Arthur Wharton at Yorkshire Main Colliery

Category	Sports
Dates	1865: born. 1886: first 100 yards in ten seconds. 1902: retired from football. 1915: moved to Edlington and Yorkshire Main. December 1930: died. 1997: headstone placed on his grave.

Arthur Wharton, the world's first black professional footballer and a record-breaking sprinter, spent his last working years as a haulage hand at Yorkshire Main Colliery, Edlington. He died in 1930 and lay in an unmarked grave in the village for 67 years.

Head-and-shoulders photograph of a middle-aged man in a flat cap, collar and heavy jacket. — Arthur Wharton in later life, about 1920 Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The mining history in this record

Born in the Gold Coast in 1865, Arthur Wharton came to England to train as a Methodist missionary and instead became a sporting celebrity: in 1886 he was the first man to run 100 yards in ten seconds, and he went on to play for Preston North End, Sheffield United and other clubs, the first black professional footballer. Drink and poverty followed his retirement from football in 1902, and he turned to the pits.

By 1911 he was working as a collier at Moorthorpe. In 1915 he moved to Edlington, near Doncaster, where the Yorkshire Main Colliery had been sunk from 1909, and became a haulage hand, moving coal tubs underground. Accounts differ on when he started there: one has him at Yorkshire Main soon after leaving football, but the colliery did not yet exist. He died penniless in December 1930 and was buried in a third-class grave in Edlington cemetery.

People

Arthur Wharton (1865-1930), footballer and athlete, haulage hand at Yorkshire Main Colliery.

Legacy today

Wharton's grave went unmarked until 1997, when the campaign group Football Unites, Racism Divides raised money for a headstone. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2003, and a statue of him was unveiled at the National Football Centre at St George's Park in 2014.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

After his football career Arthur Wharton worked as a haulage hand at Yorkshire Main Colliery, Edlington. (documented fact) ^1,2,3
He went to live in Edlington in 1915 and became a haulage hand at Yorkshire Main. (later recollection) ³
He found work at Yorkshire Main after retiring from football in 1902. (unverified claim, disputed) ²
He died in December 1930 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Edlington cemetery. (documented fact) ^2,3,4
The grave was given a headstone in 1997 after a campaign by Football Unites, Racism Divides. (documented fact) ^3,4

Mines

Yorkshire Main Colliery — South Yorkshire
Arthur Wharton, the first black professional footballer, worked here as a haulage hand in his last working years and is buried in Edlington.

Sources

(secondary) Yorkshire Main Colliery — Wikipedia
(secondary) Arthur Wharton — Wikipedia
(secondary) Arthur Wharton: World's First Black Professional Footballer — Our History
(secondary) Arthur Wharton — Sheffield: Home of Football

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026