Harold S. Edmondson
Rugby League’s Youngest ever Professional
Fifteen years and 81 days old when he made his debut for Bramley
The late Harold Edmondson’s claim to fame has largely gone unheralded for 70 years yet there is now conclusive proof that he holds the record of being the game’s youngest ever professional.
It had generally been accepted that Harold Wagstaff at 15 years old and 175 days of age on his debut for Huddersfield in 1906, was the youngest player to have figured in first class Rugby League. Wagstaff’s claim is now obsolete, as it has been proved that Harold Edmondson, still a schoolboy, played stand off for Bramley against Bradford Northern on 1st February 1919, aged only 15 years and 81 days.
Harold Edmondson, son of a local butcher, was born on 16th November 1903 at Primrose Hill, Huddersfield. Harold learnt his rugby from Mr. ‘Bert’ Greaves at Bramley National School, and played alongside Arthur Binks. In the 1914/1915 season, the school won many trophies, and with Harold as Captain won the Sheldon Shield and also came top of the Leeds Schools League. And had hoped to enter the senior Rugby League together.
However, this was not to be. Harold unwittingly signed professional forms for Bramley, which unfortunately cost him his amateur status at athletics and swimming at which he excelled. His only remuneration in his first season was 7/6d the winning pay he received on that first game.
It is remarkable to think that Harold Edmondson received not one penny from Bramley when he turned professional. It was because of the need to protect aspiring youngsters that the age limit for turning professional was raised to 16 and this now ensures that Harold Edmondson’s record will stand indefinitely.
Still only 19 years old but with 70 first team appearances to his credit, Harold joined Huddersfield in September 1923 for a reported fee of £450.
Harold’s career soon blossomed, playing alongside Harold Wagstaff. Always tipped as a future international, Harold later captained Huddersfield and won both a Yorkshire cup winners medal in 1926, and a Yorkshire Cup runners-up medal in 1923 when Hull had their first success in the competition, beating Huddersfield 10-4 at Headingley.
After two full seasons at Fartown disaster struck in only his fourth game of the 1925-6 season. The incident happened in the first minute of the game against Warrington when he was unnecessarily ‘gang tackled’ by four Warrington forwards, with the result he was taken off the field with a badly fractured collarbone, which kept him out of the game for 12 months. It was against Swinton at Fartown on 20th November 1926, four days after his 23rd birthday, that Harold had a recurrence of the shoulder injury and this prematurely finished his promising career. |
