Vivian Woodward

Vivian Woodward

Personal information
Full name	Vivian John Woodward
Date of birth	3 June 1879
Place of birth	Kennington, London, England
Date of death	31 January 1954(1954-01-31) (aged 74)
Place of death	Ealing, England
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Playing position	Centre Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1895–1901	Clacton Town
1901–1909	Tottenham Hotspur	132	(63)
1909–1915	Chelsea	106	(30)
1919–1920	Clacton Town	6	(4)
National team
1903–1911	England	23	(29)
1906–1914	England Amateurs	44	(57)
Olympic medal record Men's football Representing  Great Britain 1908 London Team competition 1912 Stockholm Team competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Vivian John Woodward (3 June 1879 – 31 January 1954) was an English amateur football player who enjoyed the peak of his career from the turn of the 20th century to the outbreak of the First World War. He played for Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

He captained Great Britain to gold medals at the 1908 Olympics in London and in Stockholm in 1912. Woodward's tally of 29 goals in 23 matches for England remained a record from 1911 to 1958.

He served in the British Army during the First World War, and as a result missed out on Chelsea's run to their first-ever FA Cup final in 1915. Woodward's injuries during the war caused his retirement from football.

An architect by profession, Woodward began his career at Clacton Town Football Club and joined FA Cup-holders Tottenham Hotspur in 1901.

Woodward joined David Calderhead's Chelsea in 1909 and went on to play in a total of 116 games for them, scoring 34 goals. He was their leading scorer in the 1912–13 season with 10 goals.

At the start of the First World War he enlisted in the British Army, and as a result did not play many matches during the 1914–15 season, but he was given special leave to join Chelsea at Old Trafford for the Cup Final when Bob Thomson was injured. However Thomson recovered and Woodward refused to play and deny Thomson his chance to play in an FA Cup final as Woodward had not played in any of Chelsea's matches in their run to the final.