Fred Keenor

Fred Keenor

Frederick Charles Keenor played for Cardiff City, Crewe Alexandra, Oswestry Town and Tunbridge Wells Rangers. He won four Welsh Cup titles, the FA Cup and the FA Charity Shield in a 19-year association with the club. Keenor also won 32 caps for the Wales national football team. He is regarded as one of the club’s all-time greats.

About Fred Keenor in brief

Summary Fred KeenorFrederick Charles Keenor was a Welsh professional footballer. He played for Cardiff City, Crewe Alexandra, Oswestry Town and Tunbridge Wells Rangers. He won four Welsh Cup titles, the FA Cup and the FA Charity Shield in a 19-year association with the club. Keenor also won 32 caps for the Wales national football team. He is regarded as one of the club’s all-time greats. A statue of him was erected outside Cardiff’s new ground, the Cardiff City Stadium, in November 2012 following a public fundraising campaign. His death in 1972 was announced by the Football Association of Wales, who described him as ‘one of the greatest players and greatest characters ever produced by Wales’ He is buried at St Mary’s Cemetery, Cardiff, with the rest of his family. He died of a heart attack at the age of 83. He was buried with his wife and three children in Cardiff, Wales, on July 31, 1972. His funeral was held at St Andrew’s Church in Cardiff on July 28, 1972, with a service to be held on the same day at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Cardiff. He also had a memorial service at St James’ Park in the city, which he attended as a child. He had a son, John, who died in a car crash in 2007. He has a daughter, Charlotte, who was born in Cardiff in 1978. He retired from football in 1986. He later became a coach and coach-in-chief at Cardiff City. He coached Cardiff City’s women’s team until his retirement in 1988. He went on to become a coach at Cardiff United and a football coach at the University of Wales at Cardiff.

His son, Jonathan, is also a footballer and has played for a number of clubs, including Cardiff City and Brentford. He served in the 17th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, led by Major Frank Buckley, which became known as the Football Battalion. He fought in the Battle of the Somme, suffering a severe shrapnel wound to his thigh in 1916. He returned to the game with Cardiff as they embarked on the most successful period in their history. He helped the club to the 1925 FA Cup Final, in which Cardiff suffered a 1–0 defeat to Sheffield United. In 1926, he replaced the departing Jimmy Blair as club captain, leading the team to success in the 1927 FA Cup final later in the season, inwhich they defeated Arsenal 1–1. He captained the side on numerous occasions, scoring two goals. He led the side to an undefeated season to win the local schools division in 1908. He joined Cardiff City in 1912 after impressing in a trial match in local amateur football for Cardiff-based side Roath Wednesday. In 1912, he was offered an amateur contract by the club as the club was looking to establish itself as a professional team. The club’s amateur side competed in the Southern Football League and Keenor appeared several times in games in the Western Football League. He said he did not think twice about playing for the club after a match against Camerton.