George Aimer

George Aimer
Personnel
Surname	George Anderson Aimer
birthday	October 27, 1898
place of birth	Dundee ,  Scotland
date of death	June 8, 1935
Place of death	Dundee ,  Scotland
position	Defender (left)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
	Glenisla
	Dundee Celtic
1920-1921	Dundee Hibernian
1921-1923	Dundee FC	29 (0)
1923-1925	Fulham FC	16 (0)
1925-1927	Third Lanark	59 (0)
1927-1930	Providence Clamdiggers / Gold Bugs	130 (2)
1931	Fall River FC	1 (0)
1931	New York Giants	2 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

George Anderson Aimer (born October 27, 1898 in Dundee , † June 8, 1935 there ) was a Scottish football player . The defender was active as a professional in Scotland, England and the United States during the 1920s.

Career

Aimer had served in the Royal Artillery in France during World War I. He started his footballing career with a small team called Glenisla; around 1920 he played together with his brother at Dundee Celtic, but appeared sporadically for the higher-class clubs Forfar Athletic and Dundee Hibernian in appearance. A newspaper article from February 1920 portrayed Aimer's footballing skills as saying: "Impeccable tackles are a hallmark of his game, while his positional play and judgment are of a high standard." For the 1920/21 season, Aimer, nicknamed "Dod", joined Dundee Hibernian firmly and entered with them in the Central League . In May 1921 he was brought by director William McIntosh to local rivals FC Dundee and played 29 games in Scottish Division One for the club in the following two seasons .

In March 1923 Aimer was signed for £ 900 by English second division Fulham FC after coach Phil Kelso had inspected him at a game by Dundee's reserve team at Ibrox Park . At Fulham, Aimer, who was considered a classic defender, always played hard and with high stakes but had speed deficits, was only used irregularly in the first team. He made his debut on September 26, 1923 in a 3-1 win in a game of the London Professional Charity Fund against Chelsea , the Athletic News rated his performance as "highly successful". A few days later, he replaced Joe Edelston in the league game against The Wednesday in the rather unusual position as a left wing runner . A 4-1 home win was followed a week later by a 3-0 away defeat against Coventry City and Aimer only made one more league appearance until March.

He came to a series of missions on the last eight game days of the 1923/24 season when he formed the defenders pair with Tom Fleming , with whom he had already played at Dundee FC. The team allowed a total of only four goals against and relegation to the third division was narrowly avoided. In the following season, Alec Chaplin, also from Dundee, occupied the position of left defender in the first team and Aimer was mostly limited to missions in the reserve team. In March 1925 he was part of a selection team of the London Combination (the reserve league for professional teams from the London area) in a league comparison against the London League .

In June 1925 Aimer was brought back to Scotland by John Richardson on a free transfer to Third Lanark . Aimer was a regular at Third Lanark and played 59 appearances in two years in Scottish Division Two . In the Scottish FA Cup 1925/26 , the quarter-finals were also reached, in which they failed in the replay at Aberdeen FC . In September 1926 Aimer was part of a Glasgow selection that won 2-1 against a selection from Sheffield . For the 1927/28 season, Aimer was unable to agree on a further contract with Third Lanark, as his weekly salary should be £ 2 lower than the previous season. For a move, Third Lanark set a transfer fee of £ 200 and Aimer, like many other Scottish players, decided to join the United States.

He played in the American Soccer League with the Providence Clamdiggers, among others together with his compatriots William Stevenson . and Billy Agnew . In July 1928 he was back in Scotland and represented Dundee United (until 1923 Hibernian) in a small field tournament, later he went back to the USA. In June 1929 Aimer came back to Scotland aboard the California , with Harry Chatton , Willie Oswald and Michael Connaboy also some other football professionals on the ship . In August 1929 Aimer was no longer registered with any Scottish club and was also looking for a new club in the newspaper, but he was no longer in the Scottish Football League as a result. He had a third stay in the USA from 1929 to 1930 again with Providence and in 1931 with Fall River FC and the New York Giants , before ending his career in the same year. In total, he had played 133 games in the ASL and scored two goals.

Aimer was killed in an industrial accident in Dundee on June 8, 1935 when he was hit to death by a roof beam while a building was being demolished. He left a wife and three children and was buried on June 11, 1935 in Dundee's Eastern Cementary. The mourners included numerous former teammates and officials, including David Thomson , Alex Lindsay , William McIntosh, Patrick Reilly and Jimmy Brownlie .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} JUNIORS WORTH WATCHING. No. 4 - GEORGE AIMER, THE CELTIC BACK . In: Dundee Courier , February 17, 1920, p. 6.  (paid link)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} FOOTBALLER KILLED BY FALLING BEAM. George Aimer's Fate At Dundee . In: Sunday Post , June 9, 1935, p. 9.  (link subject to charge)
3. ↑ ^{a b} cf. John Litster: A record of pre-war Scottish League players v2 (CD Rom), PM Publications, Norwich 2012
4. ↑ ^{a b} Alex White: The Men Who Made Fulham Football Club . Tempus Publishing Ltd, Stroud 2002, ISBN 978-0-7524-2423-1 , pp. 9 .
5. ↑ DUNDEE PLAYER TRANSFERRED. . In: Dundee Courier , March 30, 1923, p. 6.  (paid link)
6. ↑ LONDON LETTER. . In: Athletic News , October 1, 1923, p. 4.  (link subject to charge)
7. ↑ cf. Dennis Turner: Fulham. The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-566-1 , pp. 304 f .
8. ↑ LONDON COMBINATION XI. . In: Daily Herald , March 16, 1925, p. 9.  (link subject to charge)
9. ↑ THIRD LANARK SIGN EX-DUNDEE BACK. . In: Dundee Evening Telegraph , June 29, 1925, p. 11.  (paid link)
10. ↑ INTER-CITY FOOTBALL. Sheffield Unlucky to Lose at Glasgow. . In: Sheffield Daily Telegraph , September 22, 1926, p. 89.  (paid link)
11. ↑ ATTACK ON CLUB MANAGERS. PLAYERS 'WAGES COMING DOWN. . In: Sunday Post , May 15, 1927, p. 17.  (link with costs)
12. ↑ Brevities. . In: Sunday Post , September 25, 1927, p. 19.  (paid link)
13. ↑ DUNDEE UNITED'S FIVE-A-SIDE TEAM. . In: Dundee Evening Telegraph , July 13, 1928, p. 7.  (paid link)
14. ↑ SCOTS PLAYERS HOME FROM USA . In: Dundee Courier , June 4, 1929, p. 9.  (link subject to charge)
15. ↑ HEARTS PLAYER FOR USA . In: Dundee Evening Telegraph , Aug 21, 1929, p. 9.  (paid link)
16. ↑ DUNDEE TOWN COUNCILLOR'S SON KILLED . In: Dundee Evening Telegraph , June 8, 1935, p. 1.  (paid link)
17. ^ Colin Jose: The American Soccer League: The Golden Years of American Soccer 1921-1931 . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 1998, ISBN 0-8108-3429-4 , pp. 317 .
18. ↑ TRIBUTE OF DUNDEE EX-FOOTBALLER. Tribute to George Aimer . In: Dundee Evening Telegraph , June 11, 1935, p. 6.  (paid link)