Jimmy Hugall

Born in Whitburn, South Tyneside in 1889, goalkeeper Hugall played for several non-league sides around his home town, including Rectory Park Villa and Sunderland Royal Rovers. He joined the O’s in the summer of 1910, although would make just one senior appearance during his debut season in London; a 1-0 win at home to Stockport on New Year’s Eve. Alternating with fellow ‘keeper Billy Bower, Hugall would make a further sixty-seven Football League appearances prior to the Great War causing the suspension of the League at the conclusion of the 1914-15 season. During the conflict, he worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant, despite suffering several injuries on the battlefield, including wounds to an eye and a shoulder. Perhaps more astonishingly, Hugall returned to Millfields Road after the war, adding a further seventy-two Football League appearances to his tally before being granted a free transfer in 1922. Two years previously, he had been granted a well-earned benefit match. Spells with Scottish side Hamilton Academicals and Durham City of the English Third Division North followed, before returning to the non-league game in his native Sunderland area. It was there that Hugall passed away on 23rd September 1927, aged just thirty-eight. At his funeral three days later, attendees included former O’s teammates Jack Forrest and Joe Nicholson, both of whom also cut their teeth in the north-east non-league scene.