Former Barking player denied an England cap due to racism honoured in Plymouth

Former Barking footballer Jack Leslie, who moved from East London to Plymouth Argyle in 1921, is to be honoured as a square in the Devon city is to be named after him.

Jack was born in Canning Town in 1901, and spent his early career with Barking, who were then named Barking Town. He moved to Argyle and became one of greatest players to ever wear their shirt, making close to four hundred appearances and scoring one hundred and thirty seven goals from outside left.

In 1925 he was picked for the England team to face Ireland. The selectors called his manager, Bob Jack, to advise of his selection, and he would have been England's first ever black international, only for his invitation to be rescinded when the panel responsible for his selection realised that he was black.

A campaign to honour him in the city started recently, after Argyle named the function suite in the Mayflower Grandstand in his honour. The city council have now announced that they will be renaming a square previously named after a sixteenth century slave trader Jack Leslie Square.

Jack moved back to East London after his professional career ended, and worked for West Ham United. He died in 1988.

You can read more on the campaign to honour Jack by heading to its website, which you will find here, and from where we borrowed the image above.

You can read more on this story by heading to the BBC website, here.