Leon Boullemier

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Leon Boullemier
Personal information
Date of birth 1874
Place of birth Stoke, England
Date of death (1954-04-21)21 April 1954[1] (aged 79)
Place of death Northampton, England[2]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1892–1893 Stoke 0 (0)
1893–1894 Burslem Port Vale 0 (0)
1895 Stockport County 3 (0)
1895–1897 Lincoln City 48 (0)
1897–1898 Reading
1898–1899 Brighton United
– Northampton Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Leon Antonin L. Boullemier (1874 – 21 April 1954), also known as Leon[2] or Leo Bullimer,[3] was an English footballer who made 48 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Lincoln City.[4] He also played in the Southern League for Reading and Brighton United, and went on to referee at senior level.[5] He acted as scorer for Northamptonshire County Cricket Club for more than 50 years.[6]

Early and personal life[edit]

Boullemier's parents, ceramic artist Antonin Boullemier, who had trained at the Sèvres porcelain factory,[7] and his wife Léonie Michel, daughter of a physician to Emperor Napoleon III,[8] left France for England during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Antonin took up employment as a painter at Minton's ceramics factory in the city of Stoke, Staffordshire,[9][7] where Boullemier, their third child, and second son,[10] was born.[4] His birth was registered in the third quarter of 1874.[1] His younger brother Lucien played football professionally[4] before making a success in his father's profession.[9]

From the late 1890s onwards, Boullemier used an anglicised version of his surname. In his later football career, he was known as Leon Bullimer,[3][5] and in context of Northamptonshire cricket, he was Leo Bullimer.[11][6] His son Leonard, also known as Leo, played Minor Counties cricket for Northamptonshire second eleven.[12]

Boullemier died in Northampton in 1954, at the age of 79.[6]

Football career[edit]

Boullemier, who played as a goalkeeper, was on the books of both Stoke and Burslem Port Vale, but never appeared in the Football League for either club.[4] He played three times for Stockport County in the Lancashire League in 1895,[13] and joined Football League Second Division club Lincoln City at the end of that year.[1] Boullemier made his Football League debut on 21 December, in a 1–0 home defeat to Liverpool, and was ever-present for the remainder of the 1895–96 season, as Lincoln finished in 13th position in the 16-team division.[1] He played in every match again the following season, as Lincoln finished bottom of the league and were required to apply for re-election. Although their application was successful, Boullemier left the club, and signed for Reading of the Southern League.

He spent one season with Reading, playing in the Western League as well as the Southern.[14] According to 'H.L.B.' in the Sporting Mirror, "the Reading eleven is a hard-working one, and possesses a powerful defence, with a splendid goalkeeper in Bullimer".[15] A rib injury sustained during a match in March 1898 caused the club to bring in another goalkeeper, in the shape of Leicester Fosse's Arthur Howes, to cover for a few weeks while Boullemier regained his fitness.[4][16][17]

He spent the 1898–99 season with Brighton United, also a Southern League club,[3] and ended his playing career with Midland League club Northampton Town.[4]

Refereeing career[edit]

He went on to become a football referee. In 1907, he was officiating regularly in the Southern League,[18] and a couple of years later he took an FA Cup first-round tie between West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers.[19] After refereeing a match in Ireland between Linfield and Belfast Celtic in 1914, Bullimer received a police escort off the field to "[escape] the attentions of a rowdy section of the crowd, who did not approve of some of his decisions".[20] His protectors were unable to prevent him being kicked by a young man, who was convicted of assault.[5]

Cricket career[edit]

Bullimer was Northamptonshire County Cricket Club's official scorer for more than 50 years.[6][2] When future Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman was in charge of Northampton Town before the First World War, he occasionally acted as substitute scorer when Bullimer was unavailable.[21]

He was active in fund-raising on behalf of the club, its players, and cricketers in general. According to an overview of the club in the 1958 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, "no reference to Northamptonshire cricket would be complete without mention of Leo Bullimer ... [whose] efforts in raising funds did much to keep Northamptonshire going during some of their worst financial crises."[11] In 1933, he proposed the establishment of a fund to guarantee cricketers a minimum £500 return from their benefit match, so that players were not disadvantaged by having represented a "smaller", financially weaker, club.[22] When England and Northamptonshire opening batsman Fred Bakewell suffered head injuries and a badly broken arm in a car accident in which a teammate was killed, and was unable to resume his career, Bullimer organised financial support for him so that he would not be solely dependent on public assistance.[23][24]

Career statistics[edit]

Source:[25]

Club Season Division League FA Cup Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Stoke 1892–93 First Division 0 0 0 0 0 0
Burslem Port Vale 1893–94 Second Division 0 0 0 0 0 0
Lincoln City 1895–96 Second Division 19 0 0 0 19 0
1896–97 Second Division 30 0 4 0 34 0

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Leon Boullemier". The Lincoln City FC Archive. Lincoln City F.C. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Leo Bullimer". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "Playing record: Leon Bullimer". Swindon Town F.C. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-899468-67-6.
  5. ^ a b c "Preserving the peace at a Belfast football match". Manchester Guardian. 10 February 1914. p. 6.
  6. ^ a b c d Preston, Norman, ed. (1955). "Obituaries in 1954". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. John Wisden.
  7. ^ a b "Lot 20 / Sale 1028: A Minton two handled covered vase". Christie's. 16 April 2005. Retrieved 11 April 2013. Click on 'Lot notes' tab for details.
  8. ^ "Members meeting 1st May 2007: Mrs Loebl's "Portrait of a Lady"" (PDF). Chesterfield and District Family History Society. 1 May 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  9. ^ a b Cooney Frelinghuysen, Alice (1989). American porcelain 1770–1920. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 246. ISBN 0-87099-540-5.
  10. ^ "England and Wales Census 1881 Class: RG11; Piece: 2728; Folio: 14; Page: 22; GSU roll: 1341654". FamilySearch.org. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  11. ^ a b Coldham, James D. (1958). "Ups and downs of Northamptonshire". In Preston, Norman (ed.). Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. John Wisden.
  12. ^ "Leo Bullimer". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  13. ^ "First team 1895–96 – Lancashire League". Go Go Go County. I Watts. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  14. ^ "Football. Association. The Western League. Professional Section. St. George v. Reading". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post. 13 January 1898. p. 3.
  15. ^ H.L.B. (15 November 1897). "Football Notes and Notions". The Sporting Mirror and Dramatic and Music Hall Record. London. p. 8.
  16. ^ "Athletics". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post. 21 March 1898. p. 3.
  17. ^ "Athletics". Bristol Mercury and Daily Post. 14 April 1898. p. 3.
  18. ^ "Football. Fixtures". South Eastern Gazette. Maidstone. 26 October 1907. p. 8.
  19. ^ "English Cup draw". Daily Express. London. 19 January 1909. p. 6.
  20. ^ "The Field of Play. Association football. A cup tie rehearsal?". Weekly Irish Times. 14 February 1914. p. 19.
  21. ^ "Take That responsible for Kingo's first miss". Northamptonshire Telegraph. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  22. ^ The Clubman (7 June 1933). "Sporting talk of the day". Daily Mirror. p. 27.
  23. ^ "Aiding former Test cricketer". Daily Mirror. 18 November 1938. p. 31.
  24. ^ "Bakewell loses chance of come-back". Daily Express. 9 May 1939. p. 9. Bakewell has had a hard time since his accident. He has had to receive public assistance. At present he is receiving ten shillings pocket money a week, and has his board paid out of a fund organised by Mr. Bullimer.
  25. ^ Leon Boullemier at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
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