{{Short description|English footballer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} {{Infobox football biography | name= Horace Fairhurst | image = Horace Fairhurst.jpg | caption = | fullname = | birth_date = {{birth date|1893|6|2|df=y}} | birth_place = Bolton, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1921|1|7|1893|6|2|df=y}} | height = | position = Defender | youthyears1 = | youthclubs1 = | years1 = {{0|0000}}–1919 | clubs1 = Darwen | caps1 = | goals1 = | years2 = 1919–1921 | clubs2 = Blackpool | caps2 = 47 | goals2 = 0 }}
'''Horace Fairhurst''' (2 June 1893 – 7 January 1921) was an English professional footballer. He played as a defender.
After playing for Darwen for a number of years, Fairhurst joined fellow Lancashire club Blackpool in May 1919 after previously playing for them during the 1916–17 and 1917–18 World War I wartime seasons.<ref name="KY"> {{cite book |last = Wolstenholme |first = Gerry |title = The Khaki Years, Blackpool Football Club The World War I Seasons 1915/16 - 1918/19 |publisher = Blackpool Programme and Memorabilia Collectors Club |date = May 2008 |location = Blackpool |pages = 13–19 |url = http://www.blackpool-mad.co.uk/news/loadfeat.asp?cid=EDX1&id=386516 |isbn = |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080920054458/http://www.blackpool-mad.co.uk/news/loadfeat.asp?cid=EDX1 |archive-date = 20 September 2008 |df = dmy-all }}</ref>
==Career== Fairhurst first played for Blackpool in the 1917–18 wartime season, on 1 September 1917 against Oldham Athletic, while he was serving at the Royal Army Medical Corps Depot in the town. He made a total of 27 appearances for the club that season. He returned to the club on 8 February 1919, in a 1–1 draw at Burnley and made a total of ten appearances for ''the Seasiders'' that season. The club then signed him in May 1919.
He made his official league debut at left-back on 8 September 1919, in a 6–0 home win over Lincoln City in the 1919–20 season. He made 27 league appearances as Blackpool finished fourth in Division Two. His nine appearances for the reserve team won him a Central League championship medal.<ref name="KY"/>
In his twentieth league appearance of the 1920–21 season, on 27 December 1920, Fairhurst suffered a head injury during Blackpool's single-goal win over Barnsley at Oakwell.<ref name="sb61734">{{cite web | title = English Division Two (old) Barnsley 0 Blackpool 1 | publisher = Soccerbase | date = 27 December 1920 | url = http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=61734 | access-date = 7 October 2008 | archive-date = 1 October 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071001005528/http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=61734 | url-status = dead }}</ref> At one point it looked as though he would recover, and he reported for training at the Balmoral Hotel for the FA Cup tie at Darlington on 8 January; however, he was deemed "not recovered sufficiently to run the risk of playing him".<ref name=Gillatt>{{cite book|last=Gillatt|first=Peter|title=Blackpool FC on This Day: History, Facts and Figures from Every Day of the Year |publisher=Pitch Publishing Ltd|date=30 November 2009|isbn=978-1-905411-50-4}}</ref> He was initially named in the Blackpool team to face Notts County on New Year's Day, but he had "a touch of gastritis"<ref name=Gillatt/> and did not travel. He died at home on 7 January 1921 as a result of the injury, with the club stating, "We have lost one of the best backs in England".<ref name=Gillatt/> He was buried at Tonge Cemetery on 13 January. He had made just short of 50 league appearances for ''the Seasiders''. On 4 May, Blackpool played a benefit match against Preston North End with the proceeds to go to his widow and to the children of his partner at full-back, Bert Tulloch, whose wife had died the same weekend as Fairhurst.<ref name="KY"/>
==See also== *List of association footballers who died while playing
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *{{cite book | first=Roy | last=Calley | title=Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992 | publisher=Breedon Books Sport | year=1992 | isbn=1-873626-07-X}} *[http://www.darwenfc.com/_pages/oldplayers2.htm A mention and a picture of Fairhurst] on Darwen F.C.'s official site *[http://www.boltonians.org.uk/cgi-bin/site-editor.pl/6/-database?eid=119195&a=atoz&letter=F&q=&cat1= Famous Boltonians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014006/http://www.boltonians.org.uk/cgi-bin/site-editor.pl/6/-database?eid=119195&a=atoz&letter=F&q=&cat1= |date=27 September 2007 }} <!--As in Calley's book, the incorrect date of the game is given in the above two links as 26 December. Also, he didn't die the same day as he received the injury; the link is just for the purpose of verification.-->
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairhurst, Horace}} Category:1893 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Footballers from Bolton Category:English men's footballers Category:Darwen F.C. (1870) players Category:Blackpool F.C. players Category:Men's association football defenders Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Royal Army Medical Corps soldiers Category:Association football players who died while playing Category:Sport deaths in England Category:20th-century English sportsmen