Vintage Trade Cards

Liam Devlin & Sons, Dublin

Liam Devlin was born at 59 Waterloo Street, Derry City, on 18 June 1877. He moved to Greenock in Scotland shortly before 1900, and in 1907 married Margaret McDermott in St. Mary’s Church, Greenock. In 1913 Liam and Margaret moved to Kilmarnock where they took ownership of the Crown Hotel on the High Street. Here Devlin became involved with the Irish Republican movement, and was listed as a member of the 5th Battalion, Greenock & Port Glasgow. In 1919 he moved back to Dublin, where he bought a grocery store and licensed premise on Parnell Street in Dublin, the latter of which quickly became the General Headquarters of Intelligence during the Irish war of independence 1919-21.

As the civil war ended, Devlin and his family moved to Westbury House in Stillorgan, and he turned his focus to industry. In 1925 he bought Blue Badge Toffee followed by Cleeve’s Toffee in 1927. In 1939 he rebranded the company to Liam Devlin, with new premises in Cork Street, Dublin. In the 1950’s Liam Devlin partnered with Barratts of London, at which point a number of joint issue cards were produced, most notably the Famous Footballers A.2 set.

In 1960 Liam Devlin sold his business to Urneys, though remained involved in a number of trade and industry roles until his death in 1964.

“Famous Footballers A.2” (1954) – 50 Cards

Cards are black and white to the front, and numbered to the rear (1-50). Cards appear as full width versions as shown below, and also factory trimmed cards where the sides were trimmed down to enable them to fit into smaller packs of sweet cigarettes. The wider cards are much harder to find and as such, several times more valuable than their narrower counterparts.

#1. Tommy Cummings – Burnley

#2. Albert Quixall – Sheffield Wednesday

#3. Willie Bauld – Heart of Midlothian

#4.

#5. Roy Paul – Manchester City

#6. Geoff Bradford – Bristol Rovers

#7. Paddy Buckley – Abderdeen

#8.

#9. Alf Ramsey – Tottenham Hotspur

#10. Nat Lofthouse – Bolton Wanderers

#11. Dave Hickson – Everton

#12. Gordon Smith – Hibernian

#13. Charlie Wayman – Middlesbrough

#14. Ray Daniel – Sunderland

#15. Jock Aird – Burnley

#16. Tommy Taylor – Manchester United

#17. Roy Swinbourne – Wolverhampton Wanderers

#18. Jack Froggatt – Leicester City

#19. Bobby Evans – Celtic

#20.

#21. Ivor Allchurch – Swansea Town

#22. Gilbert Merrick – Birmingham City

#23. John Charles – Leeds United

#24. Len Shackleton – Sunderland

#25. Alf Sherwood – Cardiff City

#26. Arthur Milton – Arsenal

#27.

#28. Tom Finney – Preston North End

#29. Stan Mortenson – Blackpool

#30. Jim Dickinson – Portsmouth

#31. Ron Staniforth – Huddersfield Town

#32. Jimmy Logie – Arsenal

#33. Trevor Ford – Cardiff City

#34.

#35. Johnny Haynes – Fulham

#36. Billy Wright – Wolverhampton Wanderers

#37.

#38. Johnny Morris – Leicester City

#39. Duncan Edwards – Manchester United

#40. Sam Bartram – Charlton Athletic

#41.

#42. Bill Eckersley – Blackburn Rovers

#43. Roy Bentley – Chelsea

#44.

#45. Stanley Matthews – Blackpool

#46.

#47. Ray Barlow – West Bromwich Albion

#48. Stan Willemse – Chelsea

#49. Ray King – Port Vale

#50. Ronnie Allen – West Bromwich Albion

If you have any snippets of info or images related to the above producer of cards, or any cards/ephemera you wish to sell, please do get in touch and we will publish and credit anything of interest.