George Caspar Smith (23 April 1915 – 31 October 1983) was an English footballer, coach, and manager.
He appeared in one wartime international for England (against Wales in May 1945) for which caps were not awarded although the England teams then were probably stronger than some pre-war sides. He also played in armed services representative sides which were Great Britain elevens in all but name. According to George Allison, Arsenal's manager, wartime football was 'better in quality than pre-war League football'.
After retiring from playing, Smith had a successful career as both an F.A. coach and manager. His league win ratios at Crystal Palace and Portsmouth FC were 43% and 36% respectively.
Early playing career
Smith's career began at Hackney Schools in east London where he had grown up. He joined the army as a young man and was stationed in Syria and Palestine in the mid-nineteen thirties. On returning to England, he was bought out of the army by Jimmy Seed and, in 1936–37, began to feature for Bexleyheath & Welling in the Kent League. After promotion with Charlton from the third to the second division in 1935, Seed had arranged that Bexleyheath & Welling would become the nursery club of Charlton Athletic and the amateur team was also referred to as 'Charlton A'.
Charlton Athletic
Under Seed's management, Charlton surprised the football world prior to World War II by achieving successive promotions and becoming one of the strongest teams in the English 1st Division. They were runners-up in 1936-7 and then finished fourth and third respectively before the war caused league football to be abandoned for six years. Smith signed professional papers on 5 August 1938 with a salary of £5 per week and a £10 signing-on payment. His contract was renewed in 1939 at £6 per week until May 1940 with the provision of '£1 extra per week when playing in the first team'. He made the first XI at the end of the 1938–9 season when his form attracted considerable attention. This was the final game of that season at home on 6 May to Preston North End; a game which Charlton won 3–1. The outbreak of the war meant that he only made 1 full league appearance before regular football fixtures were halted.
War years
George Smith enlisted in the APTC on 3 November 1939; listing his professions as footballer and PT Instructor. He spent much of the early period of the Second World War as a PT instructor at Aldershot as well as on troop ships. During this period, he continued to represent Charlton Athletic as well as being a wartime playing guest for Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea among others.
On 15 April 1944, he played in Charlton's 3–1 win against Chelsea in the Football League South War Cup Final in front of a crowd of 85,000 at Wembley. In that 1944 final, the players received National Savings Certificates instead of medals. US General Dwight D. Eisenhower was presented to the teams and afterwards was quoted as saying, "I started cheering for the Blues but after the Reds took the lead, well I had to cheer for them instead."
He was discharged from Victoria Barracks, Windsor, at the rank of sergeant major, with exemplary military conduct on 8 December 1945. His discharge papers read 'an excellent physical training instructor and an international footballer: an honest, sober and trustworthy man with a most cheerful disposition'.
Army & FA representative XIs
During the last years of the war he also played in several strong Army and FA representative sides alongside players such as Frank Swift and Matt Busby, both of whom were friends from their days at Aldershot Army camp. Although these matches were not recorded as official internationals, the players wore England shirts and received notification of their selection on English Football Association headed paper.
'In March 1945, an FA XI played two games in Belgium, against the national side and against the Diables Rouge, the Belgian parachute brigade. The full party was: Bert Williams (Walsall), Laurie Scott (Arsenal), Bert Sproston (Manchester City), George Hardwick (Middlesbrough), Matt Busby (Liverpool), George Smith and 'Sailor' Brown (Charlton Athletic), Stanley Matthews and Neil Franklin (Stoke City), Tommy Lawton and Joe Mercer (Everton), Stan Mortensen (Blackpool), Leslie Smith (Brentford) and Maurice Edelston (Reading). In Bruges, the FA team received a rapturous welcome from thousands of British troops – some of whom had torn down a wooden fence to gain admission – and went on to win 8–1.'