A mini biography of the sole Luton Town player, Joe Coen to be included on the Footballers Memorial for players who were killed in World War II whilst serving for their country.
Joe Coen (Goalkeeper)
Joseph Leo Coen was born on December 4th, 1911 in Glasgow,
Scotland.
Before moving to play in England Joe played for Clydebank
and Celtic.
Celtic signed Coen as cover for their legendary keeper John
Thomson who was better known to many as “The Prince of Goalkeepers”.
On 5 September 1931, Celtic were playing rivals Rangers at
Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow in front of 80,000. Early in the second half Thomson
and a Rangers player, Sam English, went for the ball at the same time.
Thomson's head collided with English's knee, fracturing his skull and ruptured
an artery in his right temple. Thomson was taken off the field in a stretcher
and Chic Geatons took over in goals, most people assumed that Thomson was
'just' badly concussed, but a few people who had seen his injuries suspected
possibly worse. A section of the home support (Rangers) were unaware of the
seriousness of the injury and cheered until they were silenced by one of the
Rangers players. One source said "there were gasps in the main stand, a
single piercing scream being heard from a horrified young woman", this was
believed to be the scream of Margaret Finlay who was watching with Jim Thomson
(brother of John). One Rangers player who was also a medical student said later
that as soon as he saw him he gave little chance for his survival. After having
treatment from the St Andrew's Ambulance Association, he was taken to a
stretcher. According to The Scotsman he was "seen to rise on the stretcher
and look towards the goal and the spot where the accident happened". The
game ended 0–0. Thomson was taken to the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow. He had
a lacerated wound over the right parietal bones of the skull, which meant that
there was a depression in his skull of 2 inches in diameter. At 5pm he suffered
a major convulsion. Dr Norman Davidson carried out an emergency operation to
try and lower the amount of pressure caused by the swelling brain, but the
operation was unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead by 9.25pm. The death of a
footballer in his prime is thankfully rare, and even rarer on the field of
play. Even after this length of time, John Thomson's untimely death at the age
of just 22 remains one of football's great tragedies. A young goalkeeper,
already the first choice for his club and country, with a long and
distinguished career seemingly ahead of him, dead as a result of an accident
during a game.
Joe made just three appearances for the Glasgow club during
the 1931-32 season, his debut being on October 10th. 1932 in a 1-1 draw at
Ibrox Park. The Glasgow club released him in May of 1932 and moved to England
signing for Guildford City.
He then moved to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in 1934.
Making a total of 158 team appearances. Before moving to Luton, making his
league debut on September 15th, 1934 against Crystal Palace that Luton lost
1-2. His final competitive match was for the Hatters on April 29th 1939 at St.
James Park Newcastle when the Town lost 0-2 to Newcastle United. The Hatters
finishing the
season in seventh position of League Two. His Luton career
was cut short by the start of war when all league football was suspended until
the war was over. Whilst playing for Luton Joe also worked in insurance as a
side-line, he also married whilst playing for the Hatters.
Joe volunteered for the R.A.F. in 1940, intending to make
flying his career. He began his training at Torquay in May 1941, completed No.
2 Course at St. Andrews, and began his flying training at Cranwell, still
playing for Luton Town whenever he could get away, indeed he was due to play
the Saturday of the week in which he was killed.
This took place on October 15th when he was killed on active
service 15th October 1941 ng a solo flight at Cranwell, a collision occurred at
three hundred feet with another plane just taking the air; both men were
killed. Joe had hoped to pass out as fully trained pilot in early December of
that year.
Joe is included in the Footballer’s Roll of Honour and is
buried in the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church, Biscot, Luton.
Chris Luke, October 2015
