Bill Peart

A full-back or centre-half, Bill Peart joined Gloucester City in April 1936, after taking up a business appointment in the town in advance of him ending 12-years service in the Royal Navy. As a player and player/coach, at Gloucester, he made 72 appearances, and scored three goals between 1936 and the cessation of football after the outbreak of World War II.

During his time in the Navy, Peart captained the joint Royal Navy & Royal Marines team that toured South Africa. He also captained the Royal Navy Barracks team that won the Devon Senior Football Cup in 1934, and also skippered the Devon county team. He won the first two of his three Wales amateur international caps in 1936, when he was also called up for the Great Britain squad at the Berlin Olympics. Peart’s selection meant he had to put back his wedding day by three weeks, because the Olympics clashed with the original date. Peart, also a fine swimmer, water polo player and cricketer, was the first Gloucester City player to play international football, and it would be 78 years until Nat Jarvis, of Antigua and Barbuda, became the second, in 2014.