Cecil Allan, one of Colchester United's elder statesmen, has died.
Believed to be the oldest surviving U's player until his death, the former Layer Road defender passed away peacefully in his sleep, aged 88 years.
The youngest of nine brothers, orphaned by the time he was seven-years-old, Allan, a Northern Ireland international left-back, joined the U's from Chelsea in 1938 for the then princely sum of £2,000.
He went on to make 16 appearances for the U's, spanning the Second World War years, before moving on in 1946 to captain and coach Colchester Casuals where budding ex-U's and Newcastle United centre-forward Vic Keeble and former West Ham United defender John Bond were learning their trade.
A promising young player with League of Ireland club Cliftonville before moving to England to play for Chelsea for three seasons, Allan won international honours at both amateur and professional levels, winning his one full cap for Northern Ireland as an amateur against England at Winsdor Park in October 1935.
Unable to receive cash payment for his appearance, Allan used the £10 left for him at a Belfast jewellers to buy a ring on which he had inscribed the same crest that was emblazoned on his shirt.
He also made several representative appearances for the League of Ireland.
The most notable was a 3-1 win over the English League at Blackpool's Bloomfield Road, a venue he was to re-visit 60 years later in 1993 still clutching his cherished original matchday programme.
His career was seriously hampered by a nasty cartilage injury during his first match for Chelsea which required 22 stitches and left him without the full range of movement in the leg concerned.
Apprenticed at Harland and Woolf's shipyard in his native Belfast, the young Allan followed in his father's footsteps before turning to football.
His dad helped to fit out the first class cabins on the luxury liner Titanic, sailing on the ship from Belfast to Southampton before its ill-fated maiden voyage.
Married to his late wife Gwen, an accomplised Colchester swimmer and diving champion to Olympic standard, in 1944, Allan returned to his sheet metal work roots in the town where he was a county bowler and football manager of the now defunct Arclight company in the town.
He was also the pianist for the Arclight dance band for 20 years.
His son Raymond was also an associate schoolboy footballer with the U's, signed by former manager Neil Franklin, while his daughter Maureen was a swimmer like her mother.
Published Tuesday, May 20, 2003
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