SPORTS HISTORY BLOG
Over 250 articles on all aspects of Scottish sport
- Published on
Census returns are a key tool for football historians, but sometimes they can reveal more than simple ages and addresses. This sheet from the Queen's Hotel on Southport Promenade in 1911 reveals a fascinating story about England v Scotland and a bunch of footballers from Newcastle.
The census was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911, which just happened to be the day after England drew 1-1 with Scotland at Goodison Park, in front of 38,000 fans. Jimmy Stewart gave England the lead in the 18th minute, while Scotland equalised a few minutes from the end through Alex Higgins, who had hit the post in the first half (and claimed the ball crossed the line).
Both of the goalscorers were Newcastle United players, and instead of returning to the north-east they spent the weekend in Southport, where they were joined by Scotland players Wilfrid Low and Jimmy Lawrence, as well as Newcastle coach James Q McPherson, who was training the Scotland team for the game. Each of the guests in the Queen's Hotel was asked to complete the census return themselves, so an added bonus for historians is that the entries have the players' signatures.
The obvious question is, why did the Newcastle contingent not return home after the match? The answer lies in the fixture schedule. On Saturday 1 April, their club missed them badly as Woolwich Arsenal came away from Tyneside with a 1-0 win. Then on Monday 3 April, Newcastle had a match at Sheffield United, so rather than taking two long journeys, the players simply enjoyed a weekend by the sea and travelled on Monday morning to Sheffield, where they took part in a 0-0 draw. In fact, they may have stayed away from home all week, as Newcastle also fulfilled league fixtures on Wednesday at Nottingham and Saturday at Bradford.
It seems extraordinary from a modern perspective that a top division club could be asked to play a league match without four key players. And it does seem to have had a seriously negative effect on Newcastle United: the previous week they won an FA Cup semi-final, yet the loss to Arsenal kicked off a disastrous month of April in which they won just once and saw them lose the cup final. Arsenal, however, benefited from playing weakened opposition as their surprise victory at St James' Park was part of an 11-game unbeaten end-of-season run that took them well clear of relegation.
The census was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911, which just happened to be the day after England drew 1-1 with Scotland at Goodison Park, in front of 38,000 fans. Jimmy Stewart gave England the lead in the 18th minute, while Scotland equalised a few minutes from the end through Alex Higgins, who had hit the post in the first half (and claimed the ball crossed the line).
Both of the goalscorers were Newcastle United players, and instead of returning to the north-east they spent the weekend in Southport, where they were joined by Scotland players Wilfrid Low and Jimmy Lawrence, as well as Newcastle coach James Q McPherson, who was training the Scotland team for the game. Each of the guests in the Queen's Hotel was asked to complete the census return themselves, so an added bonus for historians is that the entries have the players' signatures.
The obvious question is, why did the Newcastle contingent not return home after the match? The answer lies in the fixture schedule. On Saturday 1 April, their club missed them badly as Woolwich Arsenal came away from Tyneside with a 1-0 win. Then on Monday 3 April, Newcastle had a match at Sheffield United, so rather than taking two long journeys, the players simply enjoyed a weekend by the sea and travelled on Monday morning to Sheffield, where they took part in a 0-0 draw. In fact, they may have stayed away from home all week, as Newcastle also fulfilled league fixtures on Wednesday at Nottingham and Saturday at Bradford.
It seems extraordinary from a modern perspective that a top division club could be asked to play a league match without four key players. And it does seem to have had a seriously negative effect on Newcastle United: the previous week they won an FA Cup semi-final, yet the loss to Arsenal kicked off a disastrous month of April in which they won just once and saw them lose the cup final. Arsenal, however, benefited from playing weakened opposition as their surprise victory at St James' Park was part of an 11-game unbeaten end-of-season run that took them well clear of relegation.
Close-up of the football signatures: McPherson, Lawrence, Higgins, Low and Stewart.
- Published on
Almost two hundred years ago, the world’s first football club was established in Scotland by a young lawyer and his friends in Edinburgh.
The Foot-Ball Club remained active from 1824 until 1841, with around 300 recorded members. As the world’s first known organisation dedicated to football it is a crucially important episode in the development of football, yet its full story has never been told.
Now, I am working with John Hutchinson on a detailed history of the club, together with a biography of its founder, John Hope (pictured above). It is not just a story about football’s early days, it also looks at the players and their impact on Scottish society.
Hope is not given enough credit by historians for his contribution to the early development of football, where the focus is often on the founding of the Football Association in 1863, on the public schools, on Sheffield and so on. For example Sheffield FC, founded in 1857, have actually incorporated into their crest a claim to be ‘the world’s first football club’. It simply isn’t true. They might be the oldest surviving club, but the first? No way.
For a definition of what constitutes a sports club, this is what Hope himself had to say in a letter:
The football club resumed in October; the fun first-rate. I played for three hours on Saturday. Had business not kept me from the field this winter, I would have been in splendid wind. As it was. I am pretty swift, and am still a good hand at rolling down my opponents. Mr Esplin is very keen, and the life of the club. He brings out the men. He plays first rate. He gives a splendid ground kick - so sure. We mutually respect each other, but we are daily approaching to a keener contest. He has had more practice that I, and carries six years less than I do. He is short, and there is no upsetting him; but I hope to roll him next Saturday. The club gave occasion to some very spirited caricatures by my brother Jamie, I being, of course, the principal butt. We got new caps, very neat, improved by Esplin, like jockey caps.’
There, in one quote from the 1830s, are embodied all the essentials of a sporting club: the playing, the physical contact, the organisation, the team uniform, the rivalry, the respect for fellow members, the hope that it will all be better next week, the futile attempts to regain lost youth, the regret for not training enough and the laughter and camaraderie of a group of healthy and energetic young men united for one specific athletic purpose.
The Foot-Ball Club remained active from 1824 until 1841, with around 300 recorded members. As the world’s first known organisation dedicated to football it is a crucially important episode in the development of football, yet its full story has never been told.
Now, I am working with John Hutchinson on a detailed history of the club, together with a biography of its founder, John Hope (pictured above). It is not just a story about football’s early days, it also looks at the players and their impact on Scottish society.
Hope is not given enough credit by historians for his contribution to the early development of football, where the focus is often on the founding of the Football Association in 1863, on the public schools, on Sheffield and so on. For example Sheffield FC, founded in 1857, have actually incorporated into their crest a claim to be ‘the world’s first football club’. It simply isn’t true. They might be the oldest surviving club, but the first? No way.
For a definition of what constitutes a sports club, this is what Hope himself had to say in a letter:
The football club resumed in October; the fun first-rate. I played for three hours on Saturday. Had business not kept me from the field this winter, I would have been in splendid wind. As it was. I am pretty swift, and am still a good hand at rolling down my opponents. Mr Esplin is very keen, and the life of the club. He brings out the men. He plays first rate. He gives a splendid ground kick - so sure. We mutually respect each other, but we are daily approaching to a keener contest. He has had more practice that I, and carries six years less than I do. He is short, and there is no upsetting him; but I hope to roll him next Saturday. The club gave occasion to some very spirited caricatures by my brother Jamie, I being, of course, the principal butt. We got new caps, very neat, improved by Esplin, like jockey caps.’
There, in one quote from the 1830s, are embodied all the essentials of a sporting club: the playing, the physical contact, the organisation, the team uniform, the rivalry, the respect for fellow members, the hope that it will all be better next week, the futile attempts to regain lost youth, the regret for not training enough and the laughter and camaraderie of a group of healthy and energetic young men united for one specific athletic purpose.
The membership list of the Foot-Ball Club for 1831-32, with players' names, addresses and subscriptions. (National Records of Scotland)
Hope’s meticulous records of the club were preserved among his personal papers. The membership lists are the crown jewels, detailing the lawyers, doctors, students and soldiers who played football between 1824 and 1841. Our new research sheds light on these men: how they interlinked through sport and work, where they lived, where they were educated, and what their position was in society.
There are some startling links between the members of the Foot-Ball Club and the next generation of footballers. Here are two prominent examples:
James Kirkpatrick, an FA Cup winner with Wanderers in 1877 and captain of Scotland in the first unofficial football international of 1870, was son of Charles Sharpe Kirkpatrick, a member of the Foot-Ball Club in 1831.
Francis Moncreiff, captain of Scotland in the first international rugby match against England in 1871, was son of James Moncreiff, who was a member of the Foot-Ball Club in 1832.
There are a number of other football connections, from father to son.
The members also included future Members of Parliament, a Lord Advocate and two Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Thanks to this analysis, we can now demonstrate that this was not just a quirky, historically-isolated football club for gentlemen in one particular city, but one which spawned a close-knit web of interests and relationships which had a significant influence on the early and long term development of the game of football, and on Scottish society in general.
So, who was John Hope? Born in 1807, he was a lawyer, he was extremely wealthy, never married, and devoted his fortune and his energy to causes he believed in.
Some of his beliefs will be judged today’s moral standards as unpleasant, bigoted and misguided. His views on religion and alcohol, for example, would make you wince, but reflected the views of many others in the 19th century.
Hope was principally a social reformer who spoke up for the poor and the downtrodden, for example leading a campaign to introduce the Saturday half-holiday in Edinburgh, and providing country excursions for thousands of slum kids. In particular, he believed in the benefits of sport and exercise, and could loosely be described as an advocate of muscular Christianity. That included football.
A highlight of his football club papers are the rules he wrote in 1833 which, although simple, indicate a kicking game between sides, with a defined playing surface and goals. They predate the Cambridge Rules of 1848 which are generally seen as the earliest attempt at codification, but contain many of the same principles.
The club correspondence is extensive. A letter in 1825 from a member who had gone to London describes how much he missed the action. Another from a member who had gone to Cambridge University, effectively said that he didn’t see much prospect of football catching on there. And one from 1841 is the final item in the club’s history, a letter from a John Campbell asking if he could join. He seems to have been too late, as there is no recorded response. Around that time the Foot-Ball Club was wound up.
After that, it is clear that young men did continue to play football in Edinburgh, but exactly how, and where, is hard to determine.
There are some startling links between the members of the Foot-Ball Club and the next generation of footballers. Here are two prominent examples:
James Kirkpatrick, an FA Cup winner with Wanderers in 1877 and captain of Scotland in the first unofficial football international of 1870, was son of Charles Sharpe Kirkpatrick, a member of the Foot-Ball Club in 1831.
Francis Moncreiff, captain of Scotland in the first international rugby match against England in 1871, was son of James Moncreiff, who was a member of the Foot-Ball Club in 1832.
There are a number of other football connections, from father to son.
The members also included future Members of Parliament, a Lord Advocate and two Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Thanks to this analysis, we can now demonstrate that this was not just a quirky, historically-isolated football club for gentlemen in one particular city, but one which spawned a close-knit web of interests and relationships which had a significant influence on the early and long term development of the game of football, and on Scottish society in general.
So, who was John Hope? Born in 1807, he was a lawyer, he was extremely wealthy, never married, and devoted his fortune and his energy to causes he believed in.
Some of his beliefs will be judged today’s moral standards as unpleasant, bigoted and misguided. His views on religion and alcohol, for example, would make you wince, but reflected the views of many others in the 19th century.
Hope was principally a social reformer who spoke up for the poor and the downtrodden, for example leading a campaign to introduce the Saturday half-holiday in Edinburgh, and providing country excursions for thousands of slum kids. In particular, he believed in the benefits of sport and exercise, and could loosely be described as an advocate of muscular Christianity. That included football.
A highlight of his football club papers are the rules he wrote in 1833 which, although simple, indicate a kicking game between sides, with a defined playing surface and goals. They predate the Cambridge Rules of 1848 which are generally seen as the earliest attempt at codification, but contain many of the same principles.
The club correspondence is extensive. A letter in 1825 from a member who had gone to London describes how much he missed the action. Another from a member who had gone to Cambridge University, effectively said that he didn’t see much prospect of football catching on there. And one from 1841 is the final item in the club’s history, a letter from a John Campbell asking if he could join. He seems to have been too late, as there is no recorded response. Around that time the Foot-Ball Club was wound up.
After that, it is clear that young men did continue to play football in Edinburgh, but exactly how, and where, is hard to determine.
The Edinburgh football medal of 1851
(Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum, Stirling Castle)
The next event for which we have hard evidence dates from 1851, when the students of Edinburgh University challenged the 93rd Highlanders, garrisoned in Edinburgh Castle, to a match. The losers were to present the winners with a silver medal. Won by the soldiers, that medal is preserved in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders collection at Stirling Castle, and is of enormous sporting significance – the world’s oldest football prize.
The link to John Hope? The silversmith who designed the medal, James Mackay, had a son James who was schoolmate of John Hope and a member of the Foot-Ball Club – so he was no doubt able to advise on the correct manner of play for the image.
John Hope wasn’t done yet. In 1854 he opened a playground in Stockbridge, where he encouraged boys as well as girls to play football. He laid down the rules of play – which bear similarities not just to his 1833 rules, but also to the future codes for association football. There was no hacking, no handling, and goals were scored between the posts.
Then, when association football finally came to Edinburgh in the 1870s, John Hope founded one of the city’s first clubs for the soldiers in his volunteer regiment, the 3rd ERV. He actually kicked off their first match, and was presented with the trophy when they won their first cup.
When Hope died in 1893, he left most of his fortune to the Hope Trust, which preserved his papers, over 200 boxes of them, in our national archives, now called the National Records of Scotland. The football records were discovered by the historian Dr Neil Tranter, of Stirling University, who first wrote about the club in the 1990s, and we are now researching it in greater detail, a far reaching project which will culminate in a full scale book later this year.
Meanwhile, we have recently published an article in the academic journal Soccer & Society. It is a subscriber publication which can be accessed at this link, but for those who do not have a subscription please get in touch via the contact form on the home page.
A report on our findings has also been published in Scotland on Sunday, and can be read via this link.
The link to John Hope? The silversmith who designed the medal, James Mackay, had a son James who was schoolmate of John Hope and a member of the Foot-Ball Club – so he was no doubt able to advise on the correct manner of play for the image.
John Hope wasn’t done yet. In 1854 he opened a playground in Stockbridge, where he encouraged boys as well as girls to play football. He laid down the rules of play – which bear similarities not just to his 1833 rules, but also to the future codes for association football. There was no hacking, no handling, and goals were scored between the posts.
Then, when association football finally came to Edinburgh in the 1870s, John Hope founded one of the city’s first clubs for the soldiers in his volunteer regiment, the 3rd ERV. He actually kicked off their first match, and was presented with the trophy when they won their first cup.
When Hope died in 1893, he left most of his fortune to the Hope Trust, which preserved his papers, over 200 boxes of them, in our national archives, now called the National Records of Scotland. The football records were discovered by the historian Dr Neil Tranter, of Stirling University, who first wrote about the club in the 1990s, and we are now researching it in greater detail, a far reaching project which will culminate in a full scale book later this year.
Meanwhile, we have recently published an article in the academic journal Soccer & Society. It is a subscriber publication which can be accessed at this link, but for those who do not have a subscription please get in touch via the contact form on the home page.
A report on our findings has also been published in Scotland on Sunday, and can be read via this link.
- Published on
This is a book I would love to have written – imagine finding that one of your ancestors was a famous footballer, one of the greatest of his age, yet now almost forgotten. What a great opportunity to bring him back to life!
That was the challenge facing Clive Nicholson, who is Fred Spiksley’s great great nephew. He has devoted much of the last 20 years to researching Spiksley’s biography, and has dug deep into conventional and less likely sources to uncover every aspect of his life story. A huge amount of work left no stone unturned and the resulting book is substantial and fascinating, extending to 390 pages packed with detail and accompanied by numerous photos, several of which are new to me. Another factor that makes this book different is that instead of launching into the publishing world himself, Clive brought on board professional writers and designers.
Fred Spiksley (1870-1948) was an England international left winger whose most famous period came at Sheffield Wednesday, but whose career encompassed a wide range of clubs.
Having written a biography of Arthur Kinnaird, I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to bring Victorian characters to life, and the authors do manage it very well for Spiksley, demonstrating an understandable fondness for his skills and forgiveness for his flaws. It turns out that Spiksley was not just a fine footballer of international class, who went on to an adventurous coaching career in several countries, he was also a compulsive gambler, a womaniser and possessed of a unpredictable temper.
There are anecdotes galore as the authors provide an insight into the precarious world of football in the early professional era: the brutal tackles, the appalling conditions for players and spectators, the financial pressures and the shady characters.
One of the reasons the book is interesting to a Scottish audience is the authors' claim that Fred Spiksley scored a hat trick for England against Scotland in 1893, which would have been the first. All the contemporary reports attributed the final goal to John Reynolds, but later on a number of observers, including Spiksley, claimed it for himself. The case for attributing the goal to Spiksley is not particularly well detailed in the book itself, but is outlined in great detail on their dedicated website, spiksley.com.
Having read it through carefully, some of the background research is impressive but I have to say I am not convinced, although the arguments have been accepted by others, including the influential englandfootballonline site. It was only many years later that people started to claim that Spiksley had scored a third. The main justification for the 'error' is that the journalists' view of the match was obscured, but I find it hard to believe that the reporters from Sheffield, who knew Spiksley well, did not recognise him as the scorer, or did not quickly correct such an obvious error for a local readership. Especially if, as the authors say, 'Fred was bombarded by a horde of Scottish reporters once he left the sanctuary of the pavilion'. Did they not ask him?
There is also the assertion that Spiksley was presented with a gold chain by the FA to mark his achievement. Again, there is no contemporary report of a presentation, nor an FA Council minute or note of expenditure in the accounts, and the chain is now lost.
Ultimately, it is impossible to prove either way, but there are many similar instances in football history of stories arising years after the event which have no foundation in the truth. In fact, the authors inadvertently perpetuate another of these, writing that Jack Lyall, Sheffield Wednesday’s goalkeeper, was 'picked to play for England only for it to be established that he had been born in Scotland' (page 262). Not true. There is no contemporary evidence to support this, and as far as I can gather this apocryphal story first emerged in Lyall's obituaries.
Another criticism is that the book would have benefitted greatly from a rigorous editor. I know the authors had a difficult time getting the book into print as their deal with a publisher collapsed, but there are numerous formatting errors and text repetitions (eg several times it was a 'miracle that no one was killed' in a crowded stadium). The text also sometimes veers off at a tangent, as their enthusiasm for detail gets in the way of a good tale. For example, the fact that an England player had a telephone in 1893 is interesting but a potted history of the development of the telephone industry is superfluous; and a bizarre paragraph about Britain's waning colonial ambitions in the middle of a review of the 1896/97 season (page 197) is utterly irrelevant.
Those quibbles apart, the book succeeds in bringing Fred Spiksley to life - notoriously difficult to achieve in football biographies - and deserves the wide audience it appears to be finding. It has benefitted from an innovative marketing campaign, using the whole toolbox of social media, personal appearances and interviews, publicity stunts and pestering journalists, which all conspired to boost sales, and it is now into a reprint; which teaches a lesson to other sports historians (like myself) who should really be better at publicity.
Flying Over an Olive Grove has a cover price of £19.99 hardback, and can be ordered post free from spiksley.com
That was the challenge facing Clive Nicholson, who is Fred Spiksley’s great great nephew. He has devoted much of the last 20 years to researching Spiksley’s biography, and has dug deep into conventional and less likely sources to uncover every aspect of his life story. A huge amount of work left no stone unturned and the resulting book is substantial and fascinating, extending to 390 pages packed with detail and accompanied by numerous photos, several of which are new to me. Another factor that makes this book different is that instead of launching into the publishing world himself, Clive brought on board professional writers and designers.
Fred Spiksley (1870-1948) was an England international left winger whose most famous period came at Sheffield Wednesday, but whose career encompassed a wide range of clubs.
Having written a biography of Arthur Kinnaird, I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to bring Victorian characters to life, and the authors do manage it very well for Spiksley, demonstrating an understandable fondness for his skills and forgiveness for his flaws. It turns out that Spiksley was not just a fine footballer of international class, who went on to an adventurous coaching career in several countries, he was also a compulsive gambler, a womaniser and possessed of a unpredictable temper.
There are anecdotes galore as the authors provide an insight into the precarious world of football in the early professional era: the brutal tackles, the appalling conditions for players and spectators, the financial pressures and the shady characters.
One of the reasons the book is interesting to a Scottish audience is the authors' claim that Fred Spiksley scored a hat trick for England against Scotland in 1893, which would have been the first. All the contemporary reports attributed the final goal to John Reynolds, but later on a number of observers, including Spiksley, claimed it for himself. The case for attributing the goal to Spiksley is not particularly well detailed in the book itself, but is outlined in great detail on their dedicated website, spiksley.com.
Having read it through carefully, some of the background research is impressive but I have to say I am not convinced, although the arguments have been accepted by others, including the influential englandfootballonline site. It was only many years later that people started to claim that Spiksley had scored a third. The main justification for the 'error' is that the journalists' view of the match was obscured, but I find it hard to believe that the reporters from Sheffield, who knew Spiksley well, did not recognise him as the scorer, or did not quickly correct such an obvious error for a local readership. Especially if, as the authors say, 'Fred was bombarded by a horde of Scottish reporters once he left the sanctuary of the pavilion'. Did they not ask him?
There is also the assertion that Spiksley was presented with a gold chain by the FA to mark his achievement. Again, there is no contemporary report of a presentation, nor an FA Council minute or note of expenditure in the accounts, and the chain is now lost.
Ultimately, it is impossible to prove either way, but there are many similar instances in football history of stories arising years after the event which have no foundation in the truth. In fact, the authors inadvertently perpetuate another of these, writing that Jack Lyall, Sheffield Wednesday’s goalkeeper, was 'picked to play for England only for it to be established that he had been born in Scotland' (page 262). Not true. There is no contemporary evidence to support this, and as far as I can gather this apocryphal story first emerged in Lyall's obituaries.
Another criticism is that the book would have benefitted greatly from a rigorous editor. I know the authors had a difficult time getting the book into print as their deal with a publisher collapsed, but there are numerous formatting errors and text repetitions (eg several times it was a 'miracle that no one was killed' in a crowded stadium). The text also sometimes veers off at a tangent, as their enthusiasm for detail gets in the way of a good tale. For example, the fact that an England player had a telephone in 1893 is interesting but a potted history of the development of the telephone industry is superfluous; and a bizarre paragraph about Britain's waning colonial ambitions in the middle of a review of the 1896/97 season (page 197) is utterly irrelevant.
Those quibbles apart, the book succeeds in bringing Fred Spiksley to life - notoriously difficult to achieve in football biographies - and deserves the wide audience it appears to be finding. It has benefitted from an innovative marketing campaign, using the whole toolbox of social media, personal appearances and interviews, publicity stunts and pestering journalists, which all conspired to boost sales, and it is now into a reprint; which teaches a lesson to other sports historians (like myself) who should really be better at publicity.
Flying Over an Olive Grove has a cover price of £19.99 hardback, and can be ordered post free from spiksley.com
- Published on
Over seventy years on, the tour of Britain by Dynamo Moscow retains a legendary status. The four matches played by the Russians in November 1945 enthralled vast crowds, concluding with a match at Ibrox against Rangers.
Yet there was a real risk the final match might not have taken place, after the Russian team refused to play if Rangers fielded their newest signing, Jimmy Caskie. Guest blogger Douglas Gorman has taken a fresh look at the controversy, and you can read his article here.
Jimmy Caskie, a diminutive left winger, came to the fore with St Johnstone in the 1930s and after starring for the Scottish League select he joined Everton in 1939.
Yet there was a real risk the final match might not have taken place, after the Russian team refused to play if Rangers fielded their newest signing, Jimmy Caskie. Guest blogger Douglas Gorman has taken a fresh look at the controversy, and you can read his article here.
Jimmy Caskie, a diminutive left winger, came to the fore with St Johnstone in the 1930s and after starring for the Scottish League select he joined Everton in 1939.
Pen pic for Jimmy Caskie in the Scottish League v Football League programme of 1937
He hardly had time to settle on Merseyside before the war intervened, and he spent most of the wartime seasons as a guest player for Hibernian in Edinburgh. Everton decided in the autumn of 1945 to sell Caskie, together with Torry Gillick, to Rangers. However, while Gillick lined up against the Russians, Caskie had to be left out, as the article explains. You can see highlights of the 2-2 draw on the British Pathe site: www.britishpathe.com/video/dynamos-draw-with-rangers
Caskie made his debut at Ibrox the week after the Dynamo match and remained until 1949. He wound down his career at Forfar Athletic and then joined Berwick Rangers a few months before they entered the Scottish League in 1951.
Caskie made his debut at Ibrox the week after the Dynamo match and remained until 1949. He wound down his career at Forfar Athletic and then joined Berwick Rangers a few months before they entered the Scottish League in 1951.
- Published on
There are several instances of footballers claiming to be younger than they were, usually in an attempt to lengthen their career, but I have never found a case as extreme as this.
The legendary Scottish goalkeeper Jimmy Lawrence, who was capped against England in 1911 and holds Newcastle United’s appearance record, can be revealed as having knocked a whopping six years off his age.
All documentation including registration forms and travel documents gave his birthdate as 16 February 1885 and that is the date that appears in the record books. However, his deception came to light when I checked his death certificate. He died while undergoing heart surgery on 21 November 1934 in Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary but his age did not tally with 1885 so I searched further. To my astonishment, while the day and month were correct, he was actually born on 16 February 1879 in Partick, forty-five minutes after his twin sister Margaret, to Mary and Alfred Lawrence.
The legendary Scottish goalkeeper Jimmy Lawrence, who was capped against England in 1911 and holds Newcastle United’s appearance record, can be revealed as having knocked a whopping six years off his age.
All documentation including registration forms and travel documents gave his birthdate as 16 February 1885 and that is the date that appears in the record books. However, his deception came to light when I checked his death certificate. He died while undergoing heart surgery on 21 November 1934 in Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary but his age did not tally with 1885 so I searched further. To my astonishment, while the day and month were correct, he was actually born on 16 February 1879 in Partick, forty-five minutes after his twin sister Margaret, to Mary and Alfred Lawrence.
Birth (1879) and death (1934) certificates for James Lawrence
So, how could a footballer conceal such an age difference? The answer probably lies in his late arrival in football. When he joined Newcastle in 1904, newspaper reports mentioned that he had only taken up the game four years earlier with Partick Athletic, which would have led many observers to think that he was around 19 when he came to the fore with Glasgow Perthshire, with whom he represented Scotland juniors and also made a couple of guest appearances for Hibernian.
Several clubs were after his signature that summer – Third Lanark, Falkirk and Hibs were mentioned – but ‘handsome terms’ from Newcastle won him over. Within months he made the first of 496 first team appearances, a club record to this day, and a total which would surely have been even more had the First World War not intervened.
He spent his entire senior playing career on Tyneside and was clearly one of the country’s top goalkeepers in a top side, winning numerous honours including three Football League titles, an FA Cup and that single Scotland cap. By the time of his last appearance in April 1922 he was 43, which makes him Newcastle’s oldest ever first team player, beating the record of Billy Hampson. Yet that summer, when he made his annual visit to see his mother in Canada, he claimed to be only 37 on his immigration papers.
Several clubs were after his signature that summer – Third Lanark, Falkirk and Hibs were mentioned – but ‘handsome terms’ from Newcastle won him over. Within months he made the first of 496 first team appearances, a club record to this day, and a total which would surely have been even more had the First World War not intervened.
He spent his entire senior playing career on Tyneside and was clearly one of the country’s top goalkeepers in a top side, winning numerous honours including three Football League titles, an FA Cup and that single Scotland cap. By the time of his last appearance in April 1922 he was 43, which makes him Newcastle’s oldest ever first team player, beating the record of Billy Hampson. Yet that summer, when he made his annual visit to see his mother in Canada, he claimed to be only 37 on his immigration papers.
Jimmy Lawrence (wearing cap) with the Newcastle team before the 1905 FA Cup final at Crystal Palace. They lost the final but won the League in his first season as a professional.
A tinsmith before he became a full-time professional, Lawrence was a passionate trade unionist and was a leading light in the Players’ Union, eventually becoming chairman in 1921 for the last year of his playing career. He contributed a column to the Yorkshire Weekly Record which helped to put his views across.
Having hung up his boots he was immediately appointed manager of South Shields (from 60 applicants) but the job only lasted six months. He then had a couple of years with Preston North End, and in 1925 began a successful spell in Germany with Karlsruhe.
Outside football, there is an episode in Lawrence’s life which is less well known. In February 1913 he secretly married Barbara Murray in Newcastle, not even telling her parents for a while, but within two months she was dead. Her death was reported as appendicitis at the time, but sensationally her body was exhumed that summer and the doctor who treated her, who happened to be her brother-in-law, was prosecuted for performing an illegal operation. In court it came out that she had suffered a miscarriage and when the doctor was called to treat her he had been drinking heavily and seems to have made things worse. However, he was acquitted after a two day trial.
Lawrence never remarried. When ill health forced his return from Germany he settled in Stranraer and became chairman of the football club there, but angina and heart disease led to his premature death while visiting his sister in Glasgow. After his funeral he was cremated at Western Necropolis, Maryhill.
Having hung up his boots he was immediately appointed manager of South Shields (from 60 applicants) but the job only lasted six months. He then had a couple of years with Preston North End, and in 1925 began a successful spell in Germany with Karlsruhe.
Outside football, there is an episode in Lawrence’s life which is less well known. In February 1913 he secretly married Barbara Murray in Newcastle, not even telling her parents for a while, but within two months she was dead. Her death was reported as appendicitis at the time, but sensationally her body was exhumed that summer and the doctor who treated her, who happened to be her brother-in-law, was prosecuted for performing an illegal operation. In court it came out that she had suffered a miscarriage and when the doctor was called to treat her he had been drinking heavily and seems to have made things worse. However, he was acquitted after a two day trial.
Lawrence never remarried. When ill health forced his return from Germany he settled in Stranraer and became chairman of the football club there, but angina and heart disease led to his premature death while visiting his sister in Glasgow. After his funeral he was cremated at Western Necropolis, Maryhill.
- Published on
In autumn of 1946 a select team of footballers from the southern Polish region of Silesia embarked on a four match tour of Scotland which helped Polish football on the road to post-war recovery.
The players, mainly from clubs in Krakow and Chorzow, had just emerged from years of wartime hardship, with several of them having been held in concentration camps. When Poland resumed international matches against Norway the following summer, seven of the players from this tour were in the team.
The games at Dundee, Morton, Ayr and Hampden also added an attractive new dimension to the domestic scene in Scotland. The tour was scheduled to start on 9 October, but a travel delay in Berlin forced a short postponement. When the players finally trained for the first time, they were described by a curious reporter from the Dundee Courier: 'Fifteen well-built young men, clad in snappy training suits, yesterday lapped Hampden Park and went on to reveal slick ball-control. They were the Silesian footballers having their first trial spin since their arrival in this country. Their names read like anagrams.'
He added that only one had been in Scotland before: Michalski had served in the Polish Army and left Britain just nine weeks ago to be repatriated. Five had been in concentration camps, while others took part in the underground war in Poland.
Managed by M. Kiesielinski, Director of Physical Education in Poland, they were based in Glasgow, where they were entertained by a visit to the cinema, a tour of the city including Ibrox Stadium, and watched a League Cup tie between Queen's Park and Morton.
The players, mainly from clubs in Krakow and Chorzow, had just emerged from years of wartime hardship, with several of them having been held in concentration camps. When Poland resumed international matches against Norway the following summer, seven of the players from this tour were in the team.
The games at Dundee, Morton, Ayr and Hampden also added an attractive new dimension to the domestic scene in Scotland. The tour was scheduled to start on 9 October, but a travel delay in Berlin forced a short postponement. When the players finally trained for the first time, they were described by a curious reporter from the Dundee Courier: 'Fifteen well-built young men, clad in snappy training suits, yesterday lapped Hampden Park and went on to reveal slick ball-control. They were the Silesian footballers having their first trial spin since their arrival in this country. Their names read like anagrams.'
He added that only one had been in Scotland before: Michalski had served in the Polish Army and left Britain just nine weeks ago to be repatriated. Five had been in concentration camps, while others took part in the underground war in Poland.
Managed by M. Kiesielinski, Director of Physical Education in Poland, they were based in Glasgow, where they were entertained by a visit to the cinema, a tour of the city including Ibrox Stadium, and watched a League Cup tie between Queen's Park and Morton.
The Silesian tourists are shown the sights of Glasgow by Third Lanark chairman William sans Unkles
For their first match, versus Dundee, they travelled by bus and it turned into quite a festive occasion, starting with lunch at the Royal British Hotel hosted by the Dundee directors, then before the game the players were presented to Lord Provost Sir Garnet Wilson, followed by the national anthems.
The match attracted over 10,000 spectators to Dens Park on a Monday afternoon, including 13 truckloads of Polish Army soldiers, and they saw the home team record a comfortable 2-0 win. Then in the evening there was a reception where the players were presented with plush Scotch terriers, decorated with a tartan ribbon.
Incidentally, the same day Sparta Prague met Rangers at Ibrox and they faced Hibs later that week.
The Silesian tour continued two days later in Greenock, and this time the visitors showed their worth by racing to a three goal lead by half time. Although Morton pulled one back, and Garth missed a penalty, it was a good win.
Then on Saturday, there were 8,000 at Somerset Park. Ayr took the lead before Cieslik quickly equalised, and the Silesians scored what proved the winner after the break, although it took a brilliant penalty save by Brom from Smith to retain the lead.
The tour ended where it began, at Hampden Park, where 15,000 turned out to see a Third Lanark and Queen’s Park select face the Silesians. The visitors recorded their third successive win, although it was a close match.
Despite Cieslik and Brom apparently being offered professional contracts by Scottish clubs, all the tourists returned to Poland where they were greeted as heroes when they finally arrived at the railway station in Katowice, and taken for a festive breakfast.
However, it would not be long before Scottish football gained a Polish flavour. There was a large Polish Army base near Fraserburgh and inevitably some of them were decent players and decided to remain in the country when demobilised. The first to move to a Scottish League club was Feliks Staroscik, who signed for Third Lanark in May 1947, and he was soon followed by Alfie Leszcz (shortened to Lesz) at St Mirren and Konrad Kapler at Celtic.
The match attracted over 10,000 spectators to Dens Park on a Monday afternoon, including 13 truckloads of Polish Army soldiers, and they saw the home team record a comfortable 2-0 win. Then in the evening there was a reception where the players were presented with plush Scotch terriers, decorated with a tartan ribbon.
Incidentally, the same day Sparta Prague met Rangers at Ibrox and they faced Hibs later that week.
The Silesian tour continued two days later in Greenock, and this time the visitors showed their worth by racing to a three goal lead by half time. Although Morton pulled one back, and Garth missed a penalty, it was a good win.
Then on Saturday, there were 8,000 at Somerset Park. Ayr took the lead before Cieslik quickly equalised, and the Silesians scored what proved the winner after the break, although it took a brilliant penalty save by Brom from Smith to retain the lead.
The tour ended where it began, at Hampden Park, where 15,000 turned out to see a Third Lanark and Queen’s Park select face the Silesians. The visitors recorded their third successive win, although it was a close match.
Despite Cieslik and Brom apparently being offered professional contracts by Scottish clubs, all the tourists returned to Poland where they were greeted as heroes when they finally arrived at the railway station in Katowice, and taken for a festive breakfast.
However, it would not be long before Scottish football gained a Polish flavour. There was a large Polish Army base near Fraserburgh and inevitably some of them were decent players and decided to remain in the country when demobilised. The first to move to a Scottish League club was Feliks Staroscik, who signed for Third Lanark in May 1947, and he was soon followed by Alfie Leszcz (shortened to Lesz) at St Mirren and Konrad Kapler at Celtic.
Silesian squad
Walter Brom (Ruch)
Erwin Michalski (AKS)
Antoni Barwiński (Tarnovia)
Stanislaw Flanek (Wisla)
Mieczyslaw Gracz (Wisla)
Bak (right half)
Tadeusz Parpan (Cracovia)
Antoni Andrzejewski (AKS)
Jan Wapiennik (Wisla)
Stanislaw Baran (Ruch)
Gerard Cieślik (Ruch)
Mieczyslaw Nowak (Garbarnia)
Marian Jabłoński (Cracovia) captain
Maksymilian Baranski (AKS)
Stanislaw Różankowski (Cracovia)
In the first match at Dundee, the Silesian team was Brom; Barwiński, Flanek; Wapiennik, Andrzejewski, Jabłoński; Cieślik, Nowak, Gracz, Różankowski, Baranski. For the other three matches, Parpan replaced Andrzejewski, and Baran replaced Baranski. Michalski and Bak did not play.
Results
October 14, 1946
Dundee 2 (Turnbull 4, 75), Silesians 0
Dundee: Bennett, Follon, Ancell, McKenzie, Gray, Smith, Gunn, Pattillo, Turnbull, Ewen, Hill.
October 16, 1946
Greenock Morton 1 (McInnes 51), Silesians 3 (Cieślik 2, 12, Różankowski 41)
Morton: McFeat, Maley, Kelly, Mitchell, Aird, White, Cupples, Divers, Jones, Garth, McInnes.
October 19, 1946
Ayr United 1 (Morrison 30), Silesians 2 (Cieślik 32, Gracz 57)
Ayr: Paton, Monaghan, Henderson, Smith, McNeill, Nesbitt, McGuigan, Harkness, Morrison, Wallace, Beattie.
October 23, 1946
Third Lanark/Queen's Park Select 1 (Ayton 61), Silesians 2 (Nowak 9, 79)
Third Lanark/Queen’s Park: Hamilton, Carabine, Kelly, Letham, Whigham, Harnett, McCulloch, Mason, Aitken, Ayton, Mitchell.
Walter Brom (Ruch)
Erwin Michalski (AKS)
Antoni Barwiński (Tarnovia)
Stanislaw Flanek (Wisla)
Mieczyslaw Gracz (Wisla)
Bak (right half)
Tadeusz Parpan (Cracovia)
Antoni Andrzejewski (AKS)
Jan Wapiennik (Wisla)
Stanislaw Baran (Ruch)
Gerard Cieślik (Ruch)
Mieczyslaw Nowak (Garbarnia)
Marian Jabłoński (Cracovia) captain
Maksymilian Baranski (AKS)
Stanislaw Różankowski (Cracovia)
In the first match at Dundee, the Silesian team was Brom; Barwiński, Flanek; Wapiennik, Andrzejewski, Jabłoński; Cieślik, Nowak, Gracz, Różankowski, Baranski. For the other three matches, Parpan replaced Andrzejewski, and Baran replaced Baranski. Michalski and Bak did not play.
Results
October 14, 1946
Dundee 2 (Turnbull 4, 75), Silesians 0
Dundee: Bennett, Follon, Ancell, McKenzie, Gray, Smith, Gunn, Pattillo, Turnbull, Ewen, Hill.
October 16, 1946
Greenock Morton 1 (McInnes 51), Silesians 3 (Cieślik 2, 12, Różankowski 41)
Morton: McFeat, Maley, Kelly, Mitchell, Aird, White, Cupples, Divers, Jones, Garth, McInnes.
October 19, 1946
Ayr United 1 (Morrison 30), Silesians 2 (Cieślik 32, Gracz 57)
Ayr: Paton, Monaghan, Henderson, Smith, McNeill, Nesbitt, McGuigan, Harkness, Morrison, Wallace, Beattie.
October 23, 1946
Third Lanark/Queen's Park Select 1 (Ayton 61), Silesians 2 (Nowak 9, 79)
Third Lanark/Queen’s Park: Hamilton, Carabine, Kelly, Letham, Whigham, Harnett, McCulloch, Mason, Aitken, Ayton, Mitchell.
- Published on
Fifty years ago today, Third Lanark took on Berwick Rangers at Cathkin Park in Glasgow, in what turned out to be their last season. This rare colour image of the team in action - never published before - was taken by football historian George Campbell, who was years ahead of his time in documenting some of Scottish football's lesser known teams and stadia.
There is just a sparse crowd watching Thirds (in scarlet) and Berwick (in black and gold stripes). Some of them are sitting in the fine-looking, but uncompleted, grandstand, the rest of them scattered around terracing which had once held over 40,000. The crowd for this game was around 1100, and as the club continued to decline it was the last time a four figure attendance was recorded at the ground.
Although times were hard, nobody realised at the time that Third Lanark were on the brink of extinction, the victims of years of corrupt mis-management which was orchestrated by club chairman Bill Hiddelston (often mis-spelled as Hiddleston), who took control at the end of 1962. The sad story has been told many times, notably in great detail in John Litster's book 'Life and Death of the Hi Hi'.
There is just a sparse crowd watching Thirds (in scarlet) and Berwick (in black and gold stripes). Some of them are sitting in the fine-looking, but uncompleted, grandstand, the rest of them scattered around terracing which had once held over 40,000. The crowd for this game was around 1100, and as the club continued to decline it was the last time a four figure attendance was recorded at the ground.
Although times were hard, nobody realised at the time that Third Lanark were on the brink of extinction, the victims of years of corrupt mis-management which was orchestrated by club chairman Bill Hiddelston (often mis-spelled as Hiddleston), who took control at the end of 1962. The sad story has been told many times, notably in great detail in John Litster's book 'Life and Death of the Hi Hi'.
As so often in football, the main people to suffer were the supporters. who ended up losing their club. Third Lanark had a particularly active Supporters' Association, founded in 1946 and which produced the club's match programme and annual handbook, making substantial donations from the proceeds to back the club they loved. Despite not seeing eye to eye with Hiddelston and his directors, they were still going strong up to the end. This membership card for 1965-66 was the last one issued, and inside is stapled a sheet with the details for 1966-67.
8 October 1966
Scottish League Division 2
Third Lanark 3 (Fyfe 5, Henderson 25, Stewart 87)
Berwick Rangers 0
Third Lanark: Russell, Connell, Baillie; McLaughlin, Little, McKay; Kinnaird, Stewart, Fyfe, May, Henderson. Sub: Kilgannon.
Berwick Rangers: Tait, Haig, Riddle; Craig, Coutts, Rodgers; Lumsden, Forsyth, McLaren, Boyce, Veitch. Sub: Stewart.
Referee: RD Henderson (Dundee)
On the same day, the SFA sacked Scotland manager John Prentice after just six months; Celtic maintained their 100 per cent record at the top of Division 1 with a 5-3 win at Hibs; and the league's new club Clydebank maintained their own 100 per cent record with a ninth successive defeat at home to Albion Rovers to remain rooted at the foot of Division 2.
Scottish League Division 2
Third Lanark 3 (Fyfe 5, Henderson 25, Stewart 87)
Berwick Rangers 0
Third Lanark: Russell, Connell, Baillie; McLaughlin, Little, McKay; Kinnaird, Stewart, Fyfe, May, Henderson. Sub: Kilgannon.
Berwick Rangers: Tait, Haig, Riddle; Craig, Coutts, Rodgers; Lumsden, Forsyth, McLaren, Boyce, Veitch. Sub: Stewart.
Referee: RD Henderson (Dundee)
On the same day, the SFA sacked Scotland manager John Prentice after just six months; Celtic maintained their 100 per cent record at the top of Division 1 with a 5-3 win at Hibs; and the league's new club Clydebank maintained their own 100 per cent record with a ninth successive defeat at home to Albion Rovers to remain rooted at the foot of Division 2.
- Published on
Fergus Suter (lying in front) with the Darwen team which he captained in 1880
This article is based on a paper I presented this week to the British Society of Sports History conference in Edinburgh, and follows on from my previous blogs about the early relationship between Partick and Darwen football clubs.
In the autumn of 1878, two Scottish footballers moved to Lancashire. James Love and Fergus Suter left Partick to join Darwen, where they became, almost certainly, the first professional players.
That much is recorded in histories of the game. But what is not explained is why those particular men chose that particular moment to move between those particular clubs. In this paper I will demonstrate that it was not a random event, outlining the specific circumstances that led to Love and Suter exchanging a Glasgow suburb for an East Lancashire mill town, 200 miles away. And I will also, for the first time, reveal the identity of James Love.
To begin with, however, some context. It is a challenge for historians to say definitively who the first professional football player was, as payments were made illicitly in various round-about ways, and nobody ever confessed. Some claim it was the Glaswegian JJ Lang, who went to Sheffield Wednesday in 1876, but he seems to have benefitted from a benevolent employer giving him time off, rather than taking any direct payment from the football club.
To complicate matters, in fact many players moved across the border, in both directions, usually because of their work. To take just one example, the Smith brothers, Robert and James, had both been founders of Queen’s Park in 1867, and moved to London for work a couple of years later; both played for Scotland in the first international match of 1872, just a week after turning out for South Norwood in the FA Cup. But there is no question that they were amateurs.
Cross-border connections such as these were crucial for the spread of association football. Queen's Park was first club from Scotland to undertake matches against English sides but it was not until New Year's Day 1876 that a second Scottish club fulfilled a match in England. That team was Partick, who travelled to face Darwen.
In the autumn of 1878, two Scottish footballers moved to Lancashire. James Love and Fergus Suter left Partick to join Darwen, where they became, almost certainly, the first professional players.
That much is recorded in histories of the game. But what is not explained is why those particular men chose that particular moment to move between those particular clubs. In this paper I will demonstrate that it was not a random event, outlining the specific circumstances that led to Love and Suter exchanging a Glasgow suburb for an East Lancashire mill town, 200 miles away. And I will also, for the first time, reveal the identity of James Love.
To begin with, however, some context. It is a challenge for historians to say definitively who the first professional football player was, as payments were made illicitly in various round-about ways, and nobody ever confessed. Some claim it was the Glaswegian JJ Lang, who went to Sheffield Wednesday in 1876, but he seems to have benefitted from a benevolent employer giving him time off, rather than taking any direct payment from the football club.
To complicate matters, in fact many players moved across the border, in both directions, usually because of their work. To take just one example, the Smith brothers, Robert and James, had both been founders of Queen’s Park in 1867, and moved to London for work a couple of years later; both played for Scotland in the first international match of 1872, just a week after turning out for South Norwood in the FA Cup. But there is no question that they were amateurs.
Cross-border connections such as these were crucial for the spread of association football. Queen's Park was first club from Scotland to undertake matches against English sides but it was not until New Year's Day 1876 that a second Scottish club fulfilled a match in England. That team was Partick, who travelled to face Darwen.
It seems an unlikely pairing. Partick (nothing to do with Partick Thistle) had only been founded a few months earlier, and would never be one of the leading lights of Scottish football; no major trophies came their way and they provided no internationalists. Darwen, more formally Darwen Cricket and Football Club, had only just converted from rugby to association rules and played football as a winter pastime for cricketers.
The explanation for the link lies with a footballer who crossed the border, going north. He was called William Kirkham (1854-1909), born and brought up in Darwen but who had gone to Partick for work - he was a colour mixer in the textile industry, a skilled job. While in Scotland he was a founding member of Partick football club in 1875, and when he returned south a couple of years later, he resumed playing for Darwen. Kirkham was the catalyst for inaugurating the relationship between Partick and Darwen, and it quickly developed, on and off the field. But there is much more to this than the personal link with William Kirkham, which was only the first piece in the jigsaw.
That first match in 1876 launched a series of matches between the two clubs, which gave rise to further contacts in Lancashire as Partick also played Blackburn Rovers three times in 1878 and 1879, and later faced Turton and Bolton:
1 January 1876 Darwen 0 Partick 7
10 November 1877 Partick 5 Darwen 0
1 January 1878 Darwen 3 Partick 2
2 January 1878 Blackburn Rovers 2 Partick 1
9 November 1878 Partick 2 Blackburn Rovers 0
1 January 1879 Darwen 0 Partick 7
2 January 1879 Blackburn Rovers 2 Partick 4
1 January 1880 Turton 3 Partick 5
2 January 1880 Bolton & District 3 Partick 3
2 October 1880 Darwen 4 Partick 1
Through these games, Partick became extraordinarily influential by supplying players for Lancashire football. They effectively acted as a 'shop window' for talented Scots who would become the earliest paid players in England. Have a closer look at the teams from 1 January 1878:
Darwen: J Booth, J Duxbury, A McWetherill, R Crookes, T Hindle, T Marshall, R Kirkham, J Knowles, J Lewis, T Bury, J Hayes.
Partick: E Suter, F Suter, A Stewart; R Love, A McGaw; J Love, J Keay, WH Kirkham, WG Struthers, W McLachlan and JN Boag.
Of the Partick players I have highlighted, five played for Darwen before the end of the decade – the Suter brothers Edward and Fergus, Jimmy Love, William Kirkham and William McLachlan – and for good measure William Struthers went to Bolton Wanderers, while John Boag later married a Bolton girl. In subsequent years several other Partick players also joined clubs in Lancashire.
And among the Darwen players was Tommy Marshall, a future England football international who won numerous cash prizes as a champion sprinter on the professional athletics circuit, and Ralph Crookes, employed as the club's cricket professional.
Clearly, Darwen was open-minded towards the morality of rewarding sporting talent with payment. And crucially, the club also acquired the means: as early as March 1878 they played local rivals Turton and drew a gate of £18, which prompted the local press to remark that the Darwen committee 'were almost at a loss as to what to do with such an enormous sum'. The answer soon became apparent, especially as that £18 figure was soon dwarfed by gate receipts which reached well into three figures within the next couple of years.
So, we come to the 1878/79 season, which was memorable for a number of reasons. Jimmy Love was first to arrive and a few weeks later Fergie Suter made his Darwen debut at full back. Their presence had a revolutionary effect as they were schooled in passing and combination play, which not only raised standards, it took Darwen to the FA Cup quarter final, the first northern team to reach that stage.
They faced Old Etonians over three matches, all played in London, and the story is well known. In the first game, Old Etonians led 5-1 at half-time, but a whirlwind response levelled it at 5-5 including two goals from Love. The Etonians, fearing defeat if the match carried on, refused to play extra time. In the replay Darwen drew 2-2, and it was only at the third attempt that Old Etonians prevailed. A fortnight later they won the FA Cup itself.
That cup run brought nationwide publicity for Darwen, especially as there was an element of mystique about Scots 'professors'. It was good box office, Darwen wanted more, and other clubs soon latched on.
So, how did it come about? At the time there was no mention in the press whether Love and Suter were paid to pay football, but Suter was candid enough to admit it later in life, when interviewed about his career:
'On what plan were you paid in those days?' he was asked, responding: 'Well, we had no settled wage, but it was understood that we interviewed the treasurer as occasion arose. Possibly we should go three weeks without anything, and then ask for £10. We never had any difficulty.' [Lancashire Daily Post, 13 December 1902]
This is as near as you can get to proof that Love and Suter were paid directly by the football club. And if the occasional tenner wasn't enough, at a time when a working wage was less than two pounds a week, Darwen played a benefit match for Love and Suter in April 1879.
But the relationship was short-lived. While Suter spent the rest of his life in Lancashire, Love played his last game for Darwen in October 1879, just a year after his debut. He then turned out once for Blackburn Rovers, made an appearance for Haslingden in January 1880, and promptly disappeared.
So what happened to him? Who was James Love, a key figure in football history, probably the first man ever to receive payment for playing the game? He has never been identified until now. There was no mention of his background or his circumstances in the papers, while Keith Dewhurst, who recently wrote a book [Underdogs, 2012] about the Darwen team, wrongly identified him as a shipyard worker – but that man remained in Partick all his life and died in an accident at work in 1894.
Tracking him down was not easy. Years later, there were cryptic clues in press articles that he had been killed in the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882 – but Love was not listed among the few British casualties. Then, searching more widely, I found that a Corporal Love of the Royal Marines had died of illness in Egypt, a couple of months after the bombardment of Alexandria. This led me to a family notice in the Glasgow Herald:
At Ismailia, of enteric fever, on 27 September aged 24, Corporal James Love, Royal Marine Light Infantry, eldest son of James Love, late of Greenock. [Glasgow Herald, 9 October 1882]
Now, Greenock is a fair distance from Partick, but this seemed as good a lead as any. After a lot of painstaking research, piecing together his life story, I found sufficient evidence not only to confirm that this was indeed him, but also to shed light on his reasons for going to Darwen.
James Love was born in Gushetfaulds Cottage in Glasgow in 1858, his father the manager of a coal depot attached to South Side railway station and goods yard. When he was nine, his father – also James Love – gave up this job to set up a contracting business, which included coal supply, street cleaning and disposal of horse manure. The family moved to Greenock then on to Glasgow and, to cut a long story short, in the summer of 1877 the business failed and the father was declared bankrupt.
Meanwhile, James junior also set himself up as a street-cleaning contractor in Partick but before long he too got into financial difficulties and a horse dealer called in an unpaid debt.
In October 1878, his two horses and his equipment, including a street-sweeping machine, were sold off at a public warrant sale. A couple of weeks later he was summoned to the Glasgow bankruptcy court but when he failed to show up, the court postponed the case for a month. On 21 November 1878, he again failed to appear, so Sheriff Walter Spens issued a warrant for his arrest. It was never served: James Love had run away from his debts. He had gone to Darwen.
That escape route was open to him thanks to his skills as a footballer and his friendship with William Kirkham. Also, Love had already visited Lancashire with Partick at New Year 1878. Going straight into the Darwen team, he formed a right wing partnership with Tommy Marshall and soon there was a steady diet of goals, cup ties and an admiring public. He had an income from the football club and may also have done some odd jobs.
But a year later, after this initial excitement, he dropped out of the Darwen team for reasons which are not clear. This left him in a quandary. The football income would have dried up. He had no job. He could not go home because of the arrest warrant hanging over him. So he took perhaps the only option open to a fit young man: he joined the army.
To be precise, he signed up with the Royal Marines in Liverpool on 24 February 1880 and I found his attestation papers at the National Archives.
The explanation for the link lies with a footballer who crossed the border, going north. He was called William Kirkham (1854-1909), born and brought up in Darwen but who had gone to Partick for work - he was a colour mixer in the textile industry, a skilled job. While in Scotland he was a founding member of Partick football club in 1875, and when he returned south a couple of years later, he resumed playing for Darwen. Kirkham was the catalyst for inaugurating the relationship between Partick and Darwen, and it quickly developed, on and off the field. But there is much more to this than the personal link with William Kirkham, which was only the first piece in the jigsaw.
That first match in 1876 launched a series of matches between the two clubs, which gave rise to further contacts in Lancashire as Partick also played Blackburn Rovers three times in 1878 and 1879, and later faced Turton and Bolton:
1 January 1876 Darwen 0 Partick 7
10 November 1877 Partick 5 Darwen 0
1 January 1878 Darwen 3 Partick 2
2 January 1878 Blackburn Rovers 2 Partick 1
9 November 1878 Partick 2 Blackburn Rovers 0
1 January 1879 Darwen 0 Partick 7
2 January 1879 Blackburn Rovers 2 Partick 4
1 January 1880 Turton 3 Partick 5
2 January 1880 Bolton & District 3 Partick 3
2 October 1880 Darwen 4 Partick 1
Through these games, Partick became extraordinarily influential by supplying players for Lancashire football. They effectively acted as a 'shop window' for talented Scots who would become the earliest paid players in England. Have a closer look at the teams from 1 January 1878:
Darwen: J Booth, J Duxbury, A McWetherill, R Crookes, T Hindle, T Marshall, R Kirkham, J Knowles, J Lewis, T Bury, J Hayes.
Partick: E Suter, F Suter, A Stewart; R Love, A McGaw; J Love, J Keay, WH Kirkham, WG Struthers, W McLachlan and JN Boag.
Of the Partick players I have highlighted, five played for Darwen before the end of the decade – the Suter brothers Edward and Fergus, Jimmy Love, William Kirkham and William McLachlan – and for good measure William Struthers went to Bolton Wanderers, while John Boag later married a Bolton girl. In subsequent years several other Partick players also joined clubs in Lancashire.
And among the Darwen players was Tommy Marshall, a future England football international who won numerous cash prizes as a champion sprinter on the professional athletics circuit, and Ralph Crookes, employed as the club's cricket professional.
Clearly, Darwen was open-minded towards the morality of rewarding sporting talent with payment. And crucially, the club also acquired the means: as early as March 1878 they played local rivals Turton and drew a gate of £18, which prompted the local press to remark that the Darwen committee 'were almost at a loss as to what to do with such an enormous sum'. The answer soon became apparent, especially as that £18 figure was soon dwarfed by gate receipts which reached well into three figures within the next couple of years.
So, we come to the 1878/79 season, which was memorable for a number of reasons. Jimmy Love was first to arrive and a few weeks later Fergie Suter made his Darwen debut at full back. Their presence had a revolutionary effect as they were schooled in passing and combination play, which not only raised standards, it took Darwen to the FA Cup quarter final, the first northern team to reach that stage.
They faced Old Etonians over three matches, all played in London, and the story is well known. In the first game, Old Etonians led 5-1 at half-time, but a whirlwind response levelled it at 5-5 including two goals from Love. The Etonians, fearing defeat if the match carried on, refused to play extra time. In the replay Darwen drew 2-2, and it was only at the third attempt that Old Etonians prevailed. A fortnight later they won the FA Cup itself.
That cup run brought nationwide publicity for Darwen, especially as there was an element of mystique about Scots 'professors'. It was good box office, Darwen wanted more, and other clubs soon latched on.
So, how did it come about? At the time there was no mention in the press whether Love and Suter were paid to pay football, but Suter was candid enough to admit it later in life, when interviewed about his career:
'On what plan were you paid in those days?' he was asked, responding: 'Well, we had no settled wage, but it was understood that we interviewed the treasurer as occasion arose. Possibly we should go three weeks without anything, and then ask for £10. We never had any difficulty.' [Lancashire Daily Post, 13 December 1902]
This is as near as you can get to proof that Love and Suter were paid directly by the football club. And if the occasional tenner wasn't enough, at a time when a working wage was less than two pounds a week, Darwen played a benefit match for Love and Suter in April 1879.
But the relationship was short-lived. While Suter spent the rest of his life in Lancashire, Love played his last game for Darwen in October 1879, just a year after his debut. He then turned out once for Blackburn Rovers, made an appearance for Haslingden in January 1880, and promptly disappeared.
So what happened to him? Who was James Love, a key figure in football history, probably the first man ever to receive payment for playing the game? He has never been identified until now. There was no mention of his background or his circumstances in the papers, while Keith Dewhurst, who recently wrote a book [Underdogs, 2012] about the Darwen team, wrongly identified him as a shipyard worker – but that man remained in Partick all his life and died in an accident at work in 1894.
Tracking him down was not easy. Years later, there were cryptic clues in press articles that he had been killed in the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882 – but Love was not listed among the few British casualties. Then, searching more widely, I found that a Corporal Love of the Royal Marines had died of illness in Egypt, a couple of months after the bombardment of Alexandria. This led me to a family notice in the Glasgow Herald:
At Ismailia, of enteric fever, on 27 September aged 24, Corporal James Love, Royal Marine Light Infantry, eldest son of James Love, late of Greenock. [Glasgow Herald, 9 October 1882]
Now, Greenock is a fair distance from Partick, but this seemed as good a lead as any. After a lot of painstaking research, piecing together his life story, I found sufficient evidence not only to confirm that this was indeed him, but also to shed light on his reasons for going to Darwen.
James Love was born in Gushetfaulds Cottage in Glasgow in 1858, his father the manager of a coal depot attached to South Side railway station and goods yard. When he was nine, his father – also James Love – gave up this job to set up a contracting business, which included coal supply, street cleaning and disposal of horse manure. The family moved to Greenock then on to Glasgow and, to cut a long story short, in the summer of 1877 the business failed and the father was declared bankrupt.
Meanwhile, James junior also set himself up as a street-cleaning contractor in Partick but before long he too got into financial difficulties and a horse dealer called in an unpaid debt.
In October 1878, his two horses and his equipment, including a street-sweeping machine, were sold off at a public warrant sale. A couple of weeks later he was summoned to the Glasgow bankruptcy court but when he failed to show up, the court postponed the case for a month. On 21 November 1878, he again failed to appear, so Sheriff Walter Spens issued a warrant for his arrest. It was never served: James Love had run away from his debts. He had gone to Darwen.
That escape route was open to him thanks to his skills as a footballer and his friendship with William Kirkham. Also, Love had already visited Lancashire with Partick at New Year 1878. Going straight into the Darwen team, he formed a right wing partnership with Tommy Marshall and soon there was a steady diet of goals, cup ties and an admiring public. He had an income from the football club and may also have done some odd jobs.
But a year later, after this initial excitement, he dropped out of the Darwen team for reasons which are not clear. This left him in a quandary. The football income would have dried up. He had no job. He could not go home because of the arrest warrant hanging over him. So he took perhaps the only option open to a fit young man: he joined the army.
To be precise, he signed up with the Royal Marines in Liverpool on 24 February 1880 and I found his attestation papers at the National Archives.
James Love's attestation papers on joining the Royal Marines in 1880 (National Archives)
They describe him as from Govan (Partick was in Govan parish), 5 feet 6 ½ inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and brown hair, giving his trade as a painter. His age is wrong, but that is nothing unusual in attestation papers.
By the 1881 census he is at Chatham Barracks, having been promoted to Corporal. Then in the summer of 1882 the Marines were called into action and embarked for Egypt, where the British were putting down a nationalist uprising by Ahmed Urabi. His forces had occupied Alexandria but after a defiant stand-off they were forced out by a two-day naval bombardment of the city. Love would have taken part in the subsequent occupation of Alexandria by the Royal Marines, and perhaps some of the fighting thereafter. But then he fell ill with a fever and, sadly, died in the military hospital in Ismailia. Corporal Love is commemorated on the memorial in Tel-el-Kebir cemetery.
By the 1881 census he is at Chatham Barracks, having been promoted to Corporal. Then in the summer of 1882 the Marines were called into action and embarked for Egypt, where the British were putting down a nationalist uprising by Ahmed Urabi. His forces had occupied Alexandria but after a defiant stand-off they were forced out by a two-day naval bombardment of the city. Love would have taken part in the subsequent occupation of Alexandria by the Royal Marines, and perhaps some of the fighting thereafter. But then he fell ill with a fever and, sadly, died in the military hospital in Ismailia. Corporal Love is commemorated on the memorial in Tel-el-Kebir cemetery.
James Love is recorded on the Royal Marines memorial in Tel-el-Kebir cemetery in Egypt
The 1882 Egypt campaign medal, with bar for Alexandria
The following year he was posthumously awarded the Egypt Medal (identical to the one pictured) which was sent to his father. Outside his family, his death went unnoticed. There were no obituaries, no tributes in the sporting press, and I've been unable to track down even a photo of him despite contacting several branches of his family.
But the story doesn't quite end there as there is one final, poignant, connection with Partick FC. After his death, Love's elder sister Jessie married one of the other Partick players, David Muirhead, and they named their son James Love Muirhead. He too met a sad end, killed in action in the first world war.
So that covers the story of Jimmy Love. What of Fergie Suter? His basic story is better known, and he even has an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, albeit with errors. Suter was born in Glasgow in 1857, the third son of a stonemason recently arrived from Ireland. He grew up in Partick where he was an apprentice mason like his father, and appears in Partick teams from 1876 onwards. He was well established as a footballer when, out of the blue, he also had a strong financial imperative for leaving.
In October 1878, the City of Glasgow Bank collapsed suddenly and spectacularly, incurring huge losses for its 1200 shareholders who had unlimited liability. It sent financial shockwaves through Scottish society as the directors were jailed for fraud, and 80 per cent of the shareholders were bankrupted.
One of those shareholders was a prominent Partick builder called Peter McKissock, who immediately halted work on his projects and dismissed all his men including the stonemasons. Among them, it seems likely, was 21-year-old Fergus Suter. To make matters worse, in November the Partick masons went on strike in protest against reduced rates of pay.
So, with little prospect of finding work locally Suter must have cast envious eyes at Jimmy Love in Darwen and wrote to ask if he, too, could be found a position. Suter had already played there for Partick, so it was not exactly a leap into the unknown, and according to the Lancashire Evening Post article I have already quoted, Suter 'came in the guise of stonemason, but only worked in that trade for a week or two. After that he purely played football, and though this was years before professionalism was legalised, he never lacked money.'
I have to point out that there is an erroneous story, which has appeared in many books and articles, stating that Suter played for Turton before coming to Darwen. This story originates in Tony Mason's Association Football and English Society (1980), but from an examination of the original source material, a 1909 history of Turton FC, it is clear that Suter's appearance for Turton was at the end of the 1878/79 season, not the start, although it does confirm he was paid cash by Turton for an appearance in their Challenge Cup team. I have since found a report of the Turton Challenge Cup final, and it was played on 29 March 1879 - ie two weeks after the defeat to Old Etonians. Suter played as a guest for Turton, who lost 1-0 to Eagley, and so did Jimmy Love; it stands to reason that if one of them was paid, so was the other.
Suter had made his debut for Darwen on 30 November 1878 at Accrington, where a spectator recalled 'he simply electrified players and spectators alike with points in the game of which they had never previously dreamt'. A week later, he and Love played in their first FA Cup tie, against Eagley on 7 December.
If anything, Suter's immediate impact was greater than Love's as within two weeks of arriving he played a trial for Lancashire and went on to represent his adopted county on numerous occasions, while Love was never selected. Suter certainly found his vocation in football. In his second season, 1879/80, he was appointed club captain of Darwen, led the team to victory in the first Lancashire Cup final, and his brother Edward also joined from Partick.
But in the summer of 1880, without warning, he jumped ship and moved to local rivals Blackburn Rovers. Darwen protested furiously that Suter had been financially induced, but there was, of course, no proof - and precious little sympathy for Darwen in any case as they were suspected of paying Suter themselves. The chances are that Rovers made Suter an offer he could not refuse, either a straight cash payment or a large loan on easy terms to set up a pub.
However, I did discover another possible reason for Suter wanting to leave Darwen. According to a family legend, he fathered an illegitimate son by a servant girl, and the time of his move to Blackburn would have coincided pretty much exactly with the discovery that she was pregnant.
Whatever, it was a successful move and Suter was the first man to make a career as a professional footballer. He remained with Blackburn Rovers through a glorious decade in which they were the first northern side to appear in the FA Cup final, in 1882, and subsequently won the FA Cup three times in a row, in 1884, 1885 and 1886. Suter just found time to make one appearance in the Football League's inaugural season in 1888, and continued to live in the town as a publican until shortly before his death in 1916.
So there, in brief, is the background to the players who gave birth to professionalism in football. Love and Suter changed the game forever through a specific set of circumstances which provided the means, the motive and the opportunity to earn a living from the game.
Partick and Darwen were unlikely bedfellows, but between them they established the rationale for paying football players. It is quite a legacy.
Article copyright Andy Mitchell, not to be reproduced without permission.
Click here to read an article about this research in the Sunday Herald.
NB In the course of researching Love and Suter, I have accumulated a large amount of background material, references and family trees. If other researchers would like to consult this archive, please get in touch through the contact form on the home page.
But the story doesn't quite end there as there is one final, poignant, connection with Partick FC. After his death, Love's elder sister Jessie married one of the other Partick players, David Muirhead, and they named their son James Love Muirhead. He too met a sad end, killed in action in the first world war.
So that covers the story of Jimmy Love. What of Fergie Suter? His basic story is better known, and he even has an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, albeit with errors. Suter was born in Glasgow in 1857, the third son of a stonemason recently arrived from Ireland. He grew up in Partick where he was an apprentice mason like his father, and appears in Partick teams from 1876 onwards. He was well established as a footballer when, out of the blue, he also had a strong financial imperative for leaving.
In October 1878, the City of Glasgow Bank collapsed suddenly and spectacularly, incurring huge losses for its 1200 shareholders who had unlimited liability. It sent financial shockwaves through Scottish society as the directors were jailed for fraud, and 80 per cent of the shareholders were bankrupted.
One of those shareholders was a prominent Partick builder called Peter McKissock, who immediately halted work on his projects and dismissed all his men including the stonemasons. Among them, it seems likely, was 21-year-old Fergus Suter. To make matters worse, in November the Partick masons went on strike in protest against reduced rates of pay.
So, with little prospect of finding work locally Suter must have cast envious eyes at Jimmy Love in Darwen and wrote to ask if he, too, could be found a position. Suter had already played there for Partick, so it was not exactly a leap into the unknown, and according to the Lancashire Evening Post article I have already quoted, Suter 'came in the guise of stonemason, but only worked in that trade for a week or two. After that he purely played football, and though this was years before professionalism was legalised, he never lacked money.'
I have to point out that there is an erroneous story, which has appeared in many books and articles, stating that Suter played for Turton before coming to Darwen. This story originates in Tony Mason's Association Football and English Society (1980), but from an examination of the original source material, a 1909 history of Turton FC, it is clear that Suter's appearance for Turton was at the end of the 1878/79 season, not the start, although it does confirm he was paid cash by Turton for an appearance in their Challenge Cup team. I have since found a report of the Turton Challenge Cup final, and it was played on 29 March 1879 - ie two weeks after the defeat to Old Etonians. Suter played as a guest for Turton, who lost 1-0 to Eagley, and so did Jimmy Love; it stands to reason that if one of them was paid, so was the other.
Suter had made his debut for Darwen on 30 November 1878 at Accrington, where a spectator recalled 'he simply electrified players and spectators alike with points in the game of which they had never previously dreamt'. A week later, he and Love played in their first FA Cup tie, against Eagley on 7 December.
If anything, Suter's immediate impact was greater than Love's as within two weeks of arriving he played a trial for Lancashire and went on to represent his adopted county on numerous occasions, while Love was never selected. Suter certainly found his vocation in football. In his second season, 1879/80, he was appointed club captain of Darwen, led the team to victory in the first Lancashire Cup final, and his brother Edward also joined from Partick.
But in the summer of 1880, without warning, he jumped ship and moved to local rivals Blackburn Rovers. Darwen protested furiously that Suter had been financially induced, but there was, of course, no proof - and precious little sympathy for Darwen in any case as they were suspected of paying Suter themselves. The chances are that Rovers made Suter an offer he could not refuse, either a straight cash payment or a large loan on easy terms to set up a pub.
However, I did discover another possible reason for Suter wanting to leave Darwen. According to a family legend, he fathered an illegitimate son by a servant girl, and the time of his move to Blackburn would have coincided pretty much exactly with the discovery that she was pregnant.
Whatever, it was a successful move and Suter was the first man to make a career as a professional footballer. He remained with Blackburn Rovers through a glorious decade in which they were the first northern side to appear in the FA Cup final, in 1882, and subsequently won the FA Cup three times in a row, in 1884, 1885 and 1886. Suter just found time to make one appearance in the Football League's inaugural season in 1888, and continued to live in the town as a publican until shortly before his death in 1916.
So there, in brief, is the background to the players who gave birth to professionalism in football. Love and Suter changed the game forever through a specific set of circumstances which provided the means, the motive and the opportunity to earn a living from the game.
Partick and Darwen were unlikely bedfellows, but between them they established the rationale for paying football players. It is quite a legacy.
Article copyright Andy Mitchell, not to be reproduced without permission.
Click here to read an article about this research in the Sunday Herald.
NB In the course of researching Love and Suter, I have accumulated a large amount of background material, references and family trees. If other researchers would like to consult this archive, please get in touch through the contact form on the home page.
- Published on
Jimmy Lundie, wearing cap in middle of back row, with Grimsby Town in 1889
Given that this is international week, and that Hibs have just celebrated a Scottish Cup victory, I've been researching a man who won a Scotland cap as well as the national trophy with Hibs. And for good measure, he also played for the team that declared itself Champions of the World.
His name was Jimmy Lundie, and the fact that he ended up as a labourer in Grimsby docks takes away nothing from his achievements as a footballer.
He came to the capital from Ayrshire in 1883, one of several Lugar Boswell players who transformed the fortunes of the Edinburgh club. In 1886, Lundie was the first Hibs player (along with James McGhee) to be capped by Scotland. He strolled through a 4-1 win over Wales at Hampden Park, but unfortunately headed an own goal towards the end. According to the Edinburgh Evening News he otherwise played a capital game at right back.
It was his only international honour, but the following season he won a Scottish Cup medal as Hibs beat Dumbarton 2-1, the first time the cup came east. And to top that in August 1887, Hibs declared themselves 'Champions of the World' by beating Preston North End - even though it was really just a marketing ploy as Preston were not the English cup-holders that year.
At that stage, like so many Scots players, Lundie was tempted by turning professional and joined Grimsby Town. It was not quite the football backwater that it sounds, as the club invested heavily in new players and reached the last 16 of the FA Cup in 1889, where he played again against Preston. Grimsby then became founder members of the Football League Second Division, and Lundie continued in the team until his retiral in 1894.
He settled permanently in Grimsby, and remained there for the rest of his life, working for a fish merchant, and getting married in 1902. He died in Grimsby on 16 August 1942 and is buried in Scartho Road Cemetery.
An early history of Grimsby Town paid him fulsome praise: 'It is exceedingly doubtful when he was at his best whether there was another back in the country to equal him. Cool, gentlemanly on the field to a degree, he scored to take advantage of a foe, and never during his career with the Fisheries was he known to give a foul.'
One curious thing about Lundie is that his family changed his name when he was a young man, which made tracing his birth details quite a challenge. Although most records quote a birth date in 1857, he was actually born as James Lynden in Kilwinning on 3 September 1861, and retained that surname until shortly before his move to Hibs. His brother John, born 20 March 1865 and briefly a Hibs player, was also born as Lynden.
His name was Jimmy Lundie, and the fact that he ended up as a labourer in Grimsby docks takes away nothing from his achievements as a footballer.
He came to the capital from Ayrshire in 1883, one of several Lugar Boswell players who transformed the fortunes of the Edinburgh club. In 1886, Lundie was the first Hibs player (along with James McGhee) to be capped by Scotland. He strolled through a 4-1 win over Wales at Hampden Park, but unfortunately headed an own goal towards the end. According to the Edinburgh Evening News he otherwise played a capital game at right back.
It was his only international honour, but the following season he won a Scottish Cup medal as Hibs beat Dumbarton 2-1, the first time the cup came east. And to top that in August 1887, Hibs declared themselves 'Champions of the World' by beating Preston North End - even though it was really just a marketing ploy as Preston were not the English cup-holders that year.
At that stage, like so many Scots players, Lundie was tempted by turning professional and joined Grimsby Town. It was not quite the football backwater that it sounds, as the club invested heavily in new players and reached the last 16 of the FA Cup in 1889, where he played again against Preston. Grimsby then became founder members of the Football League Second Division, and Lundie continued in the team until his retiral in 1894.
He settled permanently in Grimsby, and remained there for the rest of his life, working for a fish merchant, and getting married in 1902. He died in Grimsby on 16 August 1942 and is buried in Scartho Road Cemetery.
An early history of Grimsby Town paid him fulsome praise: 'It is exceedingly doubtful when he was at his best whether there was another back in the country to equal him. Cool, gentlemanly on the field to a degree, he scored to take advantage of a foe, and never during his career with the Fisheries was he known to give a foul.'
One curious thing about Lundie is that his family changed his name when he was a young man, which made tracing his birth details quite a challenge. Although most records quote a birth date in 1857, he was actually born as James Lynden in Kilwinning on 3 September 1861, and retained that surname until shortly before his move to Hibs. His brother John, born 20 March 1865 and briefly a Hibs player, was also born as Lynden.
- Published on
The Simmath Press is a name to conjure with for Scottish football historians. This obscure Dundee publisher was responsible for many of the earliest attempts at chronicling the story of our football clubs, with a prolific output in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Their little handbooks and histories are invaluable records of many of Scotland's smaller teams, not just for the text but also the rare photos of matches and players. A considerable effort must have gone into compiling the booklets, but almost all of them have no credited author.
Simmath Press should be celebrated for its efforts, yet the company remains an enigma, long since disappeared, and their publications are now hard to come by. I decided to look into their own story, as the company deserves considerable credit.
The earliest mention I could find in the press was in 1923, when the Simmath Press was acquired by Valentines of Dundee to specialise in the production of guidebooks, illustrated with Valentines views. Clearly it had been operating before then, and it reverted to a separate company four years later when the firm was sold on an amicable basis. Described as fine art printers, Simmath Press was based at 17 Roseangle, Dundee, where it remained until 1949.
The managing director was JPP Simpson, and the other directors were Duncan G Brown (assistant manager) and William B Dickie junior, a solicitor.
I have not been able to establish how the company got its name, but presumably the first half came from the Sim of Simpson. He was an interesting character in himself: James Palermo Parkes Simpson (1890-1963) was a WW1 navy veteran from Broughty Ferry, known as Captain Simpson, who had a number of outside interests. He tried (and failed) to build an upmarket hotel near his home in Errol, founded the Dundee Cat and Dog Home in 1937 and was a prize-winning pig breeder. But it appears most of his time was occupied in publishing.
Their little handbooks and histories are invaluable records of many of Scotland's smaller teams, not just for the text but also the rare photos of matches and players. A considerable effort must have gone into compiling the booklets, but almost all of them have no credited author.
Simmath Press should be celebrated for its efforts, yet the company remains an enigma, long since disappeared, and their publications are now hard to come by. I decided to look into their own story, as the company deserves considerable credit.
The earliest mention I could find in the press was in 1923, when the Simmath Press was acquired by Valentines of Dundee to specialise in the production of guidebooks, illustrated with Valentines views. Clearly it had been operating before then, and it reverted to a separate company four years later when the firm was sold on an amicable basis. Described as fine art printers, Simmath Press was based at 17 Roseangle, Dundee, where it remained until 1949.
The managing director was JPP Simpson, and the other directors were Duncan G Brown (assistant manager) and William B Dickie junior, a solicitor.
I have not been able to establish how the company got its name, but presumably the first half came from the Sim of Simpson. He was an interesting character in himself: James Palermo Parkes Simpson (1890-1963) was a WW1 navy veteran from Broughty Ferry, known as Captain Simpson, who had a number of outside interests. He tried (and failed) to build an upmarket hotel near his home in Errol, founded the Dundee Cat and Dog Home in 1937 and was a prize-winning pig breeder. But it appears most of his time was occupied in publishing.
And what of their publications? Simmath had a business model based on providing a client with free copies of a booklet to sell, in return for an official endorsement that allowed the company to keep the advertising revenue. Their principal customers were local councils who wanted municipal guidebooks to promote tourism, and these appear frequently on the market.
However, they also ventured into sport, and the 1920s saw Simmath produce booklets for Scottish cricket clubs including Aberdeenshire, Clackmannan and Perthshire, then in the 1930s they moved into fox-hunting, with the renowned writer John Fairfax-Blakeborough compiling guides to Dumfriesshire, Lincolnshire and Northumbria. There was also a Simmath guide to the 1931 Open Golf Championship, held nearby at Carnoustie, and regional golf guides for counties as far apart as Fife and Somerset. The only football booklet that I know of at this stage was Tales from Tynecastle, which I have already digitised on this site.
However, they also ventured into sport, and the 1920s saw Simmath produce booklets for Scottish cricket clubs including Aberdeenshire, Clackmannan and Perthshire, then in the 1930s they moved into fox-hunting, with the renowned writer John Fairfax-Blakeborough compiling guides to Dumfriesshire, Lincolnshire and Northumbria. There was also a Simmath guide to the 1931 Open Golf Championship, held nearby at Carnoustie, and regional golf guides for counties as far apart as Fife and Somerset. The only football booklet that I know of at this stage was Tales from Tynecastle, which I have already digitised on this site.
Simmath appeared to be prospering and in 1939 branched out into neon lighting for advertising signs, although the war soon put a stop to that. Their output in the war years included air raid precaution guides.
The post-war years brought a huge boom in football attendances, and around 1948 someone at Simmath had the bright idea to approach football clubs. It was an immediate success: clubs the length of Scotland soon had a history booklet, produced in a standardised yet well-written format, illustrated with team groups and action photos. The 'Through the Years' series must have sold well, as the following season came the follow-up, with club handbooks.
The clubs were largely east coast, reflecting the company's home base in Dundee, but although Glasgow was not touched the range extended as far west as Kilmarnock and up to Inverness. They include unexpected teams such as Peterhead and Brechin City, the latter being one of the few to credit an author, George Cumming.
The post-war years brought a huge boom in football attendances, and around 1948 someone at Simmath had the bright idea to approach football clubs. It was an immediate success: clubs the length of Scotland soon had a history booklet, produced in a standardised yet well-written format, illustrated with team groups and action photos. The 'Through the Years' series must have sold well, as the following season came the follow-up, with club handbooks.
The clubs were largely east coast, reflecting the company's home base in Dundee, but although Glasgow was not touched the range extended as far west as Kilmarnock and up to Inverness. They include unexpected teams such as Peterhead and Brechin City, the latter being one of the few to credit an author, George Cumming.
When there was not enough advertising business for a specific club, they were grouped together in regional guides, such as Fife, Angus or the Highland League. There was even a handbook for Dundee junior clubs.
As the project ran out of steam, the company moved into national Scottish football yearbooks, the final output I know of being a large format hardback issue for 1953-54.
Simmath Press, by this time, had moved into expanded premises in Hawkhill, and the original building in Roseangle was sold in 1949 to Dundee Art Society, who are still there today. According to press reports, the company had 30 employees at the time and aimed to bring this up to 100, but I have not been able to establish what happened after the mid-1950s. The last mention I can find of them was in 1955, agreeing a contract to publishing housing tenancy agreement booklets.
The legacy of Simmath Press remains, however. Sold locally, few copies of their Scottish football handbooks now exist and most of them are not even in the National Library of Scotland, yet the company's prolific output represents a hugely important contribution to the history of our game. Some of their photos, in particular the action shots, are almost the only pictorial record of that era. Written and compiled anonymously, the Simmath football guides are lively and informative, a long-forgotten snapshot of the post-war boom years.
A Simmath Press football bibliography
'Through the Years' series of club histories (1948): Aberdeen, Alloa, Brechin City, Cowdenbeath, Dundee, Dundee Utd, East Fife, Falkirk, Forfar Athletic, Hibernian, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Montrose, St Johnstone, Stirling Albion; Highland League (reprinted 1952)
Handbooks 1949-50: Aberdeen, Dundee, Forfar Athletic, Hearts, Hibernian, Stirling Albion; Fifeshire Football Clubs
Handbooks 1950-51: Airdrieonians, Alloa, Dundee, Forfar Athletic, Hearts, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Peterhead, St Johnstone, Stirling Albion; Angus Football Clubs, Inverness and District clubs, North of Scotland clubs; Dundee Junior Football; Scottish League.
Handbooks 1951-52: Hearts/Hibernian (joint), Stirling Albion, Fifeshire Football Clubs, Raith Rovers Supporters' Club Silver Jubilee, Scottish League.
Handbooks 1952-53: Raith Rovers, Scottish League.
Handbooks 1953-54: Raith Rovers, Scottish League (hardback).
Tales from Tynecastle (1928).
This may not be a complete list, please let me know of any other editions.
Simmath Press, by this time, had moved into expanded premises in Hawkhill, and the original building in Roseangle was sold in 1949 to Dundee Art Society, who are still there today. According to press reports, the company had 30 employees at the time and aimed to bring this up to 100, but I have not been able to establish what happened after the mid-1950s. The last mention I can find of them was in 1955, agreeing a contract to publishing housing tenancy agreement booklets.
The legacy of Simmath Press remains, however. Sold locally, few copies of their Scottish football handbooks now exist and most of them are not even in the National Library of Scotland, yet the company's prolific output represents a hugely important contribution to the history of our game. Some of their photos, in particular the action shots, are almost the only pictorial record of that era. Written and compiled anonymously, the Simmath football guides are lively and informative, a long-forgotten snapshot of the post-war boom years.
A Simmath Press football bibliography
'Through the Years' series of club histories (1948): Aberdeen, Alloa, Brechin City, Cowdenbeath, Dundee, Dundee Utd, East Fife, Falkirk, Forfar Athletic, Hibernian, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Montrose, St Johnstone, Stirling Albion; Highland League (reprinted 1952)
Handbooks 1949-50: Aberdeen, Dundee, Forfar Athletic, Hearts, Hibernian, Stirling Albion; Fifeshire Football Clubs
Handbooks 1950-51: Airdrieonians, Alloa, Dundee, Forfar Athletic, Hearts, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Peterhead, St Johnstone, Stirling Albion; Angus Football Clubs, Inverness and District clubs, North of Scotland clubs; Dundee Junior Football; Scottish League.
Handbooks 1951-52: Hearts/Hibernian (joint), Stirling Albion, Fifeshire Football Clubs, Raith Rovers Supporters' Club Silver Jubilee, Scottish League.
Handbooks 1952-53: Raith Rovers, Scottish League.
Handbooks 1953-54: Raith Rovers, Scottish League (hardback).
Tales from Tynecastle (1928).
This may not be a complete list, please let me know of any other editions.
Categories
- Aberdeen (1)
- Albion Rovers (1)
- Alloa (1)
- Arthur Kinnaird (3)
- Aston Villa (1)
- athletics (5)
- Australia (6)
- Ayrshire (8)
- Belgium (1)
- black heritage (18)
- Blackburn (1)
- boxing (1)
- Bridge of Allan (2)
- Cambridge (1)
- Canada (8)
- Celtic (1)
- collecting (2)
- cricket (10)
- curling (3)
- Darwen (5)
- Denmark (4)
- Dingwall (1)
- Dougray Scott (1)
- Doune (1)
- Dumbarton (1)
- Dunblane (10)
- Dundee (4)
- Dundee United (1)
- Edinburgh (28)
- England (15)
- Everton (1)
- FIFA (3)
- Film and TV (5)
- First World War (11)
- football (179)
- France (10)
- Germany (1)
- Glasgow (18)
- goal scoring (6)
- golf (1)
- gravestones (9)
- Grimsby (1)
- Hampden Park (5)
- heading (1)
- Heart of Midlothian (6)
- Helensburgh (1)
- Hibernian (2)
- hockey (2)
- Ice hockey (1)
- Italy (2)
- Juventus (1)
- Laws of the Game (8)
- Leith Athletic (1)
- lion taming (2)
- literature (8)
- Mexico (1)
- Newcastle United (1)
- Olympics (9)
- origins (63)
- Partick (5)
- Perthshire (2)
- photography (8)
- Poland (1)
- programmes (2)
- publications (25)
- Queen's Park (17)
- Rangers (5)
- record breaking (2)
- rowing (5)
- rugby (10)
- scandal (16)
- Scotland (103)
- South America (5)
- Spain (2)
- speedway (1)
- St Mirren (1)
- swimming (1)
- tennis (5)
- Third Lanark (6)
- Trophies (4)
- USA (4)
- women (6)
Archives
- September 2026 (1)
- August 2026 (2)
- July 2026 (1)
- June 2026 (1)
- March 2026 (1)
- December 2025 (1)
- November 2025 (3)
- October 2025 (1)
- August 2025 (1)
- June 2025 (1)
- May 2025 (3)
- April 2025 (1)
- March 2025 (1)
- February 2025 (1)
- January 2025 (2)
- December 2024 (1)
- October 2024 (2)
- September 2024 (1)
- July 2024 (1)
- April 2024 (2)
- February 2024 (1)
- June 2023 (1)
- February 2023 (1)
- January 2023 (1)
- December 2022 (1)
- November 2022 (2)
- September 2022 (1)
- July 2022 (1)
- June 2022 (1)
- May 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (1)
- February 2022 (3)
- January 2022 (1)
- December 2021 (1)
- November 2021 (1)
- October 2021 (1)
- September 2021 (1)
- August 2021 (1)
- July 2021 (4)
- June 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (2)
- April 2021 (1)
- March 2021 (1)
- January 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (1)
- October 2020 (5)
- September 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (1)
- June 2020 (1)
- May 2020 (1)
- April 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (2)
- January 2020 (1)
- December 2019 (1)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (1)
- August 2019 (2)
- July 2019 (1)
- June 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (1)
- January 2019 (3)
- November 2018 (1)
- October 2018 (2)
- September 2018 (2)
- August 2018 (1)
- July 2018 (1)
- June 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (3)
- April 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (1)
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (1)
- June 2017 (3)
- May 2017 (3)
- March 2017 (2)
- February 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (2)
- October 2016 (3)
- September 2016 (1)
- August 2016 (1)
- July 2016 (1)
- June 2016 (1)
- May 2016 (2)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (2)
- February 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (1)
- October 2015 (2)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (2)
- July 2015 (2)
- May 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (1)
- March 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (3)
- November 2014 (3)
- October 2014 (4)
- September 2014 (4)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (4)
- June 2014 (2)
- May 2014 (5)
- April 2014 (2)
- March 2014 (2)
- February 2014 (3)
- January 2014 (3)
- December 2013 (3)
- November 2013 (3)
- October 2013 (4)
- September 2013 (3)
- August 2013 (3)
- July 2013 (4)
- May 2013 (3)
- April 2013 (2)
- March 2013 (5)
- February 2013 (1)
- January 2013 (3)
- December 2012 (2)
- November 2012 (5)
- October 2012 (2)
- September 2012 (4)
- August 2012 (3)
- July 2012 (4)
- June 2012 (4)
- May 2012 (1)
Author
All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell.