Henry Edward Hibbs was an English football goalkeeper who played for Birmingham and England in the 1920s and 1930s. His uncle and cousinHubert Pearson and Harold Pearsonwere also both professional players.
Playing career
Hibbs was born in Wilnecote, Staffordshire and, whilst training as a plumber, played for his local club sides Wilnecote Holy Trinity and Tamworth Castle, who had some torrid seasons in the Birmingham and District Football League. Despite this, Hibbs came to the attention of Birmingham when he was 17 years of age, and impressed so much in trials that he was offered professional forms in May 1924. Among such club legends as Frank Womack and Joe Bradford, Hibbs became a regular feature of Billy Beer's side, but it was a barren period in the club's history. Leslie Knighton's arrival from Bournemouth in 1928 signalled an improvement in fortunes for both Hibbs and Birmingham. Hibbs was part of an FA tour to South Africa and made three appearances for the Football League XI. His form on the FA tour earned him a call up for England, and he was selected to play Wales at Stamford Bridge on 20 November 1929. England won the match 6–0, with a hat-trick from George Camsell He was selected for the "Professionals" in the 1929 FA Charity Shield, but missed the game due to an injury. Prior to Hibbs's debut, the England selectors had tried 21 different goalkeepers in the nine years since Sam Hardy's retirement in 1920. Hibbs was almost a "carbon copy" of Hardy, unspectacular but highly reliable, preferring to do everything in as simple a manner as possible, a style that was to see him become England's most capped goalkeeper up to that time, as he was selected 25 times for England, becoming a main-stay well into the mid-1930s. Birmingham reached the FA Cup final in 1931, in which they lost 2–1 to a strong West Bromwich Albion side. Hibbs' cousin, Harold Pearson, who played on the winning side in the Cup Final, was selected to play for England against Scotland on 9 April 1932 in what would be his only full international appearance. After over 389 games, his career with Birmingham came to an end a little while into the start of the Second World War. His testimonial came against cross-city rivals Aston Villa on 13 April 1940, in the first Wartime benefit game.
