Today students in year 8 and 9 welcomed guest speaker Matt Tiller from the Jack Leslie Campaign. Matt shared Jack’s story with students. They listened really well and asked lots of questions at the end of the session.
Below is the story in brief but if you want to find out more please visit https://jackleslie.co.uk
Jack Leslie should have been England’s first black player but when the selectors discovered his heritage, his name would never appear on the team sheet.
Jack was an outstanding player who joined Plymouth Argyle from Barking in 1921 and scored 137 goals in a long and illustrious career which ended in 1934.
Leslie was picked for the England national team to face Ireland in 1925 and was told by his manager that he’d been called up. But after this selection, his name mysteriously disappeared from the team sheet, seemingly because of the colour of his skin.
