Links With The Past: Dai Jones' Wales Shirt Crest & Cap

Heritage
07 Feb 2024
1 Minute
Signed from Clapton Orient for a fee of £250 in May 1933, Wales international full-back Dai Jones made nearly 300 appearances for Leicester City between 1933 and 1947, despite missing five seasons during the Second World War when he served in the RAF.

The Club has recently acquired much of Dai’s memorabilia, including this Wales shirt crest and Wales cap. The Football Association of Wales shirt crest was worn by Dai in one of his seven international matches at a time when the Dragons were riding high, winning the annual British Home Championship in 1933, 1934 and 1937. 

His international debut was in a 4-1 victory over Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in Belfast in November 1933. All seven of his international appearances were against the home countries of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This was because the first time that Wales played a country other than the home nations was in May 1939 when they played France in Paris. 

Dai won the international cap in the 1935/36 season when he played in a 2-1 victory against England at Molineux on 5 February and in a 3-2 defeat by Northern Ireland at Celtic Park in Belfast a month later. His Leicester City team-mate Sep Smith played for England that season, but not in the match against Wales. 

Dai’s seventh and final international appearance was in a 4-1 victory over Northern Ireland in March 1937 at Wrexham.