I was fortunate recently to acquire a small collection of memorabilia, being the personal collection of Seamus O'Connell, the noted amateur footballer who starred for Chelsea and notably helped the club win their first ever Football League Championship in the season 1954 - 55.
The collection included medals, programmes, original press photos etc together with a few other football related items Seamus or his family picked up along the way. I am now putting these items up for sale with this example being:
A small collection of 5 Chelsea FC home programmes dating between 9th April 1955 & 4th March 1967. Two of the programmes have been autographed by the club manager at the time, Ted Drake.
Seamus O'Connell (11th January 1930 to 24th February 2013): Described as the country's finest amateur centre forward, Seamus won 4 England International caps as well as helping Bishop Auckland win the FA Amateur Cup in 1955 and Crook Town to win the same trophy in 1959.
However he will be most remembered for his short career with Chelsea with his signing being one of the catalysts which propelled the club to their first ever Football League Championship in 1954 - 55. They had not been expected to compete for the title that season and it would be another 50 years before Chelsea were to win their second Championship.
Seamus is one of only two Chelsea players to score a hat-trick on his debut which he did in a truly remarkable game. In front of a crowd of 56,000 at Old Trafford, Seamus scored three goals yet still lost the game to Manchester United 6 - 5! During the remainder of that 1954 - 55 Season Seamus went on to score 7 goals in 10 appearances, helping Chelsea to the title with Wolverhampton Wanderers in second place, four points adrift.
In total O'Connell played 16 times for Chelsea, scoring 11 goals but this was the time of the maximum wage of £12 per week with Chelsea players receiving a £50 bonus for being crowned League Champions. Seamus left the club the following season to return to his father's profitable cattle business in Carlisle. How different things would have been today!
Summary: As can be seen from the photos this is an interesting small collection of Chelsea home programmes, two autographed by manager, Ted Drake. Good luck!