George Robledo, The Way A Toon Army See Him

Today, when digging up my old articles from the early days of Magpies Zone on my computer, I found this interesting article about letters from someone in the past which I don’t know if he still alive now, or remember that he ever contacted me about our legendary player George Robledo.

My reaction for his first letter is very interested, as you know I’m collecting all the rare information about anything related to Newcastle United and the players. So I have quick reply him that day and get as quick second email respond from David. But unfortunately there’re only twice encounters between us, since then I have lost all my emails on my old email provider.

If you ever read this again David, his son, or someone else who is having relationship with Mr. David Kemp, please give him my warm greeting as an old friend. I’d love to hear from him again and still waiting for the photographs. Thanks!

The First Encounter, September 12, 2001

I have sent this info to the club and the match day prog but nobody seems interested and I just want the Toon Army to know about it. My son recently went on holiday to Chile with his girlfriend who is half Chilean. I asked him to see if he could find George Robledo’s grave as I thought I could remember that he died out there.

As lads in the early fifties he and his brother seemed amazingly exotic to us and he has always been one of my all time heroes. To cut a long story short they did eventually find the grave in a mausoleum for former football stars in the main cemetery in Santiago.

They left flowers and a message in Spanish saying that he would always be remembered in the Toon. They also took photographs of the grave. Is anybody interested? I cannot believe that I am the only Mag who remembers one of our greatest ever players.

The Secound Encounter, date unknown but still in the same year of 2001

I have been in touch with my son, who works in London to see about getting you the photographs and will let you have them as soon as possible. Robledo was one of two brothers who played for us from 1949 to 1953. Ted was a right half and an average player.

In to-day’s terms he was a squad player rather than a regular, but George was the real star. He scored 39 goals in one season, including the only goal when we beat Arsenal in the Cup Final in 1952. He and Milburn were a great combination. He was strong, quick, quite small, but thick set and very difficult to knock off the ball.

He had a wonderful eye for the goal and never knew when he was beaten. In a team of stars, he shone brighter than most and as a South American he stood out. Virtually every player in England was British at that time, so he had an air of glamour and the exotic about him.

Black hair, olive skin, different features, foreign name, he seemed like someone from another world to us. I think we signed the two brothers from Barnsley, and I believe that his father was Chilean and his mother from Yorkshire, but I am not so sure about that. Certainly his second name was Oliver, which may have been his mother’s maiden name.

I have never forgotten him and when I knew my son James was going to Chile with his girlfriend on holiday, I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. I asked them to see if they could try to find his grave as I was pretty certain he had returned to Chile and I thought I had read of his death in The Journal.

I contacted the Chilean football websites and was advised to try searching the main cemetery in Santiago. I also discovered that Robledo was a great hero in Chile, one of their all -time top 20 players.

David Kemp
Centre for Education Management
http://www.ceduman.co.uk