David Samuel – The QPR Player That Was Lucky To Survive a Shooting Accident in 1949.

On 30th December 1949, the Willesden Chronicle reported that a young QPR amateur had been seriously injured in a gun accident in South Wales:

‘David Samuel, 16-year-old Queen’s Park Rangers amateur left-half was seriously injured in a gun accident near his home at Swansea on Tuesday. Samuel was apparently out shooting when he tripped and accidently let off his shotgun. He received serious chest injuries and was taken to Swansea hospital. He is a former Welsh International schoolboy footballer and with his team mates, Davies and Williams, joined the Rangers in July. He was at one time apprenticed as a carpenter at a Shepherd’s Bush firm and then worked on the Loftus Road ground staff. Mr Dave Mangnall, Manager of QPR, who travelled to Swansea to see Samuel yesterday (Thursday), said on Wednesday: “He became homesick recently and we sent him home for the holidays. He was expected back at Loftus Road in a few days and his mother wrote and asked me to fix him up with lodgings. He has played regularly this season for our “A” team.”

I also have a newspaper cutting that refers to him as Allan Samuel, aged 17 and that Rangers signed him as a 16-year-old ? It goes on to say that he was out on a lonely shooting expedition when the trigger of his gun caught in a twig and he ended up wounded in the abdomen. He then had to crawl and drag himself a mile across fields and ditches to get help. He later told his mother: “I felt I just had to get to that main road or I knew I was finished.” It would seem that he was very lucky to escape with his life. I wonder what happened to him ?

Steve Russell

One thought on “David Samuel – The QPR Player That Was Lucky To Survive a Shooting Accident in 1949.

  1. One very lucky person there thats for sure.

    I dont know what happened to him but I dont think he made it into the first team..I will check out my records because after all it was well before my time!…honest! lol

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