He also mentions in the same interview that he sat with Gina Lollobrigida on his flight to Jersey for the 1960 Muratti and that he thinks he did not get the F.A. Cup Final as he gave the wrong response to a freemasons handshake from an F.A. Official
Thanks for those recollections re Gilbert Pullin. I'm not sure that he was ever that close to refereeing an FA Cup Final and the profile of games I've seen for him is fairly mainstream. Of course it's always possible that a potentially high-flying career might come a cropper early on due to someone antagonising influential people so an apparent journeyman might actually have deserved better things. it's also possible for for a fairly unremarkable individual to be pushed forward because they are in the favour of those with influence. It's also true though that sometimes individuals use these sorts of claims of unfair influence or favour without good reason - "the face fits" and "not what you know but who you know" are maxims which are often justified but also sometimes used as excuses. Certainly though one gets the impression that refereeing progress in the more distant past was often haphazard, capricious and occasionally not based on merit with Final appointments in particular often related to lobbying rather than performance. Whatever the reality there are many fascinating tales that past referees could tell.