Soo, Frank - Derbyshire's Famous 'Chinaman'

FRANK SOO - DERBYSHIRE'S FAMOUS CHINAMAN

Buxton-born Frank Soo, who has been labelled 'the first man of colour to represent England at football'

Frank Soo's obituary is one of over 200 included in this book, a number of which are linked to Derbyshire or Derby County

FRANK SOO was an English profesional footballer born in Buxton, Derbyshire, whose part-Chinese extraction earned him a unique place in the record books.

Little has been previously written of him, but in September 2007 his obituary was included in a new book of unsung football characters entitled 'Pickles the World Cup Dog and other Unusual Football Obituaries.'

The book has been written by the Derby author Peter Seddon, who is also the author of 'The Little Book of Derby County' and 'Steve Bloomer - Football's First Superstar'.

Here is the entry for Frank Soo:

SOO, HONG Y ‘FRANK’, was an immensely popular wing-half and inside-forward. Either side of the Second World War he played 173 League games for Stoke City and 71 for Luton Town – the intervening conflict almost certainly denied him a full England cap.

He died on January 25, 1991, knowing that he had been labelled ‘the first ‘man of colour’ to play for England, and the only footballer of Oriental extraction ever to do so.'

Soo is often overlooked as his nine England appearances do not appear in the 'full international' records, since they were wartime and ‘Victory’ internationals classed as ‘unofficial.’

Frank Soo was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, on 8 March 1914, his Chinese father Our Quong Soo, a Liverpool-based sailor, having married English girl Beatrice Whittam six years earlier.

After the family moved to Merseyside, Frank played for Liverpool Schoolboys and the Cheshire County League side Prescot Cables before signing for Stoke City in January 1933.

After his League career ended with Luton in 1947 he managed St. Albans City before moving to Italy to take charge of Padova (1950-52). He had one season (1959-60) as boss of Scunthorpe United, but either side of that unhappy sojourn managed a host of Scandinavian clubs. His finest hour was in 1954-55, when he led the Stockholm club Djurgarden to their fifth Swedish Championship.

Cyril ‘Sammy’ Chung, who was born in Abingdon in 1932, the second of only two British Orientals to play in the Football League, described Soo as ‘a great inspiration’. The itinerant Frank Soo eventually returned to England and his death aged 76 was registered in Staffordshire. Sammy Chung, by then a well-known manager, survived him.

This extract from Pickles the World Cup Dog and Other Unusual Football Obituaries is reproduced here with the kind permission of the publishers Aurum Press.

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