Shropshire football referee Bert Newsome remembered for pioneering career

Shropshire’s Bert Newsome, who climbed the refereeing ladder and eventually took charge of top matches in the first flight of English football - the old First Division - has died at the age of 91.

During much of his time at the top Bert was the county’s only serving Football League referee, acting as the man in the middle or running the line for 17 seasons before reaching the compulsory retirement age of 48.

Career highlights included being linesman in a 1961 France v Spain full international in Paris, and in the European Super Cup final between Bayern Munich and Anderlecht in 1976.

Later, with his good looks and sporting physique, he worked as a mature model who appeared on promotions and adverts on television, print, and posters.

Bert, who lived in the last part of his life in Much Wenlock, was a former Telford Development Corporation marketing man, business consultant, magistrate, and football commentator.

The funeral is at Emstrey Crematorium, Shrewsbury, on Thursday, June 4, at 2.45pm. He is survived by wife Jill, his son Neil – sadly, his daughter Linda has passed away – four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren with another great-grandchild on the way this weekend.

A native of the Yorkshire village of Ryhill, near Wakefield, it all began after a foot injury kept him out of the Fitzwilliam Youth Club team and he ran the line for club games. But the initial refs’ exam proved a tough hurdle, so it was not until he was posted as a regular soldier to Donnington that he took up the whistle, starting with a Wrekin Minor League match between Malinslee and Newport’s St Nicholas Boys’ Club in the 1953-1954 season.

He worked his way to the top, knuckling down and taking necessary exams, and enduring occasional setbacks. He thought he had made it when he was elected to the Football League Supplementary List of referees in 1970-71, officiating at Third and Fourth Division games, but was back on the Football League linesmen’s list the following season.

But Bert bounced back, promoted to the Football League’s refereeing full list in 1973. His First Division debut was eventful. Drafted in as a late replacement for West Ham v Middlesbrough on November 22, 1975, Bert was flattened after just 60 seconds after being hit in the face by a defender’s clearance, and then went on to book four players, three from Middlesbrough, as the Hammers won 2-1. Middlesbrough boss Jack Charlton’s intemperate blast at the ref afterwards made headlines and Charlton faced potential disciplinary action before recanting somewhat.

Bert - it came from his second name, Lambert - was in the hotseat for love, not money, which amounted to 20p per mile expenses for travelling from his then home at Benthall, near Broseley, and a £35 match fee.

Jill said: “He would go training on Tuesday nights at Molineux with Jack Taylor (the 1974 World Cup final ref from Shifnal) - they were friends - but he wasn’t allowed to referee at Molineux because he was too close. Referees weren’t allowed to mix with players, but he found some of the managers were very nice, and he liked Brian Clough very much, and Bill Shankly.”

His final Football League fixture was the First Division clash between Coventry and West Ham at Highfield Road on May 14, 1983, and he hung up his whistle for good in May 1985, his last match being the Broseley Hospital Cup final.

Bert was a Liverpool supporter, although Jill doesn’t know the reason.

In his working life he was an assistant catering manager for GKN Sankey, joined the vending division in 1970, and would become an industrial marketing manager with Telford Development Corporation, and afterwards a self-employed marketing consultant for Birmingham’s Aston Science Park.

Around 1990 he was approached by agents who asked if he’d consider modelling, as companies were always looking for “businessmen types.” The work, which Bert regarded as a hobby, saw him in a wide variety of roles, ranging from being almost life size on Abbey National pensions posters, a holidaymaker in Butlin’s brochure, and even a man of the cloth modelling ecclesiastical gear.