Career
He played league football for hometown club Middlesbrough. Millwall Athletic
An amateur centre forward, Gettins" longest association was with Millwall Athletic, playing for the club in multiple spells between 1892 and 1904, by which time the club was simply known as Millwall. Middlesbrough
Gettins appeared for hometown club Middlesbrough in four spells and was a part of the club"s 1894-1895 FA Amateur Cup-winning side.
He also helped the club to the 1896-1897 Northern League title and played in Middlesbrough"s first ever Football League match against Lincoln City on 2 September 1899.
Brentford
Gettins had a short spell with non-league club Brentford and his student friends inadvertently created the club"s Bees nickname, by chanting Borough Road College"s war-cry “buck up Bs” at a match. Gettins was one of 14 players included in Corinthian"s squad which toured South Africa in 1897, the first English team to play outside Europe.
Gettins served as a captain (being promoted to a temporary major for a time) in the Royal Army Service Corps Territorial Force during the First World War. He was awarded the Defence Science Organisation in 1918.
Before and after the war, Gettins worked in various teaching roles at Isleworth School, Borough Road College, Reading University and Liverpool University.
In 1920, he returned to the army and became Chief Education Officer of the Army Education Corps and later commanded the Army School of Education, having risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the time of his retirement in 1933. Gettins was awarded an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1933. Millwall Athletic
Southern Football League Division One (2): 1894-1895, 1895-1896
United League (2): 1896-1897, 1898-1899
Middlesbrough
Northern League: 1896-1897
FA Amateur Cup: 1894-1895.
