Coley, George – Leading figure in the chess world

George Coley (1866 – 1941)

George Coley, was the oldest employee of the Grantham Journal – he worked for them for 55 years – and was also a leading figure in the chess world.

During the 3,600 weeks had been employed on the Journal up to 1935, his longest absence from work was a fortnight through illness. and even during those two weeks he maintained the chess column.

A native of South Derbyshire, Mr. Coley was a member of the British Chess Problem Society and sole adjudicator in two their tournaments. He was, in 1935, engaged with a colleague in judging the international composing tournament for the British Chess Federation.

One of his greatest achievements in connection with chess was the telephone match in 1936 which he promoted.

It was unique occasion for Lincolnshire as the match was played from the Grantham side in the Journal offices, against the Athenaeum Club, London.

The then Mayor of Grantham, Coun Arthur Eatch, made the first move on each board as the messages were received. Grantham won by 7-6.

He began his chess column in about 1890 for two or three years.

With the demise of the old town chess club, this feature disappeared from the paper until March 11th, 1922.

From that time, under Mr Coley’s direction, it attained a world-wide reputation, and in about 1935, he promoted the 8th international composing tournament, which was featured in the Journal and judged by the leading problemists of the world.

He managed to set his 1,215th chess problem of the series when the column was again suspended in July 1940 for the duration of the war, along with all other features.

Unfortunately, he did not survive the war.