crewe Alexandra reserves before being called up to the first team two years later. Crewe played friendly and FA Cup matches only in those early days, but Pearson was with them when they joined the Football Alliance in 1889 and also when they were admitted to the old second division of the Football League in 1892.

Having helped Crewe win the Cheshire Cup four times, the finest season of his playing career was in the 1887/88 when Crewe reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, but only after a controversial and much publicised fourth round match with the famous London club Swifts. After drawing 2-2 at Crewe, Swifts won the replay 1-0 but it was claimed that the crossbar was two-feet too low and Crewe put in an objection. A third match was played on a neutral ground and Crewe won, and went all the way to the semi-final where they lost to first division Preston North End.

Pearson had won representative honours playing for the North in the annual match against the South, but won his only England cap against Ireland in Belfast in March 1892. As at 2020 he was the only player to have won a full England cap while a Crewe player.

After playing only a handful of League games for the “Alex”, Pearson’s playing career was ended following injury in 1893, and he turned to refereeing in local junior matches. He eventually became chairman of the Crewe Referees’ Society and soon worked his way up to officiating in preliminary round matches in the FA Cup, before getting more senior FA Cup and League appointments. Between 1908-14 he refereed in five internationals, including the 1908 Olympic third-place match between Netherlands and Sweden, but the highlight of his career was being in charge of the 1911 FA Cup final between Bradford City and Newcastle United. Strangely Pearson, who worked for the London and North Western Railway Company (LNWR), became the second Cup Final referee to work for LNWR after Aaron Scragg in 1899.

Pearson retired from refereeing in 1914 and continued his career with LNWR and later London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) following amalgamation in 1923. He retired after 48 years with the company in December 1930. Six months later he died.