The Longside Reference

Burnley Manager form July 1957 till Jan 1958

Name: William Dougall

Born: Denny, 25th October 1895

Died :15th November 1966 

 Billy Dougall, a Claret for five Decades from his transfer to Turf Moor from Falkirk in 1926 for £3.000, through Player,Trainer, Manager and then Coach.

Below is the This is Your Life extract form Billy Dougalls testimonial programme. ( I have taken this straight form the programme on the left, it was so well written i just could not do it justice by re-writing Billy Dougall's life in my own words.)

The game itself played on the 14th of October 1958 was won by Burnley 4-2 with goals coming from Albert Chesseborough(3) and Ray  Pointer.

The teams in the programme were:

This is Your Life, Billy Dougall.

"From the land of the heather, way back in 1926 came south a young man of fine physique and possessing a football craftsman's brain. He was not the first of his family to move over the border and settle in Lancashire, for many years before him, his father had made a similar journey and by coincidence the one took up his football at Nelson, the other at Burnley. They were the first of the Dougall clan to emigrate to English Soccer, with the head of the family keeping goal for Nelson, and the elder son playing half-back for Burnley.

Step forward then, William Dougall, for you are the subject of tonights "This is Your Life" football programme.

You came to Burnley in the spring of the year 1926 with a great task before you, for you were the young man chosen to complete the half-back line that faced the responsibility of trying to complement the frame of Halley-Boyle-Watson line that set not only the tongues of Burnley wagging in their honour,  but the tongues of England. So when you came to a team with Johnny Steele and Jack Hill at the time at a time when Burnley were feeling the prangs of transition from the glories of immediate pre-war and immediate post-war success of a half-back line and the team that had earned Burnley its still proudly held First Division record of 30 games without defeat.

With your past at Falkirk, where you had attracted the eyes of the Burnley scouts, you were soon living up to your high reputation over the Border. With Steele and Hill you quickly made your impact on English football and you were still being talked about as carbon copies of the Great Three, when on Boxing Day of 1927 less than two years after you had changed your Falkirk jersey for a Burnley jersey, you met with an injury to your knee in the game with Leicester City, at Leicester at the moment the gravity of the injury was not not thought the penalty in ultimately imposed But as time went on concern increased. You had played your last game, but at the time you did not know it.

When the truth had to be faced you did not hang up your boots in despondency. You began to study in the medical and surgical sphere of  physiotherapy and before long you were the successful applicant for the post of trainer to the newly formed London club, Thames.

The wider field of the football league activity represented by the formation of the Third Division brought the Thames club into being and although it did not have a long life, your career as trainer had been launched and when you saw that club go out of existence you had already become established as trainer to nearby Charlton Athletic, where your name is still an honoured one.

But it was back to Lancashire, the home of your adoption in the first place, that you ultimately migrated yet again, taking over as assistant trainer to Charlie Bates when it became vacant on the Death of Len Smelt.

Such was the standard of your service then, just as when you were a member of the playing staff at Turf Moor, that when a year later, Charlie Bates retired, you were immediately appointed his successor. For more than twenty-three years you carried out those duties without a flaw. You proved yourself a wonderful tutor at the same time that you exercised your great abilities to the benefit of the fitness of the men under your charge. Senior and Junior members of the playing staff looked to you more than anyone else whenever they had need of counsel and advice, and none found you unwilling to give it.

By the time the players reported to training a year ago last July(1957) you found yourself thrust into new responsibility that confronted you overnight. At short notice you were faced with the task of being the active-manager, for your chief had accepted a new post and with in twenty-four hours of announcing the fact was on his way to take over his new clubs affairs. That perhaps the toughest time in your football experience for as a player and trainer over the years you knew exactly what the repercussions of such a sudden transformation on the eve of a new season were likely to be. But with stoic attitude that is yours on the surface, no matter what your hidden anxieties, you rallied to the call the moment it was sounded and for some of the most trying weeks in the history of the Burnley Football Club, complicated by the invasion of the Asian flu germ, you strove to put all at ease. You did a finer job then than perhaps even you would have calculated. Burnley were at that period a ship in a storm with its rudder crumpled the horizon offering only a bleak and stormy passage into smooth waters.

With the excellent "seamanship" that has now become a legend in the history of Turf Moor, you steered the course and finally you received your master mariner's certificate and, with it, the managership of the club. As with your playing days you were not destined to enjoy the future glory that would have been yours had your health not let you down, but you will always remember that was felt for your misfortune, the expressed confidence that you were the ideal man for the manager's post, and the unanimous satisfaction your appointment caused. Do you remember, too - you surly must - the afternoon of your first home match after you had taken over the top job at Turf Moor And you went into the Directors box to occupy your official seat? How the crowd waited for that moment; how they acknowledged you, and the modesty with which you tried to hide from the overwhelming welcome directed at you? A proud recollection that must be, Now listen to the voices of some of the people who share in this tribute to a loyal and faithful servant to Burnley football.

Come in Bob Lord, Burnley Chairman: Greetings, Billy, on this notable occasion in your career. Ho glad we are to find you such better and able still to serve the club of which you have been such a wonderful servant for three decades. You are deserving of everything Burnley Football Club can do for you and we hope that our supporters will rally in force tonight to share in the tribute this match constitutes. I must thank the players who have shown such willingness to take part in this match some of your old colleagues at Turf Moor, others men you have met and admired in their success elsewhere. And our own players who appear in this match we are grateful for the gesture they make in voluntarily forgoing any fees to which such matches might entitle them. And you would see from the terms of their communication on this matter it is their great regard for you that prompted their action. Their thanks in part for what you have meant to them. And now, may I Say foe myself and my colleagues on the Board of Directors, "Thank You" for your magnificent service to Burnley through so many years. You have set up as magnificent record here and we shall always be interested in your welfare.

Now come in Reggie Cook, Vice Chairman: Bravo Billy! Everyone at Turf Moor admires your fine work for the club. It is a privilege and a pleasure to salute you on this occasion and to wish you all that is well for you and your wife for many more years to come.  You have given much. it entitles you to receive and I hope this evening's effort will be such as will leave you in no doubt about our gratitude.

And now another voice. Come in Harry Potts : Welcome, Bill.  For me and on this occasion that warms my heart because you deserve all the good things that go with it in word or kind.  To me as a young player you gave invaluable advice on many occasions.  Reviewing your fine career, I hope that one day I may find I have merited the respect your work has so worthily earned for you.

Whose is that tyneside voice we can hear? Yes its Jimmy Adamson, now the senior team captain and one of your former youngsters: Welcome Billy.  Need I say you are the admired of us all at Turf Moor?  I am sure you must know that already, but  it is grand to be able to repeat the fact here.  All good luck to you and yours in the years ahead and how glad we all are that we still have you around in an official capacity at Turf Moor.  It would not be the same without Bill Dougall.  From all our players I pass on this greeting and you know how sincere it is."