Bob Browning’s performances for his home-town club had earned him the nickname of “Lightning”. Graduating to the Southern League with Queens Park Rangers, he was well into his third season with them – as an inside-left with 20 goals in 54 games – when he was bought by Southampton, struggling to recapture their golden days in that League. Any expectation that this

“clever forward with an accurate shot”

– as the Echo put it – might trigger a Saints revival was short-lived. Serious cartilage damage after just six appearances ended Browning’s Southampton career – even though the Middlesex Hospital repaired the damage sufficiently for him to join Brentford. He was working in London as a window-cleaner when war broke out. Having served in the Middlesex Regiment, and later the Agricultural Labour Corps, during the War, Bob moved to the Forest of Dean, where he worked in the coalmines and captained Bream AFC.