Billy Mason
Biography
William Bernard Mason (b. Feb 1855, Birmingham) was an English footballer notable for playing in Aston Villa's first ever FA Cup tie. In 1874 Billy was a member of the Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel. Their Bible meetings consisted around 200 young men some of whom had set up a cricket team. The cricketers were keen to find an outlet for their energy in the off-season, they were initially undecided between rugby and association football and, as Mason was playing with the Adderley Park Grasshoppers rugby team, four other members, W.H. Price, William Scattergood, Jack Hughes and George Matthews, were tasked with watching him play. Grasshoppers were to play the Handsworth rugby club at Heathfield Park so the four attended the match. Having watched the game, the four men returned along Heathfield Road. They adjourned beneath a dim gas light near Villa Cross and between themselves agreed rugby was a little too rough and that they would play association football. The gas lamp meeting is traditionally held as the birth of Aston Villa Football Club. Co-founder Hughes' view was that Aston Villa Football Club was really formed later by the players who attended the first kick-about on waste ground on Westminster Road, now the RCCG Salvation Theatre. They hired a football for 1s 6d (roughly 1⁄3 the daily wage) from Clapshaw & Cleave. The sixteen then each contributed a shilling and elected Price as their first captain and Charlie H. Midgley as club secretary. H H Hartshorne president of the chapel's bible class was the football club's first President. In January 1875 Aston Villa played their first recorded game against Aston Park Unity. Matthews was captain and Price, Hughes and Scattergood also played. German full-back, Billy Weis became the club's first foreign player. Only two of the players, Ted Lee and Billy Mason, would go on to represent Villa in their first FA Cup campaign. Aston Park Unity won 1-0. The second match, Aston Villa's first-ever victory, was arranged against
Bio from Wikipedia
Credited work
21 releases · 6 albums · active 1969–2006
- Performance · 30
- Other credits · 11
Frequent collaborators
- Various
- Valaida Snow