i 24 I CUTHEROEADVERTISER&TIMES www.clithoroeadvertiser.co.uk Thursday, February 13,2014 Thursday,February13,2014 vwvw.clitheroeadvertisorco uk VALLEY PHOTOGRAPHIC ,it’s a


by Duncan Smith duncaosmith1@jpress.co.uk Twitten@c1ithadvertiser •


Entries in three classes- Por- - traiture, Nature and Record - were submitted by Ribbles- dale Camera Club members forthe Annual Prints competi­ tion staged by the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union.


The formal “studio portrait” style is currently out of fash­ ion: portraits these days meaning creative images or imaginatively shot environ­ mental images showing the person as they are and their life.


, ■ In the Portraiture class Ste­


ve Procter’s “Don’t Look Back” was placed first, with Gary Williamson’s “The Scream” second and Trevor Marklew’s “A Cheeky Smile” third. The standard was very high and su­ perb pictures by Peter Severs


and Trevor Marklew, “Trick ; SteuartKellington’s “RedDeer 1 Cyclist” and “Bangladeshi in the Corrieyairack Forest” Blooms” respectively, were (second) and “Red Grouse” by Highly Commended, while Steve Procter (Highly Com- Steve proctor’s “Bad Compa- mended) prevented Steven ny”: was commended. J . v ; - 'taking a clean sweep of the"' Stephen Robinson domi- high places." - natedtheNature'class,win: ningwith“Bee'Orchid”,while


; . ' AMUSING'- ' ,


his “Green Veined White” but- There was an amusing-in- terflies were third and he re-: • cident in the Nature class - ceived Highly Commended' when Ken Geddes’s “Farmer with“Phaonia -Tuguriorium-- Sheppaad, Donkey Captain” male”, a colourful fly. Only - a piece of graffiti from 1893 - over a hundred feet under- ground in BoxStone Quarry., - had somehowstrayedinto- ‘ the Nature prints. It was sym- ' _ 1 pathetically awarded only sev-


i ; en marks out of 20’. However, ■ ..■ -judge Gordon Jenkins is very s experienced judge and when.-


i : he checked on this, the print ;' ", was moved to thie Record sec-,;


.-tion.TJT - ■ ' -


‘A CheekySmile’.by Trevor Mar-- J: ■" “Church Towers”. In second klew, was third in the Portraiture : was Graham Dudley’s “Shos- class


. : hone Memorial”, followed in .


r The Record prints were., again of high standard, won"'; : by Raymond Greenwood with


COMMENDED


“Farmer Sheppaad, Donkey Captain” came back again - with speculation rife on how it might fare as a Record pic­ ture. Ten marks more was the"


t Remarkable story of Clitheroe man Harry Cook, Everton’s ‘Blind Masseur^


Amateur football historian Rob Sawyer wrote the fol­ lowing article for the inde­ pendent Everton FC website www.toffeeweb.com and has shared it with us because of the local connections of its


' subject, the quite remark­ able Harry Cook. As Rob


. points out, Harry had four siblings - Elizabeth, Doug­ las, Mary Ann and Joseph - and might still have relatives ■ in the area. • -


‘JeanMoulin-Prefet’.bySue '. Marsden, was commended in the Record class.


third by Trevor Marklew’s de­ tail of the Albert Memorial in London-“Asia”.


‘Farmer Sheppaad, Donkey Captain’, by Ken Geddes, fared better in the Record class than in Nature prints.


answer, scoring 17 marks and Highly Commended! Other Highly Commended entries were Gary Williamson’s “Car­ lisle Cathedral Ceiling” and Paul MacNeil’s “Altar, Studley Royal”. Sue Marsden’s “Jean Moulin-Prefet” was Com­ mended. . The club meets at 7-3opm


on Tuesday evenings at the Pavilion in Grindleton. Pro­ spective new members are welcome to go along and enjoy a few meetings before joining. For more information, in­


cluding members’ galleries and the programme, visit: www.ribblesdalecameraclub. org.uk ‘


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Gallipoli, June 1915 - in the searing heat of the Darda­ nelles, British, Anzac and French Allied troops engaged in a doomed campaign against the Ottoman forces. Eighteen- year-old Private Harry Cook. came into close combat with the enemy: “I fired at the Turk: missed. The Turk threw back a grenade which exploded a yard or so in front of me. Eve­ rything went black - 1 was blind.” This life changing moment


would lead 18-year-old Harry on the road to a “hands-on” role in three Football League Championships and an FA Cup victory. " Richard “Harry” Cook


was born in January 1897. Al­ though he became an appren­ tice in a firm of printers and dyers, he turned out as an am­ ateur forward at Clitheroe FC whilst dreaming of playing for Everton. As The First World War


broke out in July 1914. mass­ es ofyoung men signed up for the army and Harry was no ex-


• ceptiomWithinamonthofthe ... outbreakofwar.Harrysigned up, like for many men with the East Lancashire Regiment - most famous for the “Accring-


. ton Pals” Battalion. Within a year be had lost his sight and was shipped back to England. British attitudes to disabih ity had mo.ved on little since


-Victorian times and the loss of sight normally meant a fu­ ture of struggle, poverty and isolation. Fortunately for Harry and others, the news­ paper magnate Arthur Pear­ son had, upon losing his sight


• to glaucoma, devoted himself to helping others in the same


situation. He realised that blindness was “not an afflic­ tion, but a handicap which... can be surmounted”. . Thus was born St Dun- stan’s Hostel, in Regent’s


. Park, where injured service- 'meri would receive support . and training to overcome the disability. As Sir Arthur said:


“My men are not blind, they aresimplymenwithoutsight”; , -.Upon his return to the UK, - - Harry was soon moved to the


ies, often for my benefit, from Harry Cooke.” Such was his skill and


memory that he came to rec­ ognise every player by touch, as he told the Topical Times in a 1937 article titled “The Man With Magic Hands”: “A slight thickness of the ankles tells me that Dixie Dean is on the table... Tommy Lawton has a longer shin bone that any of his colleagues.'Joe Mercer has a slight curve in his shin bone; Albert Geldard has hairy legs!” Gordon Watson would re­


Harry Cook, front row, second from left, pictured with the Ever­ ton FC trainers in 1933. Photo courtesy of The Everton Collection.


2nd London General Hos-. pital, Sir Arthur’s preferred hotel for blinded service­ men. By September 1915 he was fit enough to come to St Dunstan’s and embarked on - courses in reading and writ­ ing Braille. As well as care and train- ■


ing, the residents were en­ couraged to take- part in sports ranging from athletics to shooting and rowing. With many of the men being keen footballsupportersitwasnat-. ural that St Dunstan’s sought to foster links to clubs. Fund­ raising collections were com­ mon at matches, including at Goodison Park, whilst blind­ ed servicemen were invited to attend matches across the country. Arsenal forged particular­


ly strong links with the hostel and played blindfolded “shoot­ out” matches against the “St Dunstaners”, In 1921 Everton accepted an invitation to visit whilst in London to play Chel­ sea on February 21st. Sadly a promise to return for a match in March, when in London to. play Tottenham, never came to fruition. Residents at St Dunstan’s


were encouraged to train for a new career in which they could make a living without sight - these included short­ hand typing, telephone op­ erating, poultry farming, carpentry and shoe repair­ ing. Harry would later recall a staff member taking a look at his hands and saying: “Mas-; sage for you my son”. Like many a St Dunstan’s


servicemen, he trained to: become a “Blind Masseur” - what we would today refer to as a physiotherapist. Har­ ry showed great aptitude in;, training, on a salary.of £3 per : week,before graduatinginDe- cemberigi6.


. „


; With ajob secured at Liver-s pool’s Alder Hey Military Hos-;<


pital, he returned home to live with his parents, within ear­ shot of Goodison. at 30 Hag- gerston Road. In January 1919 Harry em­


barked on a post-graduate course at Liverpool Univer­ sity - in the theory of mas­ sage, practical anatomy and electro-therapeutics - along­ side 13 sighted students. In the examinations at course-end, Harry came top with an aver­ age score of 90%. ■ Such was his success-at


Alder Hey that he was joined by three other St Dunstaners with whom he would even­ tually set up a-successful partnership at 4 Hargreaves Buildings on Chapel Street. This ran until 1924 whereup­ on Harry set up a practice in Wallasey. For Harry the shattered


dream of playing for Everton had been superseded by a de­ sire to work for them as a mas­ seur. He wrote to the Everton


Board in August 1923 offering his services. Having obtained


• glowing references, the Direc- ; tors engaged Harry to work on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sat­ urday and Sunday mornings for£22sodperweek.; “Blind Harry” - as he was


known in the vernacular of the era - became a vital cog in Trainer Harry Cooke’s back­ room machine. He would accompany the squad on training camps at Buxton and to major matches through the 1920s and 1930s. .Harry was also a regular


attendee at Goodison Park: “I never miss a home match at Everton,Talways know what is happening through listen-; ing to the crowd, arid feeling which way they are turning and swaying.


. ‘ - \


4 v-“I follow eveiy movement on the field from the sound


: of the ball, yells' of the. crowd; and the running commentary


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call to David France that in the 1930s the players would at­ tempt to trick H arry, but he al­ ways recognised his “patient” - even an attempt to pass off the tea-lady as a player failed. “But ‘Blind Harry’ claimed I that had the ugliest backside at Everton!” As the 1933 Cup Final vic­


tory against.Manchester City approached, the team, with Harry, prepared for several days in Dorking. Although


Harry was feverish with nerves he was struck by the sang-froid of the team - nota­ bly Warney Cresswell. During the match, he sat alongside the injured Charlie Gee who deliv- eredarunningcommentaryin clipped tones. The rehabilitation of Gee,


following a double cartilage removal, would become one of Harry’s proudest moments. Despite a prognosis that indi­ cated that Gee’s career might be over, Harry worked on the knees on a daily basis at his Wallasey Clinic arid, remark­ ably, the player returned to action within 13 weeks of the surgery - going on to play for England. Harry married Kate Pen­


fold at Emmanuel Church in Wallasey in June 1925, but there were to be no children. For his trips to Everton Har­ ry would catch the Ferry, un­ aided, across the Mersey and thenheadto Goodison bypub­ lic transport. In 1939. with Everton the


■ reigning League Champions, hostilities in Europe brought a premature end to Harry’s Goodison career. He contin­ ued in private practice, on the Wirral, before taking up a post in 1945 at Hackney Hospital in London.;:- Renowned for his kind­


ness and cheerfulness, he of- ten volunteered his services to the Hackney Boys Club and re­ tained links with St Dunstan’s via their Bridge Club. Tragical­ ly he would die within weeks of his retirement on Febru- aiy25thig6i-justhours after playing bridge with friends.. He was survived by his widow, Kate, who passed away in 1988. And what became o f St


Dunstan’s? The charity has continued to assist people who have suffered loss of vi­ sion during, or after, mili- . tary service. It is now known as Blind Veterans UK (www. blindveterans.org.uk) with a motto that Harry would have endorsed wholeheartedly: “Life Beyond Sight Loss”.


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