1929 Henry Coates memories
Happy memories of final – but had to sell medals
HENRY COATES weighed just 10 st 6 lb and stood only 5ft 5ins, but he was regarded as a genius on the wing and a fast tackler.
He had played an international trial and had been a member of the Yorkshire Cup winning team in 1925 and 1925. He received a number of serious injuries, including a broken collar bone, broken nose and broken foot.
He still believes that Rugby League is the finest game in the world.
Henry has many happy memories of his footballing career — but no medals.
Shortage of money during the Depression of the 1930s, a sickly daughter and no prospect of work forced Henry to sell his most treasured possessions — his two Yorkshire Cup medals and the medal he got at Wembley
“I’ve nothing left now apart from a few old photographs,” he recalls. ‘But I had to let them go. We needed every penny we could get to pay the doctor’s bills for my daughter who was sick with asthma. It hurt me to do it but you can’t eat medals, can you*”
Henry got only £4 for his Wembley medal but cannot remember what he got for the rest
“All I remember is having to pay a specialist £6 a visit to get my daughter right. She got better so it was worth it. I don’t regret it one bit – I’d do it again for the same reason ”
Henry came from a Rugby playing family. His father, a Durham miner, had played with the Durham Mashers, and he followed in his footsteps. first by playing at school and then at 13 with the Flatts Albion, which charged tuppence a week subscriptions.
He signed for Dewsbury at 18 while working at Mark Oldroyd’s mill and his first match with Dewsbury ended with him getting the sack.
“I’d left work a little earlier on the Saturday morning with my mates who wanted to watch the match,” he recalled. “On Monday morning they all got their cards but the boss said they would keep me on because I’d been playing. But I said if my mates were getting their cards I wanted mine as well.”
The games preceding the final at Wembley stand out like landmarks in Henry’s memory, for Dewsbury at the time had no chance of winning through. Somehow they got through to the third round, winning against some good clubs and surprising everyone.
They went to Warrington without a chance of winning but there was a surprise in store when one of the committee men, Thomas Martin Phillips, told them in the changing room that if they won they would all get an extra £5 bonus money on top of their £3 winning money. This was at a time when an average millworker’s wage was £2 a week.
Winning
At half-time they were winning 10-1 and were told by the committee that the bonus was being upped by another £3! “We’d never heard talk of £11 winning money at Dewsbury before,” said Henry “We’d have killed ’em for less than that ”
He remembers them going back on to the field and keeping the score at 10-4. We didn’t let anybody move after that” he laughed.
Extract from Road To Wembley • GoDewsbury
In 1985 Henry Coates would proudly take the Wembley field again – representing Dewsbury in the commemoration of the 50th Cup final to be held at Wembley.
