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From the Archives:Danny Blanchflower

Mon, 18/05/2020 - 01:51

DANNY THE NAVIGATOR

The seventh of Brian McClelland's compelling series of articles on significant figures from Glentoran's history. Many thanks to the Glentoran Supporters Committee (1923) for use of this material.

This isn’t a story about Danny Blanchflower the footballer, the man who did the Double with Spurs, captained Northern Ireland to the ’58 World Cup quarter-finals, and won 56 caps for his county.  While football inevitably plays a part, this is the largely unknown profile of a Belfast boy determined to do his bit in the fight against Nazi tyranny.

The war came to Danny that deadly spring of 1941.  His home at Ravenscroft Avenue along with many others was destroyed by Goering’s bombers in the terror of the blitz.  Through no fault of his own Danny didn’t get to fight Hitler.  But my goodness, it wasn’t for the want of trying!

Danny had won a scholarship from Ravenscroft Public Elementary School to the Belfast College of Technology to take a general education course.  With was raging in Europe, however, he wanted to play his part and education was not foremost in his mind.  Stimulated by the reported exploits of the RAF fighter pilots he joined the Air training Corps, an organization which aimed to give youngsters of pre-military age the opportunity to gain experience of life in the services before they enlisted or were conscripted.

Danny left college and found a place as an apprentice electrician at Gallagher’s tobacco factory.  As the war moved on apace, his father, John, joined the fighting in France.  The rest of his family were evacuated to the country as Belfast suffered the ravages of German bombers.  Danny stayed behind and enrolled as a cycle messenger for the ARP (Air Raid Precautions).  Many a night he was dispatched “to thread my way through falling flack and incendiaries with secret messages to other posts.”  Born in 1926, Danny was only fifteen at this period of his life. 

Throughout this mad maelstrom of war in Belfast Danny sought a game of football on Saturday afternoon.  As most of the junior competitions were suspended he formed a team with some of his mates and called it Bloomfield United.  Other teams were springing so they created a league of their own. 

Danny Blanchflower and his Glentoran team mate John "Bap" Dunlop

Around this time he was spotted by a Glentoran scout and invited to sign amateur forms.  It was a great thrill for him to join his local club as he had grown up with a great affection for it.  Danny was not quite sixteen and, while playing once for the reserves, found that, physically, he was out of his class, too slight a build to make any breakthrough.  He soon drifted away from Glentoran in search of play in various classes of junior competition.

Danny’s mother and family, fed up with evacuation, returned to the Bloomfield district to reside at Dunraven Park.  His father, released from the army, came home.  His age, family responsibilities, and skill as a tradesman combined to make him more valuable in overalls than khaki.

In the early summer of 1943 Danny volunteered as a trainee navigator with the RAF.  His brother Jackie later recalled that “he forged his age to get into the RAF”.  For their part the authorities were happy to overlook his youthful indiscretions.

During the period of awaiting call-up Danny was awarded a university scholarship.  In September 1943 he set off for a years’ study at St Andrew’s University in Scotland, before going into the RAF.  He studied maths, physics and applied kinematics.  His above average marks led to his recommendation for a Commission in the General Duties Branch of the RAF. 

Danny did not take long to find his way into the university football team and was very proud to be awarded colours for his endeavours.  Given its historical connection with St Andrew’s, Danny took up golf, beginning a passionate and lifelong affair with the game.

From the quiet and cultured calm of university life Danny was to suffer the square bashing routine of English military training camps.  “For six weeks “I...tortured every tender muscle in my body to the orders of mad NCOs and a maniac of a physical training instructor”.

 He was finally shipped overseas to Canada in early 1945 to begin flying training as a navigator.  Based at the Air Navigation School of the Royal Canadian Air Force at Rivers, in the Province of Manitoba, “football became a thing almost forgotten”.

Much to Danny’s disgust the war ended on 15th August 1945 with the surrender of Japan, just before he had completed basic training.  He suspected the Japanese surrendered when they heard that his unit was about to be “passed out” and due for a posting to the Far East!  Flying training was immediately abandoned and Danny and his fellow trainees posted back to England.

Danny saw out the rest of the year at Dorking near King’s Lynn where one of his hut mates was a certain actor called Richard Burton.  Danny and his comrades had nothing to do all day but play football.  By the time he was allocated some Christmas leave Danny was very fit indeed.

 Before he could unpack his kitbag on his return to Belfast, Danny had a call from Johnny Geary who was running Glentoran reserves.  After one outing Danny, now a far cry from the rather frail lad of 1942, was promoted to the first team and made his senior debut for the Glens against Belfast Celtic at inside-right on 29 December 1945.

Obtaining his release from the RAF in late April of 1946 Danny returned to Glentoran’s first team for the few remaining games of the season.  He went back to Gallaghers to finish his apprenticeship as an electrician and became a part-time professional footballer with Glentoran.  

It is in his early days at the Glens that we now take our leave of Danny Blanchflower.  He played 124 games, though none at the Oval, before departing for pastures new at Barnsley in April 1949.  We have watched him mature from boy to a young man, resolved to do his duty. We have shared in his frustration at missing out in one of history’s major conflicts.  There was no conscription in Northern Ireland yet such was Danny’s determination to join up that he lied about his age.  For King and Country applies as much to him as to those who actually saw action.