When Argentina lifted the World Cup in 2022 and retained the Copa America in 2024, the roots of their success were traced back to a Scottish pioneer, Alexander Watson Hutton.
   He overcame tragedy and challenges in his early life to be celebrated as the 'father of Argentine football' thanks to his work in establishing the game as a national obsession. Having set up a football league in 1893, then created a dominant football club, Hutton's footballing story is fairly well known (more so in Argentina than his native land, it has to be said) but his life in Scotland remains something of an enigma.
   That prompted me to research the formative years of a boy orphaned before he was five years old, his entire family wiped out by disease, who found his vocation in education and sport.
   Hutton's life events detailed below shed light on his family, childhood, school, university and early teaching career.

Family origins

Alexander Watson Hutton was the second son of Robert Hutton, a grocer, and Helen (or Ellen) Watson. His parents were originally from the Dunfermline area in Fife but Robert moved to Glasgow in the 1840s to work as a grocer at the heart of the bustling Gorbals community of Laurieston, just south of the River Clyde in Glasgow. In time he opened his own shops, first in Bedford Street, then Norfolk Street and Nicholson Street.
   Meanwhile Helen had been living with her family in Edinburgh, but after she married Robert on 12 November 1850 they set up home in the Gorbals in a tenement flat at 29 Eglinton Street. At first, everything went well: their first son, also Robert, was born in August 1851, while the grocery business prospered. Robert Hutton was able to employ shop staff and he opened a new outlet at 55 Eglinton Street, just along from the family home.

Their second son Alexander was born on 10 June 1853 at number 29, although it is no longer standing as few original buildings in that area have survived. His birthplace was demolished in the 1970s as part of the great Gorbals slum clearance which transformed (some would say destroyed) the area; it is approximately where Bridge Street Underground station now stands.
   He was baptised the following month at Eglinton Street United Secession Church, which has also gone: it was converted to a cinema in 1921 and then destroyed by fire in 1932; it is now the site of the O2 Academy.
 
Multiple tragedies
​
Fate dealt the first cruel blow to the family as Robert Hutton fell seriously ill with tuberculosis and had to give up his shops. In January 1855 he moved with his wife and sons to live near Helen's family in Edinburgh, but it was a lost cause and he died there on 25 February. In an extraordinary twist of fate, the following day Helen gave birth to their third son, George.
   Alexander, then just 20 months old, would never return to Glasgow as his father's death marked the start of a series of tragedies to hit the family. Younger brother George died aged 2 in May 1857, then his mother succumbed in January 1858, both from tuberculosis. They were buried together with Robert at Warriston Cemetery, although there is no headstone.
   This left Alexander and his brother Robert as orphans, and they were taken under the wing of their grandmother (Helen's mother), Helen Bowman Watson who lived in Logie Green in Edinburgh. Sadly, the arrangement did not last long as she too died of tuberculosis early in 1862.

On his ninth birthday in 1862, Alexander followed Robert into Daniel Stewart's Hospital, which was then a charitable boarding school for about 60 destitute boys. When he was admitted school records show that he 'could read words of two syllables easily' while his 'cautioner' was his uncle, George Hutton of Cupar.
   The Hutton brothers did well at the school, with Robert being a medallist in 1866, and Alexander was never to forget its positive influence; in the 1920s he endowed the Robert Hutton Prize for Modern Languages in memory of his brother, and also created a similar prize in his own name at George Watson's College.
   Alexander left Daniel Stewart's in 1867 when he turned 14, with a solid grounding that would enable him to embark on adult life. He is recorded in the 1871 census as an apprentice grocer - the same trade as his father - but then switched his focus to education. That may have been prompted by the death of his brother Robert, who had been living with his uncle George in Cupar where he worked as a clerk but succumbed to tuberculosis and died in October 1871. Alexander was now the only survivor of the entire family.

Alexander appears to have taken a teaching diploma as by 1874 he was advertising his services as a teacher of shorthand and in December was appointed to a full-time post at George Watson's College Junior School. Perhaps it helped his application that the headmaster of Watson's was George Ogilvie, who had been head teacher of Daniel Stewart's Hospital during his time there. Regardless, he had found his vocation and he would flourish in the role.
 
A new family

Equally importantly, he also found a new family in Edinburgh.
   By 1871 he was lodging in Brown Square, off Chambers Street, with Mrs Alexandrina Waters and her children Elizabeth, Catherine and William. Alexander became so close to the Waters family that when they moved in 1874 to 4 St Patrick Square, he joined them there and remained in the household until he emigrated. 
   After he went to Argentina the Waters family followed on and their lives remained intertwined in work, football and marriage: the teaching staff at the Buenos Aires English High School included Elizabeth and William, Mrs Waters was later on the staff as a house superintendent, and Catherine became his second wife.
 
University degree
 
Despite holding down a teaching job at George Watson's, Alexander was determined to further his own education and in 1877 he embarked on a four year Arts degree at Edinburgh University. It must have been a challenge to combine work with study, but he was helped by winning the Dundas Bursary which provided about £20 a year to fund his course.
   His progress at the university can be followed by the class results published in The Scotsman: in April 1878 he passed his exams in Mathematics, a year later in Mental Philosophy, then in 1881 he graduated with an MA in Philosophy, gaining Second Class Honours.

Eager to progress as a teacher now that he was better qualified, the opportunity came in November 1881 when a small advert appeared in The Scotsman: 'Headmaster wanted for the Scotch School in Buenos Ayres. Guaranteed salary £450 per annum.' He made an application to Professor SS Laurie of Edinburgh University and Alexander soon heard he had been appointed to the role that would change his life.
    Before he left, however, he needed a recruit. In December he placed his own advert for a female teacher to join the Scotch School as Infant, Junior and Sewing Mistress. The job went to Margaret Budge, also a teacher at George Watson's, and as he went on to marry her, the suspicion is that they were already close and he used the opportunity to ensure she could travel out with him.
   The last mention of Alexander in the local press came in mid-January when he advertised for sale a 50 inch Hillman & Herbert 'Premier' bicycle, which conjures up images of this pioneer riding round the streets of Edinburgh on his penny-farthing.
   Leaving his life in Scotland behind, he set sail for Argentina, arriving in Buenos Aires on 25 February 1882 to start work.
 
Football in Scotland
 
Despite uncovering so much detail of his early life, there is one thing missing: football. A detailed search of the Scottish press has so far failed to turn up any mention of him taking part in a football match, or indeed any kind of sport. Later interviews he gave in Argentina simply said that he played football as a young man in Scotland without giving any specifics, so he may have been enthusiastic but he was clearly not a top level player.
   In some respects it is curious that he was so passionate about football after an Edinburgh upbringing (he had no real connection to Glasgow apart from his birth). During his schooldays at Daniel Stewart’s there was no organised recreation for the boys, while George Watson's did have a sporting ethos but the emphasis was on rugby in the winter and athletics and cricket in summer. As he taught at the junior school, presumably he supervised recreation for the boys in his charge, but he had no recorded involvement in school sporting activities or team games.

​Life in Argentina
 
After two years at the Scotch School he left to found the English High School in 1884 where he had the opportunity to encourage sport for the pupils. He built an open air swimming pool and is said to have imported the first leather footballs to the country.
   In a lengthy interview he gave to El Grafico in 1933 to mark his 80th birthday, 'Alejandro' reminisced about the early days, and told how the balls were impounded by customs officials who demanded to know what they were for.
   That may have coincided with the arrival of William Waters to work at the school, which some accounts date to the summer of 1886 although he was already a member of staff the previous year. Born in 1865, William (known as Guillermo) certainly made an impact on the football field as he went on to captain St Andrews, winners of the country's first league competition, before his early demise in 1906.
    Also on the school staff was Margaret Budge, who Alexander married on 27 March 1885 at St Andrew's Church in Buenos Aires. They had three children: Arnold Pencliffe Watson Hutton 1886-1951 (who became a prominent footballer and an Argentina international), Edith Elena Watson Hutton 1888-1971 (married name Stocks), and Mabel Lilian Watson Hutton 1890-1979 (married name Mitchell).
   Margaret died in August 1893 of pancreatic cancer and Alexander remarried Catherine (or Kate) Waters on 19 June 1902, with no further children.
   By the time of his retirement from teaching in 1910, the English High School was said to be the largest, the best ventilated and the healthiest private school in Buenos Aires.
   While he remained in Buenos Aires, he retained close links to Scotland and returned several times for visits. He died on 9 March 1936, age 82, and was buried in British Cemetery at Chacarita, where his grave remains a place of pilgrimage for football fans.

Football legacy
 
Hutton's legacy as the 'father of Argentine football' relates to his prominent role in establishing the sport on a sound footing. In February 1893 he was appointed President of the relaunched Argentine Association Football League (an earlier attempt in 1891 had foundered with the death of the President, Frank Woolley), which later became the Argentine Football Association. Then in 1898 he backed the foundation of the English High School football team (later Alumni) which won the First Division ten times by 1910 before it was disbanded.
   The football fame of Alexander Watson Hutton belongs to his adopted country, and his impact can be explored in more detail through the links posted below. But his story really started back home in Scotland, and I hope this research contributes to a better understanding of the challenges he overcame. 

Further links and research
 
A film of his life, Escuela de Campeones, was made in 1950 (see poster below) and is available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmU3nD3y4Pc
 
A new book Alumni - El Mito [The Mythical Alumni] tells the story of Hutton's football club. Superbly illustrated, it is published in Argentina by Martin Emanuel de Vita who has made it available as a free download: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/3c5bfe5b66.html
 
Hutton first came to national notice in Scotland thanks to Dan Brennan's article in The Scotsman in 2008: https://www.scotsman.com/sport/argentine-football-returns-to-roots-of-its-scottish-founder-2474037
 
Scots Football Worldwide has a detailed account of Hutton and the other Scots who brought football to Argentina: https://www.scotsfootballworldwide.scot/argentina
 
In 2023 adidas launched the Argentum 1893 as the official ball in Argentina, in celebration of Hutton's legacy (pictured above). You can watch a short promo video here: https://x.com/GustavoYarroch/status/1691446667709390849
 
A memorial plaque, donated by the Argentina Football Association, is on display in the Scottish Football Museum: www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/the-scottish-trailblazer-who-paved-the-way-for-maradona-and-messi/
 
Alexander Watson Hutton is also commemorated on the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry: https://www.scottishdiasporatapestry.org/au03-alexander-watson-hutton/

A truly remarkable coincidence has brought together my own family history and the life of a Uruguayan football legend, a Scotsman called John Harley. 
   I was recently discussing with fellow historians the proposal to build a statue to John Harley at his birthplace in Cathcart, to the south of Glasgow. A fundraising campaign has now been launched to pay for a fitting memorial (see below).
   Although little known in Scotland, Harley is celebrated as 'El Reformador' in Uruguay for his influence in changing the style of the game there from the long ball to short passing in the traditional Scottish manner. It is a transition that is credited with taking Uruguay to two Olympic titles in 1924 and 1928, then to two World Cups in 1930 and 1950.
   On learning that Harley was born in Cathcart in 1886, a light bulb went on in my head as I recalled that my own grandfather, John Fowler Mitchell, was also born in 1886 and lived in Cathcart. I knew that somewhere in the family archive were some old school photos, and after a lengthy rummage I found no less than four class groups taken in the 1890s. Every single one of them features not only my grandfather but also a young John Harley. 
   The images on the four cabinet photos are still sharp, taken outside Cathcart Public School. And on the back of the cards, my prescient grandfather had taken the trouble to write down the names of everyone he could remember, creating a fantastic record of late Victorian schooling.

The earliest picture is dated June 1891 and shows the infant class of 4- and 5-year-old boys and girls with their teacher, Miss Minnie Christie. It was known as the 'tuppeny class' as the parents paid twopence a week for the children to attend. John Harley is sitting in the front row, wearing a sailor suit, and what makes this particularly interesting is that two months earlier he was recorded in the 1891 census as a patient at the Victoria Infirmary. Whatever was wrong with him, he had clearly recovered sufficiently to go to school by this time.

There are further class photos from 1893, 1895 and 1896, all of which include boys only, because they were taught separately from the girls.
   In each case, my grandfather wrote 'Jock' rather than John Harley which indicates he was on friendly terms. And that can be backed up by the fact that they lived in the same street, Holmhead Crescent - the Harleys at number 2, the Mitchells at number 6.
   Very likely they enjoyed football together. I have a recording of my grandfather talking about his childhood where he says one of his favourite activities was playing football in the street ('there wasn't much traffic then'), and I also recall him telling me that, as a boy, he sneaked into Hampden to watch Queen's Park take on the famous Corinthians.

From schooldays in Cathcart, their lives took different paths, to opposite sides of the world.
   Harley embarked on a career in railway engineering which took him to Springburn in north Glasgow, then to Argentina and finally Uruguay, where he spent the rest of his life. Others have researched and written about his life and football career, and a great place to start is the Scots Football Historians Group website.
   My grandfather, on the other hand, went on to secondary school at Allan Glen's in Glasgow before university in London and Glasgow, and a career in the Indian Civil Service. He did carry on playing football but it was of the rugby variety, appearing for his university teams. He died in 1984, aged 97. 

The move for a permanent memorial to John Harley has now been launched with an ambitious crowdfunding campaign. It will need private and corporate donations, as the aim is to raise £35,000 for a statue or bust near Harley's birthplace.
   The immediate area around Braehead in Cathcart has changed little since he was born there on 5 March 1886, next to the picturesque bridge where his grandfather worked at the Old Snuff Mill.
   A tribute to John Harley in Cathcart would celebrate his influence, like so many other 'Scotch professors', in taking Scottish football around the world. 

A fitting tribute to Scottish football pioneer Joseph Taylor was unveiled this week, following the restoration of his grave at Cathcart Cemetery in Glasgow.
   Taylor was one of the 'originals', a key member of the Scotland team that faced England in the world's first international match in 1872. He went on to play six times for Scotland, twice as captain, and also won the first three Scottish Cups with Queen's Park, the latter two as captain. On giving up playing he was elected President of Queen's Park and continued to guide the progress of the game until tragedy intervened and he was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis. He died aged just 37, leaving a wife and four children. 

I first visited the grave in 2012, tracking it down through the undergrowth as part of a project to trace the last resting places of the Scotland team from 1872. All of them are now known with the frustrating exception of the captain, Robert Gardner, as I wrote about a few years ago. 
   I was then contacted by Colin Taylor, a great grandson of Joseph who spotted my article, and we have been in regular contact over the years. To my delight, he told me that some of Joseph's prize possessions remained in the family, including his Scottish Cup medal from 1876 (pictured below).
   However, the grave was in a poor condition, leaning dangerously forward, hidden by ivy, and had lost the fleur-de-lys on top. It needed to be saved before it was too late, and a fundraiser last year raised over £1,000 for its restoration. There were contributions from a number of fans (the biggest from the West of Scotland Tartan Army) but fell short of the goal of £2,500, with the shortfall met by Joseph's descendants. The work took place over the winter.
   Colin Taylor and his cousin Alex were guests of the Scottish FA at the 150th anniversary match between Scotland and England last year, and this week they travelled back to Glasgow for the unveiling of the restored grave. It can now be safely visited and admired at Cathcart Cemetery, where it is in Section I, Lair 567.

Cathcart Cemetery is 'home' to an extraordinary number of Scottish football giants, some of which have now been restored in recognition of their importance to the game. You can read about them at the Scots Football Historians Group website, or with the Friends of Cathcart Cemetery.

Joseph Taylor
Profile from The Men Who Made Scotland

Born 16 December 1850; Wellington Street, Dunoon, Argyllshire.
Died 4 October 1888; Victoria Terrace, Mount Florida, Glasgow.

Son of a hotel keeper in Dunoon, Taylor grew up in the town and was successful locally as a runner, winning numerous athletic contests at the Cowal Gathering in 1869 and 1870. When he came to Glasgow to work around that time, he joined Queen's Park and they soon made use of his athleticism, speed and leadership on the football field. He was selected at full back for the first Scotland international in 1872 and retained his place every year until 1876, captaining the side twice against England. He also won the first three Scottish Cups, the latter two as team captain. According to DD Bone: 'No man who captained the Queen's Park was so much respected both on the field and in private life. None hated unfair or rough play more.' After giving up playing in 1877, still only 26 years old, he continued his involvement with the club and was elected President for 1878-79, while he worked as a clerk for a drapery wholesaler. Sadly, he was struck down with pleurisy and tuberculosis and although he went to New Zealand in an attempt to clear his lungs, it was to no avail. He returned home to Mount Florida and died there in 1888, aged 37, leaving a wife and four children. ​

Honours
Scotland v England 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875c, 1876c; Wales 1876.
Queen's Park player 1870-77 (Scottish Cup winner 1874, 1875c, 1876c).

I enjoyed taking part in the BBC Scotland documentary 'Bringing Football Home' which was presented by the actor Dougray Scott, who explained how Scotland's football pioneers laid the groundwork for the modern style of the game.
   The narrative follows the story over hundreds of years, starting with the oldest football in the world, through the Foot-Ball Club founded in 1824, the first international in 1872 and the 'Scotch Professors'. It then examined how Scottish football lost its way in the 20th century, while the passing game was exported around the world. 
   You can see the programme on BBC iPlayer and it is an entertaining hour.
   What made it different for me was discovering Dougray Scott's own personal link to football history, which he was unaware of despite being a lifelong football fan.
   He knew his father Allan had played for Queen's Park in the 1940s, although without making the first team. But what he did not know was that three members of the previous generation - his great uncles - were top referees, including one who holds a Scottish record to this day.
  He was given the name Dougray because it was his grandmother's maiden name. And the Dougray family, who hailed from the Barrhead area, had an amazing record as referees in the early years of the 20th century. Three brothers - James, Tom and John - all refereed at the highest level.

Of the three, Tom Dougray was outstanding. He was on the Scottish League list from 1908 to 1934, in which time he took charge of eight internationals, including four England v Scotland matches from 1920-26. Incredibly he refereed no less than 11 Scottish Cup finals, starting in 1910 with the Dundee v Clyde final and concluding in 1933 when Celtic beat Motherwell. In doing so, he set a record which will almost certainly never be broken.

There is a video of Tom Dougray in action on the Pathe News site. This still from the video shows him meeting the England and Scotland captains at Old Trafford in 1926, and then taking control of the game.
   Tom was following in the footsteps of his elder brother, James, who had just two years as a first division referee (1902-04) but left a lasting impression as one of the founders of Scotland's first Referee Association in 1903.

The third referee in the family was John, ten years younger than Tom, who made it onto the Scottish League list for four years in the 1920s. This created the unusual situation of having brothers appointed to referee matches on the same day.

And to finish with, I leave you with this anecdote about Tom Dougray being confronted by a razor-wielding fan in Edinburgh. The story was related in a local paper many years later so is hard to verify, but the writer claims to have witnessed the incident. The irony is that his assailant was a Hibs fan, as is Dougray Scott today!

The three refereeing brothers:
James Dougray (1877-1952)
Tom Dougray (1879-1964)
John Dougray (1889-1932)

Dougray Scott: Bringing Football Home is available to watch on BBC iPlayer at this link: ​www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wdny

She had one of the most evocative names in football. Historians have speculated for years about the identity of Nettie Honeyball, the iconic Victorian pioneer of women's football, and most concluded that her name was a clever pseudonym. But a startling new discovery indicates she really did exist.
   Honeyball was founder and captain of the British Ladies Football Club which launched in 1895. In response to intense media interest, the 'moving spirit of the lady footballers' gave interviews, posed for photos, and for a brief moment in time was known throughout the land. Then, just as suddenly, she vanished.
   She was such a significant character in the development of women's sport that she is celebrated for her contribution, yet she has proved frustratingly elusive. Not only was she invisible in official records, her name sounded implausible, and one Victorian writer described her name as 'singularly ominous and Dickensian'. Today, most sources will tell you that Honeyball was a made-up name, a cover for one of the other players.
   However, the mystery has just taken a dramatic twist and may have been solved thanks to a newly-digitised newspaper on the British Newspaper Archive. 

On 11 March 1896, the Morning Leader published a brief announcement: 'I am desired by Miss Nettie J Honeyball, the hon sec of the British Ladies Football Association, to state that her address is not now 27 Weston Park, Crouch End, but 56 Lillington Street, Belgravia, S.W., where all communications should be addressed.'
   This is the missing link historians have searched for, as the Lillington Street address was the home of Anne Honeyball, a single woman in her twenties who lived there with her widowed father. Surely she must be Nettie?
   There are so many tangents to the story of the British Ladies FC that the answer is not yet conclusive, as I will explain, but in many respects she fits the bill.
   Anne Jane Honeyball was born in 1867 in Pimlico, the younger daughter of Francis, a carpenter and cabinet maker, and his wife Emma.
   She was baptised (as Annie rather than Anne) in the nearby church of St James the Less, and is recorded at 56 Lillington Street in most subsequent censuses up to 1911 with her family. Two brothers appear to have died young, her elder sister Fanny married George Stubbles in 1882, her mother died in 1892, and she remained with her father until his death in 1915.
   Only in 1891 is she not at home, but intriguingly a Janetta Honeyball, aged 21 and born in Pimlico, is lodging in Lambeth where she worked as a cashier for a grocer. The age is slightly wrong but as Janetta does not appear in any other records, is this Anne? Given her middle name of Jane, which also appears as Nettie Honeyball's middle initial, it does seem to be a strong possibility.

In late 1894 the first letters from Nettie Honeyball appeared in the papers, promoting the football club from an address in Crouch End, which was the home of the Smith family. The house at 27 Weston Park, which still stands, is a six-bedroom three-storey villa, so the Smiths would have had space for a lodger, and she proudly told one journalist that she had a room entirely for her own use.
   As the British Ladies FC captured the public imagination, Nettie gave numerous interviews in the first few months of 1895, in which she came across as assured, determined and forthright in her support for women's emancipation. She often posed for photos, including a full page plate in The Sketch, and gained a fair degree of notoriety or popularity, depending on your point of view. When the opening match was played at Crouch End on 23 March, she was a team captain and very clearly the figurehead of the club. ​

Honeyball continued to speak intelligently and assuredly on behalf of the team as they toured the country in April and May.
   Yet, despite her high profile, and the large crowds which the lady footballers attracted, there was trouble behind the scenes. In May she had to deny a press report that 'the lady footballers are at loggerheads among themselves, and the team is likely to break up in consequence'.
   However, there does appear to be truth in the rumours as by the end of May, just two months after the club played its first match, she was nowhere to be seen. Without her, the British Ladies FC continued to pursue a hectic schedule of matches, with a second team springing up in apparent rivalry.
   Nettie's name was still briefly quoted in the autumn as club secretary before Jessie Allen took over, citing an illness for Honeyball, then the rival captain Mrs Graham (real name Helen Matthew) said 'she is no longer connected with us in any way'.

What went wrong? It could have been the incessant glare of publicity, disagreements with other players, or maybe the household dynamics at Weston Park became a challenge, with too many involved in the team: Alfred Hewitt Smith, the team manager, would go on to marry Hannah Oliphant, who played for and administered the team right up until its demise a decade later; his brother Frederick was already married to Jessie Allen, named as assistant secretary; and their little sister Phoebe was also a player and club secretary.
   Whatever happened, Nettie Honeyball was out of the picture and left Crouch End to return to Pimlico, notifying her change of address to the Morning Leader. Apart from that brief mention, there were no further interviews and no more press interest in her.
   On the surface, the move to Lillington Street points to Anne Honeyball being Nettie but there are still doubts which are raised by a careful reading of her press interviews. Although she gave little away about her background, she made a telling comment to The Sketch in January 1895 that the other recruits to the team 'were all strangers to me, except my sister' Then in April she told the Maidenhead Advertiser after a match that 'I have been accustomed to athletics all my life with my brothers'.
   If these comments are true, Anne cannot be Nettie. Her sister was in her thirties, married with three young children; her brothers had both died young.

While much of the British Ladies FC press coverage must be taken with a great degree of scepticism, this opens the door to another possibility: Anne's cousin Nellie. Her identity was explored in detail by James Lee, whose well-researched book The Lady Footballers was published in 2008.
   Nellie, born in Pimlico in 1873, was the daughter of Frederick Honeyball, elder brother of Francis and also a carpenter. The family lived at 36 Tachbrook Street, which was literally a stone's throw from Lillington Street. Nellie had two elder brothers, which fits with those interview comments, and a younger sister Edith, although there is no record of her playing for the club.
   Perhaps most tellingly of all, the Westminster and Pimlico News of 12 June 1896 carried a report of a dispute that ended up in Westminster Magistrates Court, where Nellie Honeyball of 56 Lillington Street was bound over to keep the peace.
   Nellie is with her family at Tachbrook Street in the 1891 census, so she cannot be 'Janetta' but did she then go to live for a while with her uncle round the corner? He would have had a spare room after his married daughter Fanny moved out.
   So, the mystery continues. While Nettie Honeyball does appear to be a real person rather than a pseudonym, I can find no conclusive proof whether she was Anne or Nellie.
   And of course, I cannot entirely dismiss a third possibility, that the paragraph in the Morning Leader was a deliberate red herring. But she was well known to the paper, so I think this unlikely.

On top of the Honeyball identity question is conundrum as to how she got involved in football in the first place. The answers may lie in a book by Alfred Hewitt Smith, who managed the team's affairs. In 1896 he published The Truth about the British Ladies Football Club and sent it to journalists. Sadly, no copies are known to exist but perhaps one will surface.
   The Honeyball cousins had much in common: both were daughters of carpenters, both spent their lives in Pimlico, both remained single. Curiously, the Smith family’s father Arthur was also a carpenter. While carpenters and cabinet makers were skilled craftsmen, this tends to demolish the much-repeated claim that the football club drew its players from the 'upper middle class'.

Did Joe Harper really score five goals on his international debut? It is a question which has puzzled me ever since the Scottish FA decided to upgrade five Scotland tour matches in 1967 to full international status.
   The move, which provoked a heated debate among football historians, was essentially made to ensure that Sir Alex Ferguson would receive a full international cap in time for his 80th birthday. He duly came to Hampden in October 2021 and was presented with his cap at half time in the Scotland v Israel match, a gesture which was loudly cheered by the capacity crowd. Other players in the squad have been similarly recognised, and have appreciated the gesture.
   But back in 1967, the tour party was unequivocally not the full national team, and Scottish FA secretary Willie Allan made this abundantly clear. Although Scotland had just beaten world champions England 3-2 at Wembley, most of the regular players were not available, with Celtic and Rangers in European finals and various other call-offs.
   Allan was supported by the Glasgow Herald, which stated 'Under no circumstances should they be labelled a Scottish international team. Our newly-won prestige, both at international and club level, is too precious for that.'
   This stance annoyed some of the opponents, notably the Australians who wanted to test themselves against Scotland's stars, but the tour went ahead anyway under the guise of a Scotland XI.
   It has to be said that the ultimate decision on which Scotland matches are deemed to be worthy of a cap is the prerogative of the Scottish FA, even if they don't meet FIFA standards. There are several instances in the past when a match did or did not count for the award of a cap, sometimes for fairly arbitrary reasons.
   However, in upgrading some of the 1967 matches, the Scottish FA seem to have slipped up when deciding which ones. Despite claiming to have studied their archive, they either failed to do the research properly or were poorly advised.
   The first five games versus Israel, Hong Kong and three against Australia, were all against full national teams, whereas the last four games were not, the opponents being New Zealand Under 23s, an Auckland Provincial team, Vancouver All Stars and Canada Amateurs.
   Yet Hong Kong was ignored in the 'upgrading' review, despite them being FIFA members and selecting essentially the same team which played in the Merdeka Cup that year. 

On the other hand, the Scottish FA did decide to recognise the match against Canada, even though they were certainly not the full Canada international team. In fact they were all amateurs, who were preparing for Olympic qualifiers against Cuba later that month. Hence this match does not appear in Canadian records.
   It is probably too late now for the Scottish FA to change their decision, but the inclusion of the Canada match has thrown up a historical conundrum: Joe Harper's five goals on his debut, contributing to a 7-2 win.
   If that is correct, he equals the Hughie Gallacher's record for goals in a single Scotland match, and when he was interviewed recently Harper was understandably proud of his achievement. At first glance there seems little doubt about it, as every Scottish newspaper reported his five goal haul. Harper himself has been interviewed about his feat.
   However, there were no Scottish journalists on the tour, so every report for every match was supplied to our newspapers by local agency reporters rather than people who knew the team. They were accepted at the time but further research, using archive sources, raises several doubts about the tour statistics, and in particular Joe Harper's haul.
   Most notably, the Scottish FA kept its own record of the matches, and their minute book contains a surprise about this game. It states that Harper scored three, with the others being an own goal by Kauck, one from Bobby Hope and two from Willie Morgan.

​This is supported by the report in the Winnipeg Free Press, which gave a detailed account of all the goals, and it concurred: Harper got three, not five. The only aspect which it disagreed with was the identity of the Canadian who scored the own goal, suggesting it was Bob di Luca rather than Karl Kauck.
   Admittedly, the Winnipeg Tribune went along with Harper scoring five. So you have two men, presumably sitting alongside each other in the press box, but not conferring on the goalscorers.
   Nevertheless, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Harper did not score five, and that this was a fiction which only gained currency through an agency reporter. 
   Therefore, I have little doubt that Hughie Gallacher's five-goal haul against Ireland in 1929 should remain as the record for a single Scotland international.
   This was not the only tour match in which a question mark remains over a goalscorer. In the opening game, Scotland beat Israel 2-1 in Tel Aviv with a late winner, but who scored it could be one of three players, as even the Israeli press could not agree.
   Harry Hood was the man according to the Scottish FA minutes and Israeli paper Ma'ariv. Eddie Colquhoun scored according to reports in Davar, the Dundee Courier and the Press and Journal. And it was Alex Ferguson in Al Ha-mishmar and La Merhav in Israel as well as the Glasgow Herald, Evening Times and Evening Express back home. Which was correct? Unless film of the match turns up, we may never know.
   Meanwhile, the Scottish FA has yet to update its online archive to include the 1967 tour, over two years after the decision to upgrade the matches to full international status. So for now, the six players who won caps during the tour but at no other time are not even mentioned: Alan Anderson, Jim Townsend, Alex Ferguson, Harry Hood, Hugh Tinney and Harry Thomson. And Joe Harper remains on four caps, two goals.
   I have a small vested interest in getting this right this, as I set up that archive when I worked at Hampden two decades ago. It dearly needs attention to make it more accessible and to correct a number of mistakes.
  
Click here to read the full statistics of the 1967 tour, as far as they are known.

There's nothing like an early goal to set a match alight, and recently I have been looking into the fastest goals ever scored by Scotland's national team. There are several candidates for first minute strikes, but which of them was actually the quickest ever?
   In the absence of film footage and accurate timing, it is impossible to say definitively, but based on numerous newspaper reports these are Scotland's fastest:
   Archie Robertson v Austria, 19 May 1955. According to several reports including the Evening Express, he scored after just 15 seconds; the Evening Times said 20 seconds. Scotland went on to win 4-1 in Vienna on their end-of-season tour.
   Andy Black v Czechoslovakia, 8 December 1937. Most papers, including the Evening Express, Daily News and Evening Despatch all agree 20 seconds. And what is more, Black was making his international debut! This was the opening goal of a 5-0 win at Ibrox. 
   The record appears to belong to Robertson, but Black makes a strong claim.

There are several other first minute goals:
   Stevie Chalmers v Brazil, 25 June 1966. In a match best remembered for Pele's only appearance at Hampden, Chalmers fired home the opener in the first minute. Timings vary, with the Sunday Sun saying 30 seconds, the People judging it 45 seconds, and one fan who was trying out a new stopwatch recorded it at precisely 38 seconds. The game ended 1-1.
   RS McColl v England, 7 April 1900. Wearing Rosebery strips, the opening salvo of a first half hat-trick by 'Toffee Bob' came after 'less than 40 seconds' according to the Evening Standard, 'in forty seconds' thought the Belfast News-Letter, while the Lancashire Evening Post said 'at the end of 45 seconds'.
   John White v West Germany, 6 May 1959. This goal in a 3-2 victory was reported in most British papers as 'the very first minute' but I found a more precise time of 50 seconds in a German paper, Fussball Sport.
   Tommy Ring v England, 6 April 1957. Reports generally say the first minute, but in this instance the goal can be timed precisely from video at 58 seconds.
   England captain Bob Crompton managed to score an early own goal for Scotland at Newcastle on 6 April 1907 which was timed variously as 'less than a minute' (Empire News),  'scarcely a minute' (Sports Argus), 'in the first minute' (Morning Post) and 'exactly sixty seconds' (Scottish Referee).
   Willie Lambie v Ireland, 30 March 1895. His opening goal at Celtic Park was described as 'less than a minute' (Dundee Advertiser and Belfast News-Letter) and 'in the first minute' (Morning Post), while others thought 'in a minute', 'only a minute', 'about a minute' and 'hardly a minute'.
​   The quickest in the current century appears to be Billy Dodds v Belgium on 24 March 2001 which was timed at one minute and ten seconds.

Other early goals include:
Kenny Dalglish v Denmark, 15 November 1972 – 'second minute' or '60 seconds' (Hull Daily Mail).
Denis Law v Finland, 21 October 1964 – '90 seconds' (Daily Mirror).
William Thomson v Wales, 26 March 1892 – 'second minute' (Dundee Courier); 'two minutes' (Scottish Referee); 'after two minutes' (South Wales Daily News).
Alex Jackson v England, 31 March 1928 – 'two minutes' or 'three minutes' depending on reports.
Henry Morris v Northern Ireland, 1 October 1949 on his debut; 'in the first two minutes' or 'three minutes' (Ireland's Saturday Night).

​Other suggestions and sources welcome!

Goals against Scotland

Needless to say, Scotland has also conceded some quick goals with two prime candidates for fastest:
   Edgar Chadwick (England) on 2 April 1892 was timed at 30 seconds by the Lancashire Evening Post and 'less than a minute' in the Evening Standard.
   Dave Walsh (Northern Ireland) on 17 November 1948 was also clocked at 30 seconds in the Daily Herald, while other papers thought it was 40 seconds.
   More recently, Robbie Earnshaw's first of a treble for Wales on 18 February 2004 was timed at 42 seconds on Sky Sports and 43 seconds on the BBC.  
   Denis Wilshaw (England), 2 April 1955, scored in 45 seconds according to the Evening Times and Belfast Telegraph.
   And finally, Georges Aeby of Switzerland opened the scoring at Hampden on 15 May 1946 'in the first minute' according to most papers, but nobody gave a more accurate time. Similarly William Kenyon-Slaney scored the first ever international goal for England on 8 March 1873 in one or two minutes, but none of the reports was concerned with precise timings.
  That appears to be all the goals scored in the opening minute of Scotland matches, although it is possible that evidence will be found to exclude these candidates, or even to add another to the list.

NB I have only covered the Scotland men's team above, as few detailed records exist for the women's equivalent. However, it should be mentioned that Julie Fleeting twice scored in the opening minute, v Estonia on 3 September 1997 and v Portugal on 17 February 2001. So did Hayley Lauder v Israel on 16 June 2012, after 58 seconds. However, neither of them can beat Kathryn Morgan of Wales who scored against Scotland in just 13 seconds on 2 June 1996. 

Many places claim to be the true home of football, not least Sheffield, London and Glasgow. But had events taken a different slant, the title would undoubtedly belong to the capital of Scotland.
   Recently I gave a talk to the FootyCon football history conference in Manchester, in which I explained how, in the first half of the 19th century, Edinburgh was a leading exponent for the type of game that ultimately became association football. But the direction of travel changed dramatically in the summer of 1854, when two sports grounds opened in the same week, each hosting a different code of football. In brief, rugby won and the landscape of sport in the city changed.
   To read my PowerPoint talk detailing what happened and why, click here to open an illustrated pdf and read about a classic case of 'what if'.

To read more about the story of football in Edinburgh, and John Hope's involvement, read 1824: the World's First Foot-Ball Club. 

This month sees two significant milestones for Scottish football. It is the 150th anniversary of the first international match in the world, between Scotland and England on 30 November 1872. It is also the 50th anniversary of Scotland's first women's international, against England on 18 November 1972.
   Both these events provide a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our football heritage. It is also a chance to recognise all the players who have contributed to Scottish football's national teams over the years.
   That is why I am proposing the introduction of unique Heritage Numbers for everyone who has played for Scotland, men and women.
   Currently the Scottish FA has a Roll of Honour for players who have amassed 50 or more caps. When this scheme was originally launched in the 1980s there were just a dozen or so players, all men, who qualified. Today, however, with the increased number of fixtures and greater use of substitutes, it is far easier for players to reach that total and 50 caps is less of a measure of greatness. Indeed, it fails to include many fine players of the past who could never have reached that figure at a time when Scotland only played three games a year.
   When I speak to former players, almost without exception the most memorable international they played was their first cap. Representing Scotland is a supreme honour in itself, and earning the tag of 'internationalist' is something that lasts a lifetime. Hence I think that is the event that should be marked, rather than an arbitrary number of caps.
   It is not a new idea: several sports from cricket to rugby league have adopted the scheme, and some countries already have it for football. The Football Association in England, for example, launched Legacy Numbers for their men's team in 2019, and this year are extending it to the women's team following a major research programme.
   Scotland has yet to adopt the idea. For the men's team, all the information is available although there was a recent complication with the retrospective adoption of some tour matches from 1967 as full internationals, which added players to the list. Including those late additions, a total of 1,227 men have now played for Scotland, the latest being Calvin Ramsay who won his first cap against Turkey.
   One of the major stumbling blocks to compiling an equivalent record for the women's national team has been the lack of historic information, but that is no longer a barrier.
   In recent months I have been researching and gathering details about the women's national team and I believe I now have a full list of every woman who has  ever played for Scotland. The latest additions are Brogan Hay and Rebecca McAllister who made their debuts against Venezuela, taking the total up to 244 players.
   Most of that number were first capped under the Scottish Women's FA who ran the team up to 1997. I have to admit that it is possible that my list may have to be slightly revised, as not all the teamlines were recorded at the time and media coverage was minimal. Sometimes players were included in squads but there is no definitive record of whether they actually played (substitutions were a particular problem). However, by a careful examination of archive material and by asking many former players for their memories, I am confident it is 99 per cent correct and possibly 100 per cent. I would be delighted to hear from anyone with additional information.
   My overall point is that playing for Scotland is an achievement that should live for ever, and I believe that players deserve the unique recognition that comes with a Heritage Number. At a time of celebration for those anniversaries, there is no better time for the Scottish FA to act.

Click here for the full list of Scotland Men's Heritage Numbers.

Click here for the full list of Scotland Women's Heritage Numbers.

This month marks 50 years since the first Scotland women's football international, against England at Greenock on 18 November 1972.
   That anniversary prompted me to research the history of the national team, a subject which appears to have been woefully neglected by the football authorities and the media in the past. There are no match reports for many games, in fact some games were barely mentioned in the press at all. Allied to poor record-keeping by the old Scottish Women's FA, and a lax attitude at the Scottish FA after they took over in 1997, many players have been forgotten, and those records and statistics which have been published are frequently wrong.
   After months of research, I can now start to put that right by publishing a definitive record of every Scotland women's international from 1972 to date, a total of 370 matches in fifty years.
​   To see a full list of Scotland matches, click here (pdf).

I have also been compiling a full set of statistics for every match. This has proved a considerable challenge given the lack of contemporary reporting for the early games. 
   Quite often, a squad list would be published for a game or a tournament, but the team that played was not recorded or was missing the substitutes. It has not yet been possible to finalise the statistics for the SWFA years from 1972-1997, but I do have a complete record from the time that the Scottish FA took over.
   To see Scotland's full match record from 1998 to date, click here (pdf).  This includes a wealth of details including the number of caps each player had won, the substitutes and the time they came on, goalscorers and times of goals, and the venue, with attendance where known. [NB I have watermarked the file to discourage copying.]
   It corrects a number of mistakes which have been published online, even in sources such as the Scottish FA archive which could (and should) more more accurate.
   In particular, the number of caps won by certain players has been wrongly recorded, notably record goalscorer Julie Fleeting whose caps total came to 118, with 110 goals scored in those matches (most accounts claim 121 caps and 116 goals).
   My next step is to add to the record of the pre-1998 matches, and in particular I hope that the players who featured in those matches can be recognised properly for their contribution to Scotland's football history.
   The Scottish FA recently presented caps to the 1972 team, and it would only be right if all the other players were also awarded caps. I also support the introduction of 'heritage numbers' for every internationalist.
   There are now 243 names on the list of Scotland players, of whom 144 made their first appearance under the SWFA. However, I acknowledge that the number may have to be revised slightly if new information comes to light.

If you have any comments or queries about these statistics, please get in touch through the Contact Form.

In compiling these statistics, I would like to acknowledge the help and co-operation of a number of football historians, in particular Neil Morrison and Tommy Malcolm. I would also like to thank several former players for sharing their memories (and their press cuttings!), notably Margaret McAulay Rae and Elsie Cook.