Bill Corbett

Bill Corbett could have had a glittering career as Scotland’s centre-half, especially after his incredible performance against the deadly Tommy Lawton in front of 75,000 fans at Wembley in October 1942. The 20-year-old Celtic centre-half played Lawton out of the game, and one national reporter said he had never seen a Scottish centre-half handle the centre-forward so well.

That his career didn’t take off in the expected way was down to the fact that Bill’s best pal, Jimmy Warner, had joined the Navy – and Bill signed up too.

“I quite fancied that uniform,” he said. The two had been great friends ever since they played together in the 1st Camelon BB team and at Carmuirs School in Falkirk. They spoke of endless games in the public park, and it came as no surprise when the young Corbett signed for the crack Dunipace Thistle side. Bill later recalled the 1939 final of the Juvenile Cup played against Armadale West BC at Easter Road, and the infamous slope.

He moved to Maryhill Juniors and was soon attracting the attention of senior clubs. Corbett remembered the days of going through to Maryhill, where one of his seven brothers was a policeman, and waiting for a lift to the ground.

As the war clouds gathered, he trained at Brockville Park, Falkirk along with several of his former Dunipace team-mates and played in trial games with the Bairns. Their manager at the time was the ex-Rangers and Scotland star Tully Craig, and Corbett couldn’t quite understand why Mr Craig seemed to lose interest in his progress. Perhaps a contributing factor was the fact that Corbett had just signed for Celtic.

Corbett settled into the side at Parkhead but then came the war years and his service in the Navy. He was always a popular figure at West Ham, where his brother Norrie played, and he was often available at the last minute and went straight into the side. His war service took him to several faraway places, but as a professional footballer he always had time for football. He captained the Royal Navy side against the Army, and the naval team included Bobby Brown, the former Scotland goalie and manager.

Corbett teamed up with Tommy Walker in India and had a huge respect for the Hearts legend.When he was on shore leave he also turned out for Cardiff, Swansea and Southampton.

After the war was over, he returned to Parkhead, having amassed a wealth of experience and went back into the Celtic team. It seemed that he was destined to regain his international place, but the selectors visited Shawfield when Celtic were hammered 6-2 by Clyde in a League Cup tie and Corbett didn’t have his best game.

He must have had mixed feelings when, on 28 February, 1948, his adopted team faced his town team at Brockville Park. Celtic were relegation candidates and were awarded a last-minute penalty. Corbett stepped up to face his old pal Jerry Dawson and scored the only goal of the game. All in all, he played more than 100 games for Celtic before he moved to Preston North End, where his team-mates included Bill Shankly.

His later career took him to Leicester and Yeovil before he returned to Scotland with Dunfermline and Morton.

He had qualified as a mechanic at the Alexander Bus factory in his native Camelon and he worked in the petro-chemicals industry after retiring from playing. Corbett loved to reminisce about what he called the good old days, “when we were young”, and he was never happier than when the discussions turned to those exciting but dangerous war years.

It was hard to imagine that a young 20-year-old lad from Camelon was facing such illustrious opposition – Eddie Hapgood, Cliff Britton, Stan Cullis, Joe Mercer, Stanley Matthews, Tommy Lawton, Jimmy Hagan and Denis Compton. It was a far cry from the park in Camelon and the kick-abouts with his brothers and his pals.

And that Scotland team? Legends every one of them – and they held the great England side to a 0-0 draw at Wembley. Corbett was the undoubted star of the day. I well recall him pointing to the match programme which we managed to track down for him on e-Bay. “Bill Shankly, Bill Corbett and Matt Busby – not a bad half-back line, eh?”

He was a lovely man, kind, gentle, modest and unassuming. His stories and anecdotes made for many happy hours in his company and he will be sadly, sadly missed by all who knew him. His cheery smile could light up a room and he was a real gentleman. He is survived by his daughter Ginny.

MICHAEL WHITE