Harry Burrows

Henry "Harry" Burrows was born on 17 March 1941 in Haydock, Lancashire. As a schoolboy and youth-club footballer around Wigan he drew interest from First Division clubs. In later interviews he recalled turning down early approaches, including from Wolves under Stan Cullis, because he was set on a trade. He told the Stoke Sentinel he began an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator with his father and at first preferred part-time football so he could keep the craft. Wikipedia also records an apprenticeship path connected with the National Coal Board at Haydock; both strands describe a working-class start that almost kept him out of the full-time game.

Aston Villa offered a trial after a friend had gone there. Manager Joe Mercer persuaded him to sign part-time in March 1958. Burrows made his first-team debut in the 1959-60 season as Villa won the Second Division title. He was still a teenager when Mercer talked his father into allowing a full-time contract after he had already made the grade. Within a year he was a regular. In 1961 he played and scored as Villa beat Rotherham United in the two-legged final of the inaugural Football League Cup, helping turn around a first-leg deficit to win 3-2 on aggregate. Villa reached the League Cup final again two years later but lost to Birmingham City. Burrows finished as Villa's top league scorer in 1961-62 and 1962-63, won an England under-23 cap against Greece, and built a reputation as a pacy outside-left with a ferocious left-foot shot.

Mercer's departure unsettled him. The abolition of the maximum wage, a looming marriage, and a refused £5 rise after he had been leading scorer and an England U23 international pushed him toward the exit. On transfer deadline day in March 1965, his 24th birthday, Tony Waddington signed him for Stoke City for £27,000. Mirrorpix photographs show him signing with his wife Susan beside him. He moved to Alsager and settled on the left wing at the Victoria Ground.

At Stoke he became "Cannonball" Harry. Teammate Terry Conroy later recalled that his shot was once measured harder than Peter Lorimer's, with Burrows at 71 mph to Lorimer's 70. Training free-kicks became a joke among teammates who scrambled out of the wall. Fans in the Boothen paddock chanted his name. He scored 17 league goals in 1966-67, was joint top league scorer in 1967-68 with 15, and top-scored again in 1969-70 with 14. In December 1966 he scored a hat-trick against former club Villa in a 6-1 Stoke win. He was a near-automatic penalty taker, aiming low into the same corner of the net. Across all competitions Stoke records and contemporary reporting place him among the club's most productive forwards of the Waddington era; Wikipedia career tables list 245 league appearances and 68 league goals for Stoke, with higher all-competition totals.

Those Stoke sides challenged for major honours. Burrows played through back-to-back FA Cup semi-final campaigns against Arsenal; he later called leading 2-0 before going out one of his biggest disappointments. Knee trouble cost him most of 1971-72, the season Stoke won the League Cup, though he said it was "marvellous" to be on the bench and watch the triumph. He spoke warmly of teammates Gordon Banks, George Eastham, Dennis Viollet, Jimmy McIlroy, and of briefly overlapping with the retiring Stanley Matthews.

In summer 1973 Stoke released him on a free transfer. He joined Plymouth Argyle, helped them win promotion to the Second Division in 1974-75, then retired as the knee and other injuries made continuing impossible. He had become an FA-qualified coach but chose a clean break from the game. Back in Staffordshire he worked in a fabric business, kept the Rising Sun in Scholar Green for twelve years, then ran the Abbots Bromley post office. He served as president of Abbots Bromley Stags and still turned out in charity matches. Into later life he remained close to Stoke old boys, rarely missing Tuesday walks around Trentham Lakes until about a month before his death.

Harry Burrows died on 9 September 2026, aged 85. Stoke City called him an iconic former forward. Aston Villa also paid tribute. Conroy, Pejic, and Old Boys chairman John Ruggiero remembered not only the left foot but a genial, humorous teammate "nobody ever had a bad word to say about." He is survived by Susan and their children Andrew, Christopher, and Wendy.

This memorial is for the English footballer Harry (Henry) Burrows of Aston Villa, Stoke City, and Plymouth Argyle only. It is not Bradley Burrowes (living Aston Villa youth, different spelling), other UK funeral-notice men named Harry Burrows, or basketball highlight reels titled Harry Burrows.