A mildly amusing or unusual name is often the thing that stops me when looking through old Bohs teamsheets. Many names are familiar and repeated, numerous brothers playing for the club from its earliest days, the Blayneys, the Sheehans, the Murrays, the Hoopers. Some more or less common names, but there are fewer Pratts in Dublin, especially at the turn of the 20th Century so the name stuck.

The more I searched the more the name began appearing. H. Pratt regularly getting among the goals. H short for Herbert, Bert to his friends. Born in the small town of Woodstock in Oxfordshire in 1878 to parents Mary and Henry Pratt, Bert was one of a large family of eight. His upbringing seems to have been comfortable, his father running a hotel and mentioned as having served a term as Mayor of Woodstock. His father’s profession necessitated a move to the relatively nearby, midlands town of Worcester where his father ran a busy hotel next to the main railway station.

The younger Bert learned his trade in the emerging profession of electrical engineering, and there is reference to him briefly attending Oxford University, but he also seems to have maintained an interest in football, being listed as being on the books (as an amateur) of Wolverhampton Wanderers as a teenager. We can only speculate but it seems that perhaps it was his profession rather than a sporting transfer that brought the young Bert to Dublin. Bohemians were a strictly amateur side when Bert signed for them during the 1898-99 season at which point he would have been roughly 19 or 20 years of age. He appears on the 1901 Census, living as a boarder in a house at 99 South Circular Road with the Rudd family, an older couple in their 60s. Also present in the house was a Reginald Timmins, who like Bert was English born and was also an electrical engineer. All the residents of the house were members of the Anglican Church, apart from the one servant, Mary Lynch who was a Roman Catholic.

By this stage Bert was already a well known player, in fact he was probably regarded as one of the best forwards in Ireland. A big man for his day, at around six foot and strongly built, the main adjective used to describe Pratt’s play is “clever”, it’s a word used again and again from very early in his Bohemian career. He mostly played at inside-right but also featured as a centre-forward and even in a more deep-lying midfield role. He was variously described as “the most dashing and brilliant inside man in the country”, and the “finest forward in Dublin”.

And Bert’s career was indeed successful, in the 97 games in which he featured for the Bohemians he had an excellent strike rate of 70 goals, including scores in some hugely important matches. By the end of his sojourn in Ireland he was considered among the best forwards on the island. It was also a time of huge change and maturation for the Bohemian Football Club. By the time of Pratt’s arrival the Leinster Senior League and Leinster Senior Cup had been established and while with Bohemians Pratt would win both as the Gypsies demonstated their superiority as the strongest team in Dublin.

During his time in Dublin, Bohemians would become the first team from the capital to join the Belfast dominated Irish League, in 1902. Pratt was also part of the Bohemian teams that twice reached the Irish Cup final, in 1900, where Bohemians were narrowly defeated 2-1 by Cliftonville and again in 1903 as Bohemians lost 3-1 to Distillery in the first ever final played in Dalymount Park. Despite finishing on the losing side in that game it was Bert who had been the star in the semi-final rout of Derry Celtic and it was he who got Bohs’ consolation goal just before the whistle in the final.

In 1901 Bert Pratt had been among that famous first eleven Bohemians who lined out in the inaugural match at Dalymount Park against Shelbourne. When he joined the club were playing their games in the grounds of Whitehall Lodge on the Finglas road (roughly opposite the modern main entrance of Glasnevin cemetery) but within a matter of years not only had the club secured its new grounds but this new stadium was already hosting cup finals.

All told, during his Bohemian career Bert won three Leinster Senior League titles, three Leinster Senior Cups, finished runner-up twice in the Irish Cup and also featured in Bohemians first ever Irish League seasons. He was also selected by the Irish League to represent them in the prestigious inter-league games against the Scottish League and the English League as well as being part of the first Bohemian team to welcome a British side to Dalymount when Bohs hosted Preston North End in their new home in 1901.

By 1900 Bert had already featured for Leinster in the regular inter-provincial challenge matches against Ulster and in 1902 was selected for the first time by the Irish League to face the English League in front of a 10,000 crowd in Solitude, Belfast. The Irish League performed commendably and were only defeated 3-2 by a late goal from Steve Bloomer, the star forward of Derby County and probably the best centre-forward in the world at that time. Bert was selected again the following year when he was picked for the visit of the Scottish League to Grosvenor Park, where in front of an even larger crowd Bert Pratt scored the only goal of the game to record only the third ever victory by an Irish League side in a representative game.

After these successes the sports pages wistfully remarked that due to his English birth it was a great pity that Bert could not represent Ireland at full international level as he was clearly considered one of the best players in the country. In fact, Bert was moving around a bit, even while on the books of Bohemians. In 1902 he was apparently spending part of his time in Lancashire and got mired in a minor transfer saga when he signed for Blackburn Rovers after his impressive performance against the English League. However, his registration (in English football at least) was still held by Wolves from his time with them as a teenager. While it seems that this was eventually sorted out Bert’s stay at Blackburn was brief. There was reported interest from both Preston North End and Manchester United but Bert quickly found himself back at Dalymount.

The 1903-04 season was to be Bert’s last in Dublin, despite all his success there was nearly a tragic coda to his time in Ireland as he was struck down with a serious bout of pneumonia in January of 1904. Luckily, considering the strong medical connections with Bohemian Football Club, his medical team-mates, the various Doctors Blayney were able to nurse him back to health. It is around this time that Bert moved more permanently to England, relocating to Liverpool and staying in the shadow of Anfield. By September of that year he would be signing for Liverpool as an amateur. Despite playing some pre-season games his short spell with the Reds was limited to eleven appearances for the Liverpool reserve side who were then playing in the Lancashire Combination.

During this time Bert also made the newspapers for a non-sporting reason, while attending the Theatre Royal in Birmingham in December 1904, along with his brother Robert the two were reported to the police for some drunken and unruly behaviour in the Theatre bar and for refusing to leave when requested. Things turned heated, when upon the arrival of the police, Bert’s brother Robert became violent. The whole affair ended up in court and both men were lucky to escape with a fine, Robert who seemed to be the more aggressive of the two facing a 60 shilling fine or face a month in prison while Bert got off more lightly, having to only pay 40 shillings.

By the time of the theatre incident Bert had thrown in his lot with Old Xaverians, an amateur side in Liverpool who were enjoying some success at the time. In 1902 they had been one of the first English amateur sides to tour Europe and did this again in 1908 with Bert as team captain on a visit to Belgium. Bert enjoyed great success at this level, he received further representative honours, representing Lancashire amateur sides in games against similar teams from Leicestershire and London. He did however make one more appearance for Bohemians, having the honour of captaining a Bohemian side in 1905 when they hosted Aston Villa at Dalymount.

Bert would have been just 30 years old when he was captaining Old Xaverians on the tour to Belgium in 1908. He had graudally moved back in his playing role, from the forward line to a centre-half, or pivot role, effectively a central midfielder in the modern parlance. Old Xaverians were prospering at their level, winning regional amateur cups and being toasted by the Lord Mayor. However, less than a year later they were stunned when Bert was to pass away suddenly in September 1909 at the age of just 31.

There were glowing tributes paid in Ireland and England, The Irish Times calling him “one of the most popular players in the Irish metropolis” while the Liverpool Daily Post called him a “splendid exponent of the game”. There was a large funeral and Bert was buried in Kirkdale Cemetery in Liverpool, his sizeable family were joined by many from the local football scene including the Liverpool manager, Tom Watson as one of the mourners. Incidentally, the photo from the top of this article is from an In Memoriam section of a joint Liverpool-Everton match programme from 1909 expressing sympathy at Bert’s passing.

While perhaps forgotten in the mists of time Herbert Pratt was a crucial player in the early years of the Bohemian Football Club, a star forward, a fan favourite and a prolific goalscorer as the club became a dominant force in the city and moved up to challenge at the highest level in Ireland by joining the Irish League while also being part of the first Bohs side to make Dalymount their home.

With thanks to Rob Sawyer, Stephen Burke, Jonny Stokkeland and Kjell Hanssen for their assistance in the research for this article.