Scottish Sport History - devoted to our sporting heritage
  • Home
  • Books for sale
    • The men who made Scotland
    • World's First Foot-Ball Club
    • First Elevens
    • Arthur Kinnaird
    • History of Dunblane Football Club
  • Sports History News and Blog
  • Scottish sports bibilography
    • Scottish sport general
    • Football books
    • Football books (non league)
    • Rugby books
    • Cricket books
    • Athletics books
    • Shinty books
    • Curling books
    • Bowling books
    • Swimming books
    • Hockey books
    • Ice hockey books
    • Tennis books
    • Boxing books
  • Digitised books and articles
  • Scotland v England: the origins
    • England v Scotland 1870
    • Scotland v England 1872
    • England v Scotland 1873
    • Scotland v England 1874
  • Arthur Kinnaird: First Lord of Football
    • Kinnaird's FA Cup
    • Kinnaird blog archive
    • Kinnaird the canoeist
    • Kinnaird family history
    • Rossie Priory
  • Contact / About Me
  • Links

Eadie Fraser - identifying a famous name

30/5/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
A regular challenge in researching the early footballers is that published information can be wrong: a name might be spelled wrongly in an old book, and that is how it remains for ever more, without being subject to further scrutiny. One such example which I stumbled across recently was that of MJ Eadie Fraser, who won five caps for Scotland between 1880 and 1883, scoring four goals in the process. At Queen's Park (pictured above) he won two Scottish Cup medals and was club secretary in 1882/83. According to the Queen's Park history (1920): Scotland never had a better forward than Eadie Fraser, known to everybody as the  "Graceful Eadie". His movements were perfect. His popularity was extraordinary. On the field and off it he was a thorough gentleman, and never descended to those tricks which tend to bring the game into disrepute. 
    He is generally named as Malcolm James Eadie Fraser, but a bit of digging found that the J actually stood for John. A bit more digging turned up the fact that he was born in Canada and died in Australia, quite an unusual journey for a Scottish footballer.  Here, for the first time, is a summary of his life:
    Malcolm John Eadie Fraser was born in Goderich, Ontario, on 4 March 1860, the third and youngest son of Rev John Fraser and Sarah Ann Lawrie, who also had three daughters. His father, a native of Grantown-on-Spey, trained for the ministry in Canada with the Presbyterian Church, and the boy was probably named after Dr John Eadie, professor of biblical literature, who was a leading Presbyterian. The family returned to Scotland in 1862 when his father was admitted as a probationer by the church, and in time was appointed as the first minister of the new Cumberland Street UP church in Glasgow's Gorbals.
    Young Eadie became a good footballer and was just the right kind of player for the pre-eminent club in Scotland, Queen's Park, talented and gentlemanly. However, at the peak of his powers, just before his 24th birthday he left Scotland to take up a job in West Africa (I have yet to ascertain what and where). The following year, in 1885, he became ill and to escape the climate became the sole passenger on the cargo ship Ardmore travelling to Australia. Within days of docking at Sydney, however, Eadie Fraser died in the city's Prince Alfred Hospital on 8 January 1886.
    He was buried in the vast Rookwood Cemetery, but the story does not quite end there. Later in 1886, some Australian friends launched a memorial fund [link] to erect a suitable headstone to a great footballer. Unfortunately, it seems not enough money was raised, as in May 1887 a meeting of the Southern British Football Association reported "The Chairman, Rev A Miller,  referred to the proposal to erect a headstone at the grave of Eadie Fraser, the Queen’s Park club to defray the cost of the railing. No action was, however, taken in the matter."
    A final quirk to the story is that one of Eadie Fraser's Scotland team-mates in 1880 was Andrew Watson, famously the first black international player. It has been reported (but I have not found confirmation) that Watson also died in Sydney in 1902. Could it be that Watson and Fraser are both buried in the same cemetery - reunited on the other side of the world?
1 Comment
Craig Maltman
31/5/2022 11:29:11 pm

This is brilliant, I've forwarded it onto my son in Leeds who's knowledge of football history is great for a 30 year old.
He himself has a good Twitter following on his page We All Talk Leeds and is ready to start another one on all topics football particularly from yester year.
So I'm sure he'll love this.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All

    Author

    All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell, who is researching Scottish sport on a regular basis.