Charles Roach (footballer)

Charles 'Wag' Roach (23 March 1887 - 8 May 1970) was an English amateur footballer who played as a forward.
Football
Charles 'Wag' Roach played as an amateur footballer for several English football clubs and was as a prolific goalscorer for Southall FC in the early 1900s. He also played as a forward for Fulham, Reading, Tottenham Hotspur's reserves and Middlesex.
Charles still holds the record for most goals scored in a season for Southall, scoring 57 times in the 1910-11 season. He was known as 'Wag' to his team-mates, on account of his love of telling jokes.
His playing career came to an end due to a cartilage injury.
Away from football
Charles was born on 23 March 1887 in Fulham and lived in Fulham and Southall and was a painter and decorator by trade.
As well as his 'Wag' nickname, he was also known as 'Pop'.
During the First World War he was occupied on munitions work in Hayes Arsenal.
He died in Hillingdon Hospital on 8 May 1970, aged 83. A cremation took place at Mortlake and among the floral tributes were two from Southall Football Club.
His obituary (which appeared in a local newspaper on 22 May 1970 and is on the right), referred to him as "The most prolific goalscorer in the history of Southall Football Club".
Family connections with Southall FC
On 14 October 2017, the grandson and great grandson of Charles Roach were guests of his former club Southall FC for Southall's Spartan South Midlands League Division One home game.
The game was played at Burnham FC's The Gore - which Southall shared with Burnham for home games during the 2017-18 season - against Division One rivals Brimsdown.
Charles' grandson Brian Roach (pictured bottom left), who grew up in Southall and watched the team play at Western Road, was at the game as part of his 75th birthday celebrations with his son Mark (Charles' great grandson).
In recognition of Brian's connections with a Southall FC goalscoring legend and his 75th birthday three days previously, the club's officials invited him to talk to the Southall players in the dressing room before the game, and he spoke to them about his grandfather's goalscoring exploits.
Southall also dedicated two pages of their match programme to Charles.
Southall won the game 5-1, on their way to winning the 2017-18 Division One title.
Brian is a former Reading FC director and was agent for former Chelsea and England striker Kerry Dixon, Arsenal and England defender Lee Dixon, Chelsea, Liverpool and Scotland striker David Speedie, and Arsenal winger Brian Marwood.
Relatives
Charles had several brothers, who were boxers. He was married to Ethel in April 1914, five months before the outbreak of the First World War.
They had a son, Dennis, who followed in his father's foosteps as a footballer, but played as a goalkeeper. Dennis moved from Southall to Twyford near Reading and had one son, Brian, who was also an amateur footballer and played as a defender for Henley Town.
Brian has two sons, Mark and Stuart, whose children are Charles' great great grandchildren.
Mark has two daughters, Ebba and Greta, and Stuart has a son and daughter, Sam and Jessica. Sam was a goalkeeper with the Reading FC academy.<ref name=MROL />

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