C. Aubrey Smith

C. Aubrey Smith

A slight detour this time. Not football cards, but cards of a famous gentleman who also achieved a little bit of success as a footballer. Some of you may recognise the British actor shown on the two cards above. The coloured card was issued by Nestlé and is the large version.
He played in the F.A. Cup Semi-Final in 1885 for Old Carthusians (formed some years earlier by former pupils of Charterhouse School).
Here's a little of what wikipedia has to say about him...
Sir Charles Aubrey Smith CBE (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948), known to film-goers as C. Aubrey Smith, was an England Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, notably in The Prisoner of Zenda. In Hollywood, he organised English actors into a cricket team, playing formal matches that much intrigued local spectators.
Smith was born in London, England, and educated at Charterhouse School and St John's College, Cambridge. He settled in South Africa to prospect for gold in 1888-89. While there he developed pneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors. He married Isabella Wood in 1896.
Smith has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1933, he was on the first board of the Screen Actors Guild.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1938 and was knighted by King George VI in 1944 for services to Anglo-American amity.
You'll find the full text here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Aubrey_Smith
There are many postcards issued covering his film career, here are the known cigarette cards that were issued.

1932  ..  Cinema Artistes  ..  British American Tobacco Co.  ..  10.  C. Aubrey Smith
1932  ..  Artistes de Cinema  ..  British American Tobacco Co.  ..  10.  C. Aubrey Smith
1932  ..  Anon (Cinema Artistes) - untitled / unnumbered  ..  Westminster Tobacco Co. Ltd.  ..  C. Aubrey Smith
1932  ..  Cinema Artistes (Westminster Tobacco) - anon, titled  ..  British American Tobacco Co.  ..  10.  C. Aubrey Smith

1936  ..  Stars of the Silver Screen (small)  ..  Nestlé (United Kingdom)  ..  37.  C. Aubrey Smith

1936  ..  Stars of the Silver Screen (large)  ..  Nestlé (United Kingdom)  ..  37.  C. Aubrey Smith

1936  ..  Estrellas de Cine  ..  Nestlé (Argentina, Peru, Spain)  ..  37.  C. Aubrey Smith
1930's  ..  Film Stars (Postcards)  ..  Picturegoer  ..  790.  C. Aubrey Smith
1930's  ..  Film Stars (Postcards)  ..  Film Weekly  ..  C. Aubrey Smith