Harry Warren

16th July 1956 – 25th September 1957

Harry Warren is considered to be one of Southend United’s greatest managers, despite never getting them out of Division Three South in his time at the club. However he became manager at Southend almost by chance.

Harry was born in the Derbyshire coal-mining village of Newhall in 1902, the son of Ben Warren an England international who won 22 caps in an era when international games were few and far between. His famous father died of a brain tumour when Harry was only 11 and as soon as he was able to leave school he went to work as a clerk in the local pit office. His football talent was obvious however and after being spotted playing for Gresley Rovers he signed as a centre-half with Blackpool. He made five appearances in three seasons at Bloomfield Road and later played for Exeter City, Merthyr Town and Sheffield United, where he played two games in their Division 1 side before ending his league career at Notts County. In 1931 he joined non-league Folkestone as player-manager and gained a reputation for developing young players and selling them to league clubs. He was feted as the man who put the club on the football map.

In March 1939 he was poached by Chelmsford City as part of their drive to gain full league status, however soon after war broke out in September of the same year his lucky break came. Southend United, who had to move out of the seaside town because of bombing threats, approached Chelmsford City to share their Writtle Street ground. Southend boss David Jack left to take a banking job in the City and the two clubs effectively merged forces to play games in the wartime leagues – and Harry was the manager of this ‘joint’ team. Near the end of the war as the Shrimpers got back on their feet and moved back to Southend, Chelmsford graciously allowed Warren to become their permanent manager.

‘Genial Harry’ was a huge bear of a man – he was six foot tall and after retiring from playing he put on a lot of weight, weighing 18 stone in his later days. He was a popular figure at Southend with his breezy approach to life and became a big local personality. He ran the whole club at Southend, keeping finances under tight control (using the skills he had picked up in the pit office) and developing several useful sides in his sixteen-year reign, although none of them were good enough to get out of the Third Division. When he resigned to join Coventry in 1956 the Southend chairman asked him to stop with them for the rest of his life.

Warren arrived at Highfield Road to replace the continental tactics of Jesse Carver and George Raynor, the latter stepping down to first team coach before leaving three months into the new season. The club were not well off and he had to operate on a shoestring, even after the £22,500 proceeds from the sale of England goalkeeper Reg Matthews to Chelsea in November 1956. He brought back the hustle and bustle tactics and for a while they worked but soon the goals dried up and the team slid down the table, hampered by a mammoth injury list. After New Year 1957, the situation deteriorated even more as attendances dropped to under 6,000 and the club’s critics became increasingly vociferous. From the dressing room there were rumours of low morale and interference from directors.

After only four points from the first seven games of the 1957-58 season the inevitable happened and Harry was sacked. (He later fought a successful legal action over the cessation of his contract). He returned to live in Southend where he worked for a local firm of solicitors as a book-keeper. Sadly he died one year short of retirement in 1968.

The mystery is why did he leave the comfort of Southend to take on a seemingly impossible task at Coventry. When asked he gave the perfectly frank answer: “I accepted the job because Coventry offered me more money than I could get at Southend.”

From: 16th July 1956
First game: 18th August 1956 v Exeter City, home, Third Division South, won 1-0

Until: 25th September 1957
Last game: 21st September 1957 v Torquay United, home, Third Division South, won 2-1

56 games as manager

	Lge	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Win %	Pos
1956-57	Div 3 S	46	16	12	18	74	84	44	34.7	16th
1957-58	Div 3 S	9	2	3	4	8	16	7	22.2	22nd
Totals		55	18	15	22	82	100	51	32.7

FA Cup: 1 game (loss)