Dixie Dean - Early Years

Early Years

Dean was born at 325 Laird Street in Birkenhead, Cheshire, a town on the Wirral Peninsula on the opposite side of the River Mersey from Liverpool. Dean's family on both sides hailed from Chester. He was the grandson of Ralph Brett, a train driver who drove the royal train during the reign of George V. Dean grew up as a supporter of Everton thanks to the efforts of his father, William Sr., who took him to a match during the 1914–1915 title-winning season.

Dean's childhood coincided with the First World War, and between the ages of 7 and 11 he delivered cow's milk to local families as part of the "war effort: "Well, it was war time you see, so you were grafting all the time. I used to take milk out. I’d be up at half-past four in the morning and go down and get the ponies and the milk floats, then I’d come out to this place in Upton, between Upton and Arrowe Park, and Burgess’ Farm was there. We used to collect the milk in the big urns and take it out to people’s houses, serving it out of the ladle. And not only that, you had an allotment, and that was in school time. And there was no such thing as pinching and stealing and all that bloody caper. In those days, you were growing all that stuff and you needed it for the war time."

Dean attended Laird Street School, but felt he received no formal education: "My only lesson was footballI used to give the pens out on Friday afternoons...the ink, and the chalks. That was the only job I had in schoolI never had any lessons." When he turned 11 he attended Albert (Memorial) Industrial school, a borstal school in Birkenhead, because of the football facilities on offer. The Dean family home had little room for him due to the family's size; Dean was happy with the arrangement, since he could play on the school's football team. Dean falsely told fellow pupils he had been caught stealing, since he wanted to be "one of the boys".

He left school at 14 and worked for Wirral Railway as an apprentice fitter; his father also worked there, and had been working since he was 11 years old for Great Western Railway. The elder Dean later became a train driver before moving to Birkenhead to work for Wirral Railway, to be closer to his future wife (and William Jr.'s mother) Sarah. Dean's father would later retire with the company.

Dean took a night job so that he could concentrate on his first love, football: "The other two apprentice fitters, they didn’t like the night job because there were too many bloody rats around there, coming out of the Anglo-oil company and the Vacamoil company...rats as big as whippets. So I took their night job, and of course, I could always have a game of football then." Dean would kick the trespassing rats against the wall.

The sons of Dean's manager at Wirral Railway were directors of New Brighton A.F.C., and they were interested in signing Dean. However, Dean told the club he was not interested in signing and instead played for local team Pensby United in Pensby. It was at Pensby United where Dean attracted the attention of a Tranmere Rovers scout.