Back Row (L-R) F Orviss (Secretary), J Chamberlain, J Dines, A Wanford (Treasurer), G Gemmell, Stocking, N Woods (Committee)
Middle Row: T Long, W Bannister, W G McDonald, G Martin, S Rout, F Taylor
Sitting: S Stevens, A Ransome
Articles on the history of Lynn Football Club tell you that King's Lynn football club was originaly known as Lynn Town and the name was changed
at some point, Depending on the article the change of name occurred in 1914, 1927 and even in the 1950s.
However, this photo from 1908 suggests something different. Perhaps the term Lynn Town was used to distinguish between the town side
and the other Lynn clubs. Equally “Linnet” writing in the Eastern Football News in 1922 still referred to the club
as Lynn Town as did Lynn News match reports in the 1950's .
Under the letter K is Lynn half back Joe Dines – the only Lynn player to
have a slate plaque to mark the house where he was born.
Born 12 April 1886 Joseph Dines was the
youngest of four sons of Frank and Josephine Dines of 4 Whitefriars Terrace. His
early football was with Lynn All Saints and then Lynn United playing for the latters second team in the 1902-03 season before being
“poached” by Lynn Town. He started in Lynn Reserves and then went on to make his
first team debut on 13 February 1904 against Peterborough Loco in the Dereham
Charity Cup.
He then became a Lynn regular, taking part in Lynn's FA Cup encounter with
Aston Villa in 1906 and receiving his county colours that season. He was also in
the Norfolk team that won the Southern Counties Championship in 1908 and made
appearances for Norwich Reserves and Woolwich Arsenal Reserves. He trained as a
teacher in Peterborough and returned to Lynn – becoming an assistant master at
St Margaret's School in the Millfleet.
From The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News
19th October 1918
Source: British Newspaper Archive
He took a teaching job at Highlands School, Ilford in 1910 by which time
he had already started on an International career that was to lead to 24 caps
with England's amateurs and had played for Queen's Park Rangers. At the time
Ilford were a renowned amateur team playing, ironically, at Lynn Road, Ilford.
It was in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics that Joe Dines played in all three
games for the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team as they retained the
gold medal won in 1908 with victories over Hungary 7-0, Finland 4-0 and Denmark 4-2 in the final on 4 July.
Resisting attempts to persuade him to become professional, he appeared
occasionally for clubs such as Walhamstow Avenue, Millwall and even one
appearance for Liverpool when they visited Chelsea, Liverpool winning 2-1.
He is also reported as still making the occasional appearance for Lynn as
late as the 1913-14 season.
He made 149 appearances for Lynn – scoring 28 goals. One of his brothers
also made a brief appearance for Lynn – in that match Joe lined up with the
opposition – Peterborough College.
Joe married King's Lynn born Ethel Burgoyne in 1913, the daughter of a retired customs officer, and with the advent of war he volunteered to join the army in November 1915 rising to the rank of
second lieutenant in the King's Liverpool Regiment in June 1918.
Often known as “The Smiling Footballer”, he was on leave in Lynn just three weeks before he met his death, killed by machine gun fire in Pas de Calais on 27 September 1918.
He is buried in the Grand Ravine British Cemetery in Havrincourt, France.
With thanks to Richard Taylor for help with this article.
