Having made only 10 appearances in the best part of four seasons in the Football League’s First Division with Stoke, George Harris blossomed at Southern League Reading, to the extent that he was called up for an international trial. The Saints were eager to sign him and they were vindicated, as he settled in for a reasonably regular couple of seasons in their Southern League side, playing at inside-left to centre-forward Fred Harrison. But then he inexplicably retired from the professional game in April 1907 and became the landlord of the Leopard Inn at Tutbury, near Burton-upon-Trent. After a year out of the game, he turned out for the village side in the Burton and District League. By 1939 he had become the landlord of the Old Talbot in Uttoxeter.