Jack Elkes’s progress from Shropshire football to League football was thwarted first by the failure of Stalybridge Celtic to gain admission to the Football League and then by the outbreak of war. So he was coming 25 when “official” football restarted and he got to play in Division II with Birmingham. Injuries and new signings restricted his appearances, as Birmingham won promotion in 1921.

And despite starting with a bang in the First Division, he was out of contention by the time he was traded to the Third South leaders, Southampton, in a four-player exchange, with George Getgood accompanying him to The Dell, while Fred Foxall and Joe Barratt moved to Birmingham. Unfazed by the departure of both of their wingers, the Saints stormed to a 5-0 home win over Southend, in which Elkes scored twice. But Jack would not feature in the run-in to promotion: he broke his collarbone at Southend, the following Saturday. He returned the following season, as the regular inside-left in the Saints’ first season in Division II and played in all nine matches of a Cup-run replete with replays.

A clever dribbler – deceptively so, for a tall man – he was attracting attention.

When Tottenham offered £1,000 fee, the Southampton board accepted.

He made himself at home with Spurs – for six seasons, the first five of them in Division I – and played in four international trials. He was never capped, but toured Australia with the FA in 1925 and played three times for the Football League. After which, he had four seasons at Middlesbrough, where he became a centre-half, and then played a few games for Watford in Division III(S), eventually retiring from League football in his 40th year. Whereupon, he played non-league for three seasons, finishing up in his home-town. He then upped sticks for Essex, where he coached the Ford works-team at Dagenham. Perhaps predictably, he was still kicking a ball around for Rainham Old Boys in his late sixties. In 1939 he was a drilling and tapping machines in Hornchurch but after the war he worked at Fords in Dagenham.