Joe Mercer (footballer, born 1889)

Joseph Powell "Joe" Mercer (21 July 1889–1927) was an English professional football centre half who played in the Football League for Nottingham Forest and Tranmere Rovers. He was the father of footballer and manager Joe Mercer.

Personal life

Mercer worked as a bricklayer before and during his professional football career. He married Ethel Breeze in June 1913 and had four children, the oldest being future footballer and manager Joe Mercer. On 16 December 1914, four months into the First World War, Mercer enlisted the 17th (Service) Battalion of the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) and was posted to the front on 17 October 1915. At the front, he was promoted to sergeant, sustained wounds in the head, leg and shoulder and was captured by the Germans in Oppy on 28 April 1917. He was held in camps at Douai, Bad Langensalza, Giessen and Meschede and returned home in January 1919. Mercer died in 1927 of health problems caused by gas inhalation in the trenches a decade earlier.