George Cummings (footballer)


George Wilfred Cummings was a Scottish footballer of the 1930s and 1940s, who played as a left back.

Club career

Cummings was the captain of Aston Villa's great post-World War II defence, having signed for the club in November 1935 from Partick Thistle, where he had made a total of 138 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal, and won a Glasgow Cup medal with the Jags in 1934.
At Villa Park, Cummings gained a Second Division championship medal in 1938 and a Football League War Cup tankard in 1944, also guesting for several teams during the conflict. He was the Villains club captain from 1945 to his retirement in 1949, and was popular with supporters due to his never-say-die spirit and no-nonsense defending. He played 421 times for the club in total, including wartime competitions – his peacetime total being just over half of that.
On retirement as a player he was a youth coach at Aston Villa for three years, and also worked for the Dunlop Rubber Company and Hardy Spicer Ltd. in Birmingham.

International career

Cummings represented both Scotland and the Scottish League XI, also playing in an SFA tour of North America in 1935 and in one wartime international in 1944.