George Mahon was probably the most significant figure in the birth of the present-day Everton F.C. in that it was he who led the negotiations with John Houlding regarding the club’s tenure at Anfield and was the driving force behind the move to Goodison Park and the subsequent development of the club’s unmatched financial strength.
Born in Liverpool, he spent much of his childhood living in his father’s native Dublin, returning to Liverpool in the 1860’s and living at 108 Field Street L3. His father Robert, a shoemaker by trade, took a job as a bookkeeper and George followed his lead to become a very successful accountant, a partner in the firm of Roose, Mahon and Howorth in North John Street. Like many of those associated with Everton as administrators in the club’s early years he came from a Nonconformist background, playing the organ at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Great Homer Street. A Liberal supporter of Irish Home Rule, he was elected to the Walton Local Board. The fact that John Houlding was a prominent Tory and Unionist no doubt further fuelled the enmity which existed between the two men.
He first became involved with Everton in 1886 and was Chairman at the time of the dispute with Houlding and the move to Mere Green, later to be named Goodison Park. At the time of his death in 1908 the Liverpool Mercury referred to him as “practically the originator of the present Everton Football Club ….. the mastermind who carried through negotiations that have resulted in the acquisition of one of the finest football sites in the country, and the formation of what is practically the most prosperous organisation of the kind in the world.”
George Mahon's home in the 1890's
There is a useful summary of Mahon's life in Wikipedia. The Liverpool Mercury article reporting his death is reproduced on the Play up Liverpool website. Mahon features fairly prominently in David Kennedy's study Merseyside's Old Firm: The Sectarian Roots of Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs. [Amazon 2019]
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