Former West Ham United winger Peter Brabrook has passed away at the age of 79.
Peter Brabrook was born in Greenwich on the 8th November 1937 and joined Chelsea from school before making his debut as a 17-year-old on the 29th March 1955 in a 2-1 home win over Sunderland. He made three appearances in the side which won the 1954/55 First Division title and went on to score his first goal for the club in a 2-1 defeat at Blackpool on the 5th September 1955.
At the age of 20, Brabrook became the youngest member of England’s 1958 World Cup squad (less than a month younger than Bobby Charlton) and made his international debut in the play-off against the Soviet Union. He won three caps in total for his country, all while he was at Stamford Bridge. He also scored against future employers West Ham at the Boleyn Ground on the 6th February 1960, although the Hammers still ran out 4-2 winners. His final goal for Chelsea came in a 2-2 home draw with Ipswich on 21st April 1962 and his last appearance for the club was a week later, in a 1-1 draw at Burnley. Brabrook made 271 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea, scoring 57 goals.
Brabrook signed for West Ham United at the age of 24 in October 1962 for a fee of £35,000. He made his debut on 22nd October 1962 in a 1-1 home draw with Burnley in the First Division and scored his first goal for the club in his sixth appearance, in a 3-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday on the 24th November 1962. That was the first of a spell that saw the winger score four goals in six matches, with a further strike sealing a point in a 1-1 draw at Everton before he bagged a brace in a 4-3 win at Nottingham Forest four days after Christmas 1962. Brabrook ended the 1962/63 season with seven goals from 34 appearances.
His first full campaign in claret and blue was arguably the most memorable – he played 51 games, scored 12 goals and won the FA Cup. He notched doubles in the 4-2 home win over Everton on 19th October 1963 and in the 5-0 rout of Birmingham on 17th April 1964. He was a more modern winger to those who had gone before him, reasonably quick still but bigger-built and with a greater fondness to cut inside. Brabrook played in every round as the Hammers marched to the FA Cup Final and scored a crucial goal in the 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient in the fourth round. In the last seconds of the Final against Preston, it was from Brabrook’s right-wing cross that Ronnie Boyce headed home to seal a 3-2 win and bring the Cup to east London for the first time.
1964/65 proved to be a stop-start season for Brabrook as he made just 25 appearances and all four of his goals were scored before the end of October. He had started to pick up a number of injuries and Alan Sealey was to replace him for most of the European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign, famously scoring both goals in the Final.
Brabrook returned to fitness and form in 1965/66, scoring 12 goals in 50 matches. He went on a run in November/December 1965 of scoring five goals in 11 games (the first in a 2-1 home win over former club Chelsea) and three goals in five games followed in February/March 1966. The 28-year-old Brabrook could even have been a contender for an England recall for the 1966 World Cup, were it not for the form of Manchester United’s John Connelly and Southampton’s Terry Paine.
1966/67 got off to an action-packed start with Brabrook scoring twice in an early 5-4 defeat at Leicester on 27th August. He followed that up with another goal two days later in a 2-2 home draw with Arsenal. Only two further goals were to follow in this campaign but both were against London rivals as Brabrook notched in a 4-3 win at Tottenham in November and again in a 5-5 draw at Chelsea the following month.
Brabrook scored in each of his last two matches at the Boleyn Ground, in a 3-0 triumph over Sheffield United on 2nd December 1967 and in a 3-2 defeat to West Brom nine days later. His final Hammers appearance came at the age of 30 in a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United on the 6th January 1968. After 215 appearances and 43 goals in all competitions for West Ham United, Brabrook signed for Leyton Orient, with whom he stayed until his retirement from playing in 1971.
After retiring, Brabrook coached West Ham’s schoolboys in a part-time role for many years before joining full-time in the mid-1990s when former team-mate and fellow winger Harry Redknapp became first-team manager. He ran the Under-17s as part of Tony Carr’s youth set-up, helping to develop the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard Junior, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole – indeed, Cole thought so much of Brabrook that he paid for his former youth coach to have two knee replacement operations in 2008. Having spent much of the previous 40 years at the club as both player and coach, Brabrook officially retired from West Ham United in May 2002, although continued to do some scouting work for the club.
Brabrook spoke about his FA Cup medal and England caps with EX magazine in the video below.
Former team-mate Harry Redknapp said earlier today: “Sad to hear that my big pal Peter Brabrook passed away on Saturday night. Peter was a special, special character, a great player. I took him back to West Ham where he helped coach that special youth team that we had over a period of years with Tony Carr, he did a great job with the kids for me and Peter never had a bad bone in his body, I never heard him say a bad word about anybody. He was just a fantastic man and I’ll miss him an awful lot”.
Peter Brabrook passed away on Saturday 10th December at the age of 79. I am sure all WHTID readers will join me in sending condolences and best wishes to Peter’s family and friends at this sad time.