West Ham United have fielded 44 full England internationals in the Club's 127-year history.
The first was George Webb, a centre-forward who scored on his debut in a 3-0 win over Wales at The Den in south London in March 1911. The most recent was Jarrod Bowen, who featured four times in the UEFA Nations League in June this year.
In between, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters led England to the FIFA World Cup in 1966 - and it is one of their West Ham teammates who made his one and only appearance for the Three Lions on 18 November 1959, exactly 63 years ago.
Ken Brown was born in Forest Gate in February 1934 and was a pupil at Lymington Secondary Modern School in Dagenham. On leaving, he joined Dagenham and District League side Neville United, and it was whilst playing for them on the British Legion ground against a West Ham junior team that he was spotted by Hammers manager Ted Fenton.
Fenton signed Brown on professional forms on 16 October 1951 and he quickly progressed through the London Mid-week League to making his Football Combination debut on Christmas Day 1951.
His emergence along with a new crop of players in the early 1950s, such as John Bond, Jimmy Andrews, Dave Sexton and Malcolm Musgrove, led to a new era of more youthful faces making their mark in the first team.
Brown followed a long line of great West Ham centre-halves in George Kay, Jim Barrett, Dick Walker and Malcolm Allison and made his Second Division debut in the 1-1 draw against Rotherham United at Millmoor on 21 February 1953, whilst still serving in the Army on National Service.
After being demobbed, Brown became a stalwart in the heart of the defence in the 1957/58 promotion campaign. He then became the second-ever recipient of the Hammer of the Year award in 1959, having helped Fenton’s side to a sixth-place finish in the First Division.
A few short months later, the 25-year-old was elated when he was chosen to play for his country in a 2-1 victory over Northern Ireland at Wembley Stadium on 18 November 1959 - becoming West Ham's first England international since Jackie Morton was capped in 1937, 22 years previously.
Hibernian teenager Joe Baker put England in front, but Billy Bingham's 89th-minute goal appeared to have snatched Northern Ireland a draw, only for debutant Ray Parry of Bolton Wanderers to pop up with an even later winner for the home side.
Sadly, despite the result, this would be Brown's only cap, but the 88-year-old has the distinction of knowing he is a full England international but the only Hammer to have won a Second Division title, the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
