SPORTS HISTORY BLOG
Over 250 articles on all aspects of Scottish sport
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The two photographs below have a unique place in sporting history: taken in Edinburgh in 1848, they represent the first group photos of sportsmen ever taken.
Two groups of St Andrew Boat Club members in 1848, from the albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club (National Library of Scotland)
St Andrew Boat Club, founded in 1846 in Edinburgh, is Scotland's oldest open boat club and recently celebrated its 175th anniversary.
The club was only two years old when seven of its members members appeared in these photos, which were preserved within the albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club. Those books are now held by the National Library of Scotland, and the albums were fully digitised for the Pencils of Light exhibition.
Photography was in its infancy: the calotype process was invented by Henry Fox Talbot in 1841, and taken up in Edinburgh by Hill & Adamson a couple of years later. They took the first known sports photos of John Laing, a tennis or rackets player, who I have already written about.
It was a step forward from having a single subject who was standing motionless for a long exposure, to taking a photograph of a group, and the challenge was taken up by Hugh Lyon Tennent. He was a member of both the Calotype Club and the Rowing Club, and is credited with taking the photos, perhaps with the assistance of his brother Robert. The venue is almost certainly the club house at Fountainbridge, on the Union Canal.
Identifying the seven men was a challenge, as the caption for the first photo simply named the rowers as 'T Dickson, Hastie, Hugh Lyon Tennent, Rd Campbell, Seton, JS Tytler, Arbuthnot'. The second photo has the same subjects but Tennent has moved to the right of the group.
However, the recent publication of a history of St Andrew Boat Club has helped, not only to confirm all their identities, but also to pinpoint the date.
The club was only two years old when seven of its members members appeared in these photos, which were preserved within the albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club. Those books are now held by the National Library of Scotland, and the albums were fully digitised for the Pencils of Light exhibition.
Photography was in its infancy: the calotype process was invented by Henry Fox Talbot in 1841, and taken up in Edinburgh by Hill & Adamson a couple of years later. They took the first known sports photos of John Laing, a tennis or rackets player, who I have already written about.
It was a step forward from having a single subject who was standing motionless for a long exposure, to taking a photograph of a group, and the challenge was taken up by Hugh Lyon Tennent. He was a member of both the Calotype Club and the Rowing Club, and is credited with taking the photos, perhaps with the assistance of his brother Robert. The venue is almost certainly the club house at Fountainbridge, on the Union Canal.
Identifying the seven men was a challenge, as the caption for the first photo simply named the rowers as 'T Dickson, Hastie, Hugh Lyon Tennent, Rd Campbell, Seton, JS Tytler, Arbuthnot'. The second photo has the same subjects but Tennent has moved to the right of the group.
However, the recent publication of a history of St Andrew Boat Club has helped, not only to confirm all their identities, but also to pinpoint the date.
Membership list for St Andrew Boat Club for the first three years of its existence, from its foundation in 1846.
The club history published a list of members, starting with the 18 founders in April 1846, and detailing all who signed up in succeeding years. The Ordinary Members are those who lived in Edinburgh, while Extraordinary Members are mainly those who were in the military and therefore only in the city for a short time.
Dickson, Campbell, Tennent and Seton were all founding ordinary members in 1846, while Tytler joined the following year. The other two were only in Edinburgh for a short time and joined as extraordinary members: Hastie in 1848, and Arbuthnot for 1847-48. The date of the photo can therefore be pinpointed to the latter year.
The seven men in the photo can now be identified with some degree of certainty:
Thomas Goldie Dickson (1819-1905), an accountant who lived at 3 Royal Circus. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, he was also a member of John Hope's Foot-Ball Club in 1836. He was later notorious for his involvement in the Ardnamurchan clearances.
Charles Nairn Hastie (1809-1868), a solicitor from East Grinstead, Sussex, he was only in Edinburgh briefly and stayed at 136 Princes Street. In May 1848 he joined the Boat Club and was elected a Member of the Highland Agricultural Society.
Hugh Lyon Tennent (1817-1874), an advocate of 9 Lynedoch Place. Educated at Edinburgh Academy 1826-32. Related to the Tennents of brewing fame.
Ord Graham Campbell (1816-1890), a lawyer and Writer to the Signet, of 102 George Street. He was also a prominent golfer, member of the Royal & Ancient, and the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
George Seton (1822-1908), an advocate of 13 Coates Crescent. Educated at Royal High School, then Edinburgh and Oxford Universities, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an expert genealogist and served in the Royal Company of Archers.
James Stuart Fraser Tytler (1820-91), a lawyer and Writer to the Signet, of 27 Rutland Square. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University, he became a Professor of Conveyancing at the university.
Charles George Arbuthnot (1824-1899), Born in Ireland and educated at Rugby, he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, based at Leith Fort. He went on to a prestigious army career, serving in Crimea, Afghanistan and India, becoming Lieutenant General Sir Charles Arbuthnot.
Dickson, Campbell, Tennent and Seton were all founding ordinary members in 1846, while Tytler joined the following year. The other two were only in Edinburgh for a short time and joined as extraordinary members: Hastie in 1848, and Arbuthnot for 1847-48. The date of the photo can therefore be pinpointed to the latter year.
The seven men in the photo can now be identified with some degree of certainty:
Thomas Goldie Dickson (1819-1905), an accountant who lived at 3 Royal Circus. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, he was also a member of John Hope's Foot-Ball Club in 1836. He was later notorious for his involvement in the Ardnamurchan clearances.
Charles Nairn Hastie (1809-1868), a solicitor from East Grinstead, Sussex, he was only in Edinburgh briefly and stayed at 136 Princes Street. In May 1848 he joined the Boat Club and was elected a Member of the Highland Agricultural Society.
Hugh Lyon Tennent (1817-1874), an advocate of 9 Lynedoch Place. Educated at Edinburgh Academy 1826-32. Related to the Tennents of brewing fame.
Ord Graham Campbell (1816-1890), a lawyer and Writer to the Signet, of 102 George Street. He was also a prominent golfer, member of the Royal & Ancient, and the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
George Seton (1822-1908), an advocate of 13 Coates Crescent. Educated at Royal High School, then Edinburgh and Oxford Universities, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an expert genealogist and served in the Royal Company of Archers.
James Stuart Fraser Tytler (1820-91), a lawyer and Writer to the Signet, of 27 Rutland Square. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University, he became a Professor of Conveyancing at the university.
Charles George Arbuthnot (1824-1899), Born in Ireland and educated at Rugby, he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, based at Leith Fort. He went on to a prestigious army career, serving in Crimea, Afghanistan and India, becoming Lieutenant General Sir Charles Arbuthnot.
Front cover of the new club history
St Andrew BC remains a vibrant organisation, which only last week opened a new boathouse at Meggetland in Edinburgh. Rowing legend Dame Katherine Grainger, who has represented the club throughout her career, did the honours.
The history of the club is a fascinating read with many interesting photos, a 90 page paperback which is available from the club, price £10.
For further research, the club's extensive archives are held at the National Records of Scotland (Ref GD418).
The history of the club is a fascinating read with many interesting photos, a 90 page paperback which is available from the club, price £10.
For further research, the club's extensive archives are held at the National Records of Scotland (Ref GD418).
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It's amazing what can turn up. This silver buckle, attached to its original belt, was presented in 1865 by the 14th Earl of Eglinton for competition by cricket clubs in Cunninghame, north Ayrshire. I believe this was the world's first knock-out cricket tournament, a distinction which has apparently not previously been recognised.
In fact the Earl presented three prizes that summer: a silver ball for the winners, the silver-mounted belt for the runners-up, and a cricket bat for third place. Having added the belt to my collection following a chance find on eBay, I decided to look into its history, and the wider sporting patronage of the Earls of Eglinton in the Victorian era.
In fact the Earl presented three prizes that summer: a silver ball for the winners, the silver-mounted belt for the runners-up, and a cricket bat for third place. Having added the belt to my collection following a chance find on eBay, I decided to look into its history, and the wider sporting patronage of the Earls of Eglinton in the Victorian era.
The Eglinton silver belt, won in 1865 by Irvine Eglinton cricket club
It was first announced in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald on 13 May 1865: 'CRICKET - The Earl of Eglinton has resolved to come out as a patron of this fine manly game and has intimated to the cricketers in the district of Cunninghame that he intends giving them three prizes, to be competed for annually.'
The prizes attracted five local cricket clubs to enter the competition. It was an awkward number for a knock-out competition, but the ties were drawn and in the first round Ardeer beat Kilmarnock Junior on 3 June, then Kilwinning Monkcastle beat Kilmarnock Winton on 17 June, while Irvine Eglinton were given a bye. In the second round, effectively the semi-final, Irvine Eglinton beat Ardeer on 1 July while Kilwinning Monkcastle received a bye.
This set up a final which was played on 22 July at the Earl's own cricket pitch at Eglinton Castle. Kilwinning Monkcastle took the honours, and the silver ball, by beating Irvine Eglinton by 45 runs after two innings.
The prizes attracted five local cricket clubs to enter the competition. It was an awkward number for a knock-out competition, but the ties were drawn and in the first round Ardeer beat Kilmarnock Junior on 3 June, then Kilwinning Monkcastle beat Kilmarnock Winton on 17 June, while Irvine Eglinton were given a bye. In the second round, effectively the semi-final, Irvine Eglinton beat Ardeer on 1 July while Kilwinning Monkcastle received a bye.
This set up a final which was played on 22 July at the Earl's own cricket pitch at Eglinton Castle. Kilwinning Monkcastle took the honours, and the silver ball, by beating Irvine Eglinton by 45 runs after two innings.
Report of the first Eglinton cricket final in the Kilmarnock Weekly Post of 29 July 1865 (BNA)
There was still a need for a third place match, and Ardeer won the silver-mounted bat on 19 August, defeating Kilmarnock Winton by 17 runs.
The Eglinton prizes for Cunninghame clubs continued each year until 1882 when the silver ball was won by Beith. by this time, there was no mention of a silver belt for the runners-up, and the current whereabouts of the silver ball is (I believe) unknown.
Hence the little belt and buckle, which I now own, appears to be Scotland's oldest surviving cricket trophy. There were earlier cricket cups in England, but only for direct competition between two teams. I can find no earlier instance of a knock-out tournament.
The original winners of the belt, Irvine Eglinton, had been founded in the town in 1858, and not surprisingly the club's patron was the Earl of Eglinton himself. The club was one of the leading sides in Ayrshire in the 1860s but had a chequered history, having to bounce back from losing its ground to coal mining in 1867 and then became homeless again in 1874, after which it was wound up.
The 14th Earl was clearly a cricket enthusiast and delighted at the success of his tournament, so in 1867 he went one bigger and provided a trophy for the whole of Ayrshire (or more formally for Carrick, Kyle and Cunninghame). He had announced the previous summer that he would offer a silver cup, value £40, and the first edition of the competition attracted eleven entries. The first winners were Irvine Eglinton, defeating Ayr in the final. In succeeding years the winners always came from Ayr until Ayr CC won it three years in a row to take permanent possession of the trophy in 1875. It was in fact three trophies, a silver gilt claret jug with two goblets, all in the same velvet-lined box.
The Eglinton Cup, still held by Ayr CC, came back into public view in 2017 when it took pride of place at a Scottish cricket exhibition within the Football Museum at Hampden Park.
The Eglinton prizes for Cunninghame clubs continued each year until 1882 when the silver ball was won by Beith. by this time, there was no mention of a silver belt for the runners-up, and the current whereabouts of the silver ball is (I believe) unknown.
Hence the little belt and buckle, which I now own, appears to be Scotland's oldest surviving cricket trophy. There were earlier cricket cups in England, but only for direct competition between two teams. I can find no earlier instance of a knock-out tournament.
The original winners of the belt, Irvine Eglinton, had been founded in the town in 1858, and not surprisingly the club's patron was the Earl of Eglinton himself. The club was one of the leading sides in Ayrshire in the 1860s but had a chequered history, having to bounce back from losing its ground to coal mining in 1867 and then became homeless again in 1874, after which it was wound up.
The 14th Earl was clearly a cricket enthusiast and delighted at the success of his tournament, so in 1867 he went one bigger and provided a trophy for the whole of Ayrshire (or more formally for Carrick, Kyle and Cunninghame). He had announced the previous summer that he would offer a silver cup, value £40, and the first edition of the competition attracted eleven entries. The first winners were Irvine Eglinton, defeating Ayr in the final. In succeeding years the winners always came from Ayr until Ayr CC won it three years in a row to take permanent possession of the trophy in 1875. It was in fact three trophies, a silver gilt claret jug with two goblets, all in the same velvet-lined box.
The Eglinton Cup, still held by Ayr CC, came back into public view in 2017 when it took pride of place at a Scottish cricket exhibition within the Football Museum at Hampden Park.
Ayr cricket historian Norman Simpson with the Eglinton trophy (Ayrshire Post, 4 August 2017)
At that time, the Eglinton cup was hailed as the world's oldest cricket trophy but I think I can now dispute that claim by two years (although whether a silver belt can claim to be a trophy is another question).
The 14th Earl of Eglinton and Winton, pictured in 1881
While the 14th Earl, who died in 1892 aged 50, can be credited with creating the first cricket tournaments, it has to be said he was a sporting lightweight compared to his father, who had an extraordinary record of patronage that endures to this day.
The 13th Earl of Eglinton (1812-1861) is perhaps best known for his extravagant Eglinton Tournament which he hosted in 1839. However his lasting legacy was in sport. Described as 'the generous patron of every manly exercise', over the following two decades until his death he lavished his wealth on a huge variety of prizes which encouraged sporting competition in Scotland and far beyond.
His personal passion was horse racing and he kept a large racing stud, the greatest exponent being Flying Dutchman which won the Derby and the St Leger in 1849. The Earl also provided the Eglinton Cup at the Curragh racecourse in Kildare while he was Viceroy of Ireland.
In bowls, he donated the Eglinton Gold and Silver Bowls for clubs in Ayrshire (1854) and the magnificent Eglinton Silver Jug (1857) for annual competition between Ayrshire and Glasgow. These are all still competed for today.
In curling, he presented the Eglinton Jug in 1851 for Ayrshire clubs and it is also still going as a vibrant competition.
In golf, the Earl was a founder of Prestwick Golf Club in 1851 and provided the silver belt which was won on the course by Willie Park at the very first Open Championship in 1860. It continued to be the prize for the winner of the Open each year until Tom Morris junior won it outright in 1871, and it was replaced with the famous claret jug. The belt now resides in the R&A World Golf Museum in St Andrews.
The 13th Earl of Eglinton (1812-1861) is perhaps best known for his extravagant Eglinton Tournament which he hosted in 1839. However his lasting legacy was in sport. Described as 'the generous patron of every manly exercise', over the following two decades until his death he lavished his wealth on a huge variety of prizes which encouraged sporting competition in Scotland and far beyond.
His personal passion was horse racing and he kept a large racing stud, the greatest exponent being Flying Dutchman which won the Derby and the St Leger in 1849. The Earl also provided the Eglinton Cup at the Curragh racecourse in Kildare while he was Viceroy of Ireland.
In bowls, he donated the Eglinton Gold and Silver Bowls for clubs in Ayrshire (1854) and the magnificent Eglinton Silver Jug (1857) for annual competition between Ayrshire and Glasgow. These are all still competed for today.
In curling, he presented the Eglinton Jug in 1851 for Ayrshire clubs and it is also still going as a vibrant competition.
In golf, the Earl was a founder of Prestwick Golf Club in 1851 and provided the silver belt which was won on the course by Willie Park at the very first Open Championship in 1860. It continued to be the prize for the winner of the Open each year until Tom Morris junior won it outright in 1871, and it was replaced with the famous claret jug. The belt now resides in the R&A World Golf Museum in St Andrews.
A group of bowlers on the bowling green at Eglinton Castle circa 1870, including the 14th Earl of Eglinton fourth from right. (Picture courtesy of David Rice).
The Eglinton Silver Jug (bowls)
The Eglinton Silver Jug (curling)
The Eglinton Silver Belt, the prize for the first Open Championship in 1860
Those are the best known Eglinton trophies but he also provided a silver cup for Glasgow Regatta, a silver cup for shooting by the West of Scotland Volunteers, and a gold belt and quiver for Irvine archers. He founded the Eglinton Hunt and gave the Eglinton Hunt Cup to Ayr races. What is more, Eglinton Castle was superbly equipped with a rackets hall, a cricket pitch, a curling pond and a croquet lawn. Most of the castle is now ruins in the country park, but the rackets hall is a rare survivor, the oldest indoor sports building in Scotland.
Overall the patronage of the 13th Earl of Eglinton helped to encourage Scottish sport in many fields. After his death, the 14th Earl was less extravagant but he still made a key contribution to cricket and I am delighted to have discovered one of his original prizes.
Overall the patronage of the 13th Earl of Eglinton helped to encourage Scottish sport in many fields. After his death, the 14th Earl was less extravagant but he still made a key contribution to cricket and I am delighted to have discovered one of his original prizes.
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The first football match in Scotland under Association rules was played in Glasgow on 1 August 1868 between Queen's Park and Thistle. But while the foundation and history of Queen's Park is well known, it takes two sides to play a match, so who exactly were their opponents, Thistle? And was this really the starting point for football in the city?
The answers lie in the hidden history of football in Glasgow before Queen's Park came on the scene, with a man called John B Connell claiming to have brought the first football to the city several years earlier.
The traditional version of events was written by Richard Robinson in the Queen's Park jubilee history, where he asserted that there was no serious football in the city before the club was founded on 9 July 1867: 'Football was played in a more or less happy-go-lucky fashion in the Queen's Park and Glasgow Green. Play with the round ball was then comparatively new, and had not yet been systematised in Scotland.'
Robinson described how Queen's Park was founded after a few young men from the north of Scotland were engaged in athletic pursuits near to a group of YMCA members who were playing football. Sometimes the game spilled over into the athletics area, so the northerners challenged the YMCA boys. They enjoyed football enough to start playing regularly 'to amuse themselves, among themselves, in their own way,' and then decided to form a proper club. The rest is history as Queen's Park blazed a trail for association football in Scotland.
However, it is clear that football was already a popular recreation in Glasgow long before 1867, although frustratingly for historians there are only tantalising glimpses of football in the press and written records.
For example, in the summer of 1862 the Glasgow Abstainers' Union took over Gilmorehill Recreation Grounds to promote outdoor activities, and top of their list was football. Although it was initially described as 'the ancient and praiseworthy pastime of football', the activity was soon disparaged by an English observer in a letter to the Glasgow Morning Journal: 'Football as we play it in England, with two sides, and a goal to be kept by one of them, is a noble game. Here there was no game. By the English eye a mob of people kicking a ball about quite aimlessly and at random could only be regarded as a pitiful congregation of blockheads working off their superfluous physical energies in a particularly insane and stupid manner.' (7 May 1862)
This drew an angry riposte from 'A Scotchman' who wrote: 'Failing to discover the drunkenness over which he would have gloated with delight, he gives vent to his bile in a scurrilous attack on the play at foot-ball, which was not managed, he says in the English style. It may be right, perhaps, to let this conceited Englishman know that the game of football is as well understood in all parts of Scotland as England.' (9 May 1862)
It appears the Abstainers' Union were scared off by the bad publicity and they abruptly ended the short-lived experiment with the stark announcement: 'Foot-Balling has been discontinued in consequence of interfering with the comfort of visitors'. The game was simply too popular.
The answers lie in the hidden history of football in Glasgow before Queen's Park came on the scene, with a man called John B Connell claiming to have brought the first football to the city several years earlier.
The traditional version of events was written by Richard Robinson in the Queen's Park jubilee history, where he asserted that there was no serious football in the city before the club was founded on 9 July 1867: 'Football was played in a more or less happy-go-lucky fashion in the Queen's Park and Glasgow Green. Play with the round ball was then comparatively new, and had not yet been systematised in Scotland.'
Robinson described how Queen's Park was founded after a few young men from the north of Scotland were engaged in athletic pursuits near to a group of YMCA members who were playing football. Sometimes the game spilled over into the athletics area, so the northerners challenged the YMCA boys. They enjoyed football enough to start playing regularly 'to amuse themselves, among themselves, in their own way,' and then decided to form a proper club. The rest is history as Queen's Park blazed a trail for association football in Scotland.
However, it is clear that football was already a popular recreation in Glasgow long before 1867, although frustratingly for historians there are only tantalising glimpses of football in the press and written records.
For example, in the summer of 1862 the Glasgow Abstainers' Union took over Gilmorehill Recreation Grounds to promote outdoor activities, and top of their list was football. Although it was initially described as 'the ancient and praiseworthy pastime of football', the activity was soon disparaged by an English observer in a letter to the Glasgow Morning Journal: 'Football as we play it in England, with two sides, and a goal to be kept by one of them, is a noble game. Here there was no game. By the English eye a mob of people kicking a ball about quite aimlessly and at random could only be regarded as a pitiful congregation of blockheads working off their superfluous physical energies in a particularly insane and stupid manner.' (7 May 1862)
This drew an angry riposte from 'A Scotchman' who wrote: 'Failing to discover the drunkenness over which he would have gloated with delight, he gives vent to his bile in a scurrilous attack on the play at foot-ball, which was not managed, he says in the English style. It may be right, perhaps, to let this conceited Englishman know that the game of football is as well understood in all parts of Scotland as England.' (9 May 1862)
It appears the Abstainers' Union were scared off by the bad publicity and they abruptly ended the short-lived experiment with the stark announcement: 'Foot-Balling has been discontinued in consequence of interfering with the comfort of visitors'. The game was simply too popular.
Announcement in the Glasgow Herald, 24 November 1865
The only other meaningful announcement about football is a solitary advert for members of the St Andrew Football Club, placed in the Glasgow Herald in November 1865. Unfortunately, apart from the location of their ground on Great Western Road - which was also the home of cricket clubs including Caledonian, Bellegrove and Blythswood - nothing more is revealed about the club, not even whether they played with a round or oval ball.
Although the city's first rugby clubs were founded at West of Scotland (1865) and Glasgow Academicals (1866), there are precious few mentions of football in the press until Queen's Park advertised the start of their first summer season in March 1868, shortly followed by their annual meeting on 4 April.
Although the city's first rugby clubs were founded at West of Scotland (1865) and Glasgow Academicals (1866), there are precious few mentions of football in the press until Queen's Park advertised the start of their first summer season in March 1868, shortly followed by their annual meeting on 4 April.
Thought to be the first announcement by Queen's Park in the Glasgow Evening Citizen, 18 March 1868
The club was quickly growing in a stature, as a letter to the Glasgow Evening Citizen on 6 June confirmed. The writer stated the need for dressing rooms for sportsmen at the Queen's Park Recreation Ground and described the football club as 'the most influential in numbers, well organised and respectable, and with their flags, goal posts, putting stones, hammers and balls.' This was quite an accolade for a club which was less than a year old.
That summer they decided to broaden their horizons beyond their own membership and, according to Robinson: 'It was found that there were in existence other clubs in exactly the same position as the Queen's Park, on the lookout for opponents.'
Two challenges were received: one from Ayr FC, the other from the Thistle FC, whose headquarters were on Glasgow Green. A trip to Ayr was deemed impractical on financial grounds, so the game with Thistle was arranged and a letter from Robert Gardner, accepting the challenge, is in the Scottish Football Museum. It was addressed to Andrew Holmes, secretary of the Thistle Football Club, which indicates a properly organised club.
A few days later, the teams met at the Queen's Park Recreation Ground, with Queen's Park winning by two goals to nil. Association football had arrived in Glasgow.
What of their opponents? To establish the story of the Thistle Football Club one has to depend on later reminiscences, some of which contradict what Robinson wrote in the Queen's Park history.
I was first alerted to an anecdote published in a 1934 book, The Mighty Kick. The authors wrote that 'John Connal [sic] brought the first football to Glasgow in 1862, having been brought up on the traditions of Hansel Monday in Callander, and helped to found the Thistle Football Club at Glasgow Green. Callander boys came to Glasgow and played football at Monteith Row, Glasgow Green, where the People's Palace now stands, paying a penny a week to take part. They wore the colours of Drummond Castle, which was owned by Baron Willoughby d'Eresby. This included tartan caps.'
I found more of Connell's story in a couple of newspaper articles which described how he made the transition from the rural football of Perthshire to the organised game in Glasgow.
That summer they decided to broaden their horizons beyond their own membership and, according to Robinson: 'It was found that there were in existence other clubs in exactly the same position as the Queen's Park, on the lookout for opponents.'
Two challenges were received: one from Ayr FC, the other from the Thistle FC, whose headquarters were on Glasgow Green. A trip to Ayr was deemed impractical on financial grounds, so the game with Thistle was arranged and a letter from Robert Gardner, accepting the challenge, is in the Scottish Football Museum. It was addressed to Andrew Holmes, secretary of the Thistle Football Club, which indicates a properly organised club.
A few days later, the teams met at the Queen's Park Recreation Ground, with Queen's Park winning by two goals to nil. Association football had arrived in Glasgow.
What of their opponents? To establish the story of the Thistle Football Club one has to depend on later reminiscences, some of which contradict what Robinson wrote in the Queen's Park history.
I was first alerted to an anecdote published in a 1934 book, The Mighty Kick. The authors wrote that 'John Connal [sic] brought the first football to Glasgow in 1862, having been brought up on the traditions of Hansel Monday in Callander, and helped to found the Thistle Football Club at Glasgow Green. Callander boys came to Glasgow and played football at Monteith Row, Glasgow Green, where the People's Palace now stands, paying a penny a week to take part. They wore the colours of Drummond Castle, which was owned by Baron Willoughby d'Eresby. This included tartan caps.'
I found more of Connell's story in a couple of newspaper articles which described how he made the transition from the rural football of Perthshire to the organised game in Glasgow.
Start of the article in the Scottish Referee, 29 June 1914, which detailed Connell's early experiences in football
The Scottish Referee (29 June 1914) had an article titled 'A Football Pioneer' which was based on a conversation with John B Connell. It told how he came to Glasgow from Port of Menteith in 1863, and brought his football with him, one that had been used in the annual game at Callander on Hansel Monday (the first day of the traditional new year).
'He was the only individual in the city who possessed a public ball, and the charge for the use of it was a penny a week. The games were played on Glasgow Green, the boundaries being from Geordie Geddes's house [ie the Glasgow Humane Society] to Monteith Row, and the objective was to kick over the boundary on either side. Both hands and feet were used. There was no limit to the number of players who joined each side, once the penny was paid. These games ultimately culminated in the formation of the Thistle, in which Connell took a prominent part, though prior to that there was the Drummond Club, composed of Callander men.'
'He was the only individual in the city who possessed a public ball, and the charge for the use of it was a penny a week. The games were played on Glasgow Green, the boundaries being from Geordie Geddes's house [ie the Glasgow Humane Society] to Monteith Row, and the objective was to kick over the boundary on either side. Both hands and feet were used. There was no limit to the number of players who joined each side, once the penny was paid. These games ultimately culminated in the formation of the Thistle, in which Connell took a prominent part, though prior to that there was the Drummond Club, composed of Callander men.'
A contemporary map of the part of Glasgow Green where the Callander boys played their football. Monteith Row is top right, and the Glasgow Humane Society building lower left. The People's Palace now stands on the site.
A couple of years later, the Daily Record (29 March 1916) had an article 'supplied by one who played in what is believed to have been the club's first serious match'. It described the early games on Glasgow Green, with Callander lads wearing the tartan caps in the colours of Drummond Castle, and related how, when Queen's Park was formed, they sent a challenge to the new club. It is further evidence that Thistle was in existence before Queen's Park.
'The challenge limited the teams to eleven a side, and each club had to furnish a football, the visitors using theirs in the first half and the home team theirs in the second half. There was no referee, no goal nets, not even touch lines, merely an umpire for each side. The game was the chasing of a football, the fastest runners and the hardest kickers being the champions. Combination was unheard of, but dribbling was a fine art and everything was subordinated to footwork, fast running and vigorous shoulder charging.
'Each club had its own rules, the matches being played under the ruling of the home club. Against Drummond, the Queen's stipulated no tripping, in which the Perthshire players specialised. Their football was a hybrid type between present day Association and Rugby with tripping thrown in.'
This gives rise to some confusion, as Queen's Park played Thistle in 1868 (20-a-side) and Drummond in 1870 (18-a-side), so recollections of the two matches appear to have been muddled.
'The challenge limited the teams to eleven a side, and each club had to furnish a football, the visitors using theirs in the first half and the home team theirs in the second half. There was no referee, no goal nets, not even touch lines, merely an umpire for each side. The game was the chasing of a football, the fastest runners and the hardest kickers being the champions. Combination was unheard of, but dribbling was a fine art and everything was subordinated to footwork, fast running and vigorous shoulder charging.
'Each club had its own rules, the matches being played under the ruling of the home club. Against Drummond, the Queen's stipulated no tripping, in which the Perthshire players specialised. Their football was a hybrid type between present day Association and Rugby with tripping thrown in.'
This gives rise to some confusion, as Queen's Park played Thistle in 1868 (20-a-side) and Drummond in 1870 (18-a-side), so recollections of the two matches appear to have been muddled.
However, the accounts do reveal something of the nature of early association football in Glasgow. They also provide a documented direct link between Scottish rural football and association football, as first described by Dr Neil Tranter who told the story of Callander’s Hansel Monday football game over twenty years ago (click on link and scroll to page 143) and it was then reported in The Herald. The traditional new year match continued in the town until 1885, and overlapped with the formation in 1877 of Callander's first association football club, Rob Roy.
Connell described in the Scottish Football Annual of 1875
Connell was no mean player and was rated in the first Scottish Football Annual: 'Powerful back; kicks well, although rather nervous when pressed.' In 1875, while with Eastern, he played for Glasgow v Sheffield and a year later featured in an international trial.
His full name was John Burns Connell and he was born in Doune in 1846, then brought up on a farm near Port of Menteith, a few miles south of Callander. He clearly took part in the annual football match there and after coming to Glasgow to work in the early 1860s he continued to enjoy the game and appears to have been the captain of both the Thistle and the Drummond teams.
Later he played for Callander (a Glasgow club) in the first ever Scottish Cup tournament in 1873, after the club subscribed £1 for the purchase of the trophy. He then joined Eastern, a club which produced many prominent players, notably the Scotland internationalists Peter Andrews, JJ Lang, Alex Kennedy and WS Somers. Ultimately Eastern became one of the forerunners of Clyde FC.
He remained in Glasgow for the rest of his life and worked for over 50 years as a draper and warehouseman with J&W Campbell. He died in Scotstoun in 1930, aged 84, and although he and his wife Louisa had two children, there are not thought to be any living descendants.
There are no known photos of Connell, which is unfortunate as he is a key figure in the early development of football. Similarly, there is no documentary evidence of the Thistle or Drummond clubs.
As research into the story of early Scottish football continues, I hope that, in time, the contributions of John B Connell and his fellow players from Callander will become better known and appreciated.
**Update - following the digitisation of the Daily Record by the British Newspaper Archive, a lengthy article by Connell has come to light. Published three years after his death, it is a detailed and fascinating account of the pre-history of football in Glasgow.
His full name was John Burns Connell and he was born in Doune in 1846, then brought up on a farm near Port of Menteith, a few miles south of Callander. He clearly took part in the annual football match there and after coming to Glasgow to work in the early 1860s he continued to enjoy the game and appears to have been the captain of both the Thistle and the Drummond teams.
Later he played for Callander (a Glasgow club) in the first ever Scottish Cup tournament in 1873, after the club subscribed £1 for the purchase of the trophy. He then joined Eastern, a club which produced many prominent players, notably the Scotland internationalists Peter Andrews, JJ Lang, Alex Kennedy and WS Somers. Ultimately Eastern became one of the forerunners of Clyde FC.
He remained in Glasgow for the rest of his life and worked for over 50 years as a draper and warehouseman with J&W Campbell. He died in Scotstoun in 1930, aged 84, and although he and his wife Louisa had two children, there are not thought to be any living descendants.
There are no known photos of Connell, which is unfortunate as he is a key figure in the early development of football. Similarly, there is no documentary evidence of the Thistle or Drummond clubs.
As research into the story of early Scottish football continues, I hope that, in time, the contributions of John B Connell and his fellow players from Callander will become better known and appreciated.
**Update - following the digitisation of the Daily Record by the British Newspaper Archive, a lengthy article by Connell has come to light. Published three years after his death, it is a detailed and fascinating account of the pre-history of football in Glasgow.
John B Connell's detailed account of early Glasgow football in the Daily Record, 21 February 1933 (British Newspaper Archive)
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It was back in 2012 that I wrote of the need for a new Scotland who's who. Already by that time I had started to research the many internationalists who deserved to be better known, but I had little idea of the size of the job I was undertaking.
Now, after countless hours of research the book is finally published. The men who made Scotland contains detailed biographies of 615 players, in fact every player who represented Scotland between 1872 and 1939.
It is on sale from amazon or directly from me, and purchases of copies have quickly gone into three figures, but while I welcome any sales I have to clear that this was never going to be a profitable project. My aim, all along, was to ensure that footballers who reached the pinnacle of their profession by pulling on the dark blue of Scotland should be known about and celebrated. For too long, many of them were lost to the winds and I am delighted to have put that right.
After devoting the best part of ten years to completing the research and getting this book into print, the big question is: what now? In fact, I have a list of projects, large and small, which I can now get my teeth into.
Watch this space, I hope you continue to find much of interest on this website.
Now, after countless hours of research the book is finally published. The men who made Scotland contains detailed biographies of 615 players, in fact every player who represented Scotland between 1872 and 1939.
It is on sale from amazon or directly from me, and purchases of copies have quickly gone into three figures, but while I welcome any sales I have to clear that this was never going to be a profitable project. My aim, all along, was to ensure that footballers who reached the pinnacle of their profession by pulling on the dark blue of Scotland should be known about and celebrated. For too long, many of them were lost to the winds and I am delighted to have put that right.
After devoting the best part of ten years to completing the research and getting this book into print, the big question is: what now? In fact, I have a list of projects, large and small, which I can now get my teeth into.
Watch this space, I hope you continue to find much of interest on this website.
- Published on
Scottish football is, understandably, proud of the 'Scotch professors' who took the passing game to England and beyond in the pioneering days.
Well known names include JJ Lang and Peter Andrews who went to Sheffield in 1876, Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love moved from Partick to Darwen in 1878, the brothers Robert and James Smith played for Scotland in the 1872 international while with South Norwood, and Hugh McIntyre who first played for Blackburn Rovers in 1879.
What is not well known is that several English footballers went in the opposite direction and played for Scottish clubs. They all came north to work or study, and there is no suggestion that they were paid to play, but they certainly had an impact on the game here. I have identified five English players in the 1870s and there may well be more.
The most influential, although he would not have realised it at the time, was William Kirkham. The man from Darwen came to Glasgow to work, was a founding member of Partick FC in 1875, and was the catalyst for the close relationship between Darwen and Partick.
He played for Partick for two years before going home and the outcome of that, as I have previously detailed, was the decision by Jimmy Love and Fergie Suter to head south in 1878. When Darwen faced Old Etonians in the FA Cup later that season, Kirkham's experience of Scottish football could be added to that of Love and Suter.
Well known names include JJ Lang and Peter Andrews who went to Sheffield in 1876, Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love moved from Partick to Darwen in 1878, the brothers Robert and James Smith played for Scotland in the 1872 international while with South Norwood, and Hugh McIntyre who first played for Blackburn Rovers in 1879.
What is not well known is that several English footballers went in the opposite direction and played for Scottish clubs. They all came north to work or study, and there is no suggestion that they were paid to play, but they certainly had an impact on the game here. I have identified five English players in the 1870s and there may well be more.
The most influential, although he would not have realised it at the time, was William Kirkham. The man from Darwen came to Glasgow to work, was a founding member of Partick FC in 1875, and was the catalyst for the close relationship between Darwen and Partick.
He played for Partick for two years before going home and the outcome of that, as I have previously detailed, was the decision by Jimmy Love and Fergie Suter to head south in 1878. When Darwen faced Old Etonians in the FA Cup later that season, Kirkham's experience of Scottish football could be added to that of Love and Suter.
James Rawlinson Waghorn, captain of Alexandra Athletic
Kirkham was not the first Englishman in Scottish football, however. From 1874-78, James Waghorn was a key player for Alexandra Athletic, based in Dennistoun. Born in Essex, he came to Glasgow in the 1860s when his father found work on the railways and took up football, playing for the Kennyhill Park club from 1874-78.
Alexandra Athletic, like Partick, was one of the pioneers of cross-border football and in 1876 played the first of a series of matches against Sheffield Albion, home and away. Waghorn was not only a club official, he was team captain. His elder brother George also played for the team in some early matches.
Alexandra Athletic, like Partick, was one of the pioneers of cross-border football and in 1876 played the first of a series of matches against Sheffield Albion, home and away. Waghorn was not only a club official, he was team captain. His elder brother George also played for the team in some early matches.
Entry for Alexandra Athletic in the Glasgow Post Office Directory for 1876. James Waghorn is an auditor, while SFA secretary William Dick is a director.
James Waghorn had an interesting career after he left Glasgow. He spent a few years in London, where he played rugby for the Reindeer club, then emigrated to Canada where he was founding editor of the highly successful Waghorn's Guides. He died in Vancouver in 1942.
One well-established English player to come to Scotland was Godfrey Turner. Born in Slough in 1854, he played football regularly in the early 1870s for Uxbridge, Windsor Home Park and Swifts. With Swifts his team took Old Etonians to two replays in an FA Cup tie, he was good enough to be selected for an England trial in 1875, and the following year he was England's umpire in the international match against Scotland at Partick.
In 1877 he started studying science at Edinburgh University, and helped to found a football club with his fellow students. In fact, he captained the University in their first ever match in February 1878, against Glasgow University.
In 1877 he started studying science at Edinburgh University, and helped to found a football club with his fellow students. In fact, he captained the University in their first ever match in February 1878, against Glasgow University.
Godfrey Turner with Liverpool Ramblers in 1883.
Turner continued to represent the University until he graduated in 1880 when he went into business in Liverpool. He played football for several more years, initially for Bootle, with one appearance for Everton, then in 1882 he founded Liverpool Ramblers where he was team captain. He also captained the Liverpool & District Select and in 1886 he even played for the famous Corinthians. Meanwhile he had a successful brewing business, and remained in Liverpool until his death in 1936.
Thomas Johnson Britten played for Wales and Glasgow and was a reserve for England.
Another high profile name who made a major impact was Thomas Britten, who was part of the famous multi-cultural Parkgrove team alongside Andrew Watson, Tommy Marten and Robert Walker.
Britten is something of an enigma. He was born in the village of Byton in Herefordshire, just a couple of miles from the border with Wales, and his birth was registered in Presteign which straddled the border.
This appears to have qualified him to play for Wales and he was capped twice, in 1878 and 1880, as well as being selected several other times. However, he also came very close to playing for England and was named as a reserve in the team to face Scotland in 1879.
Educated at Doncaster Grammar School, he came to Glasgow in 1874 to undertake an apprenticeship in engineering and worked in Govan and Linthouse for four years. He joined Parkgrove FC and was in such fine form in 1877-78 that he was selected for Glasgow in the annual match against Sheffield, scoring one of the goals in a 4-2 victory. A few weeks later he made his Wales debut at Hampden.
On leaving Glasgow he worked in Grantham, and later in Liverpool and London. He was much in demand from clubs including Grantham, Bootle and Brentwood, and was also selected for representative teams including the South, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and London. Wales picked him against England in 1883 and 1887 but each time he called off.
Britten emigrated in 1887 to Johannesburg, where he won the Transvaal Cup with Wanderers. He remained in South Africa as a mechanical engineer in the gold mining industry, and died there in 1910.
These brief summaries of the stories of Kirkham, the Waghorn brothers, Turner and Britten show clearly that football skills were transferred in both directions between England and Scotland in the 1870s. Before the first glimmer of professionalism, players moved for work or study and this must have helped to spread tactics and ideas.
Britten is something of an enigma. He was born in the village of Byton in Herefordshire, just a couple of miles from the border with Wales, and his birth was registered in Presteign which straddled the border.
This appears to have qualified him to play for Wales and he was capped twice, in 1878 and 1880, as well as being selected several other times. However, he also came very close to playing for England and was named as a reserve in the team to face Scotland in 1879.
Educated at Doncaster Grammar School, he came to Glasgow in 1874 to undertake an apprenticeship in engineering and worked in Govan and Linthouse for four years. He joined Parkgrove FC and was in such fine form in 1877-78 that he was selected for Glasgow in the annual match against Sheffield, scoring one of the goals in a 4-2 victory. A few weeks later he made his Wales debut at Hampden.
On leaving Glasgow he worked in Grantham, and later in Liverpool and London. He was much in demand from clubs including Grantham, Bootle and Brentwood, and was also selected for representative teams including the South, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and London. Wales picked him against England in 1883 and 1887 but each time he called off.
Britten emigrated in 1887 to Johannesburg, where he won the Transvaal Cup with Wanderers. He remained in South Africa as a mechanical engineer in the gold mining industry, and died there in 1910.
These brief summaries of the stories of Kirkham, the Waghorn brothers, Turner and Britten show clearly that football skills were transferred in both directions between England and Scotland in the 1870s. Before the first glimmer of professionalism, players moved for work or study and this must have helped to spread tactics and ideas.
James Gledhill and John Cargill Holden with Darwen in 1880, shortly before they came to Scotland to study.
Everything changed in the following decade which saw a flood of 'Scotch professors' heading south, but there was one more example of the early relationship between Partick and Darwen. Two Darwen players, James Gledhill and John Holden, both came to Scotland to study medicine in the 1880s. Gledhill is thought to have played for Partick under an assumed name, but Holden made a considerable impact in four years at Edinburgh University, and was selected for Edinburgh nine times, at least one of them as captain.
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Scotland have always played in blue, right? Well, not in the first rugby international of 1871, if you believe what you can read online. According to Wikipedia and even recent reports in The Times, the Press & Journal and BBC History magazine, the Scotland team on that historic day wore brown shirts.
It is a myth, however - one of those mistaken stories which has persisted over the years. Now, on the 150th anniversary of the match, it is time to set the record straight.
It all goes back to one newspaper report, the Glasgow Herald's account of the game, which stated 'the Scotch' wore a brown jersey with a thistle. As the Herald was one of the first newspapers to be digitised, a researcher must have come across this version which has been widely quoted ever since. However, it does not stand up to scrutiny.
It is a myth, however - one of those mistaken stories which has persisted over the years. Now, on the 150th anniversary of the match, it is time to set the record straight.
It all goes back to one newspaper report, the Glasgow Herald's account of the game, which stated 'the Scotch' wore a brown jersey with a thistle. As the Herald was one of the first newspapers to be digitised, a researcher must have come across this version which has been widely quoted ever since. However, it does not stand up to scrutiny.
Glasgow Herald, 28 March 1871, with a match report which mistakenly describes Scotland in brown jerseys.
It is abundantly clear from other reports that Scotland played in dark blue, with England in white, as they have done ever since.
North British Daily Mail, 28 March 1871 (BNA)
The Scotsman, 28 March 1871 (BNA)
There was some uncertainly in the English press in advance of the match, with Bell's Life and The Sporting Life both reporting in the build-up that Scotland would wear scarlet jerseys, but they were careful to correct that mistake in their match reports. The Scottish papers, including The Scotsman and North British Daily Mail, were clear beforehand that Scotland would have dark blue jerseys.
When match reports appeared the day after the game, every paper mentioned Scotland's dark blue, with the sole exception of the Glasgow Herald who, inexplicably, went for brown.
One question which has never been answered is why Scotland traditionally play in blue, and England in white. The reasons behind the choice of colours are not explained, although there was clearly a logic as the Scotland and England association football teams made the same decisions for their first match in 1872.
Not only have these colours persisted ever since, but also the team badges: Scotland's rugby players had a thistle, England a rose, and the same emblems are still found today. In football, the national team emblems of lion rampant for Scotland and three lions for England have also been retained.
When match reports appeared the day after the game, every paper mentioned Scotland's dark blue, with the sole exception of the Glasgow Herald who, inexplicably, went for brown.
One question which has never been answered is why Scotland traditionally play in blue, and England in white. The reasons behind the choice of colours are not explained, although there was clearly a logic as the Scotland and England association football teams made the same decisions for their first match in 1872.
Not only have these colours persisted ever since, but also the team badges: Scotland's rugby players had a thistle, England a rose, and the same emblems are still found today. In football, the national team emblems of lion rampant for Scotland and three lions for England have also been retained.
Advert in the Scotsman, 28 March 1871 (BNA)
A final piece of trivia is where Scotland bought their blue shirts. There were two main sports shops in Edinburgh at the time and JC Stewart was proudly able to advertise the day after the game that he had supplied the jerseys and thistle badges of the Scotland Twenty. His great rival Percival King, however, provided the match ball.
The St Andrews Gazette, 1 April 1871 confirmed the team colours and the supplier of the match ball, but also commented that the English players were 'altogether a more handsome set of men than the Scotch'. (BNA)
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I was recently asked to write an article about the origins of Scottish football. In the end, it wasn't used, but rather than let it go to waste I wanted to share it here. This is an extended and updated version of a piece I wrote back in 2013.
The established narrative of the birth of association football in Scotland generally starts with the foundation of Queen's Park FC in 1867. But if you look behind the bare facts of that event in Glasgow you will discover that a little village school in Aberdeenshire can stake a claim as a birthplace of Scottish football.
At least three of the founders of Queen's Park were educated at Fordyce Academy, while many of their fellow pioneers also came from Scotland's north-east. Their origins encapsulate a story which helps to explain why football north of the border evolved along different lines to that in England, with passing and teamwork rather than dribbling and individuality as its principal characteristics.
Scotland's first association football club came into being on 9 July 1867 when a group of young men met in Glasgow 'for the purpose of forming a Football Club'.
The minutes of Queen's Park's inaugural meeting were captured in beautiful script by 19-year-old William Klingner, a merchant's clerk, who was elected secretary. The single sheet recorded a few basic rules and a list of committee members from whom four office bearers were appointed to lead the club.
Unfortunately for researchers it is not possible to consult the original document, which was lost in a fire at Hampden Park on Boxing Day 1945. However, a picture of the minute was reproduced in Richard Robinson's History of Queen's Park, published in 1920. His book is widely accepted as the definitive version of how the club was formed, and who its founders were, but in the course of my research I became aware of a few anomalies in Robinson's version of events, which merited a close re-examination.
Dublin-born Robinson, the club historian, was in fact more of a cycling aficionado when he came to Glasgow in his youth and was one of the founders of the Scottish Cyclists' Union, elected its president in 1896. His day job was managing the Post Office telegraph office in the city, with a sideline as football editor of the Glasgow News and he also launched the Scottish Athletic Journal. Newly-retired at the time of the Queen's Park jubilee, he was in a good position to write the club's history.
In the build-up to the club's fiftieth anniversary there was copious newspaper coverage of some early reminiscences, and two books of press cuttings from 1916-17 are held in the Scottish Football Museum. These provide a number of pointers which are not in Robinson's book, which had to wait until the First World War was over to see the light of day.
What is clear is that the Queen's Park story began in the mid-1860s when a group of young men exercised together each Saturday on a patch of ground in Strathbungo, on the south side of Glasgow.
One of them was James Cruickshank Grant who, when interviewed in 1916 for the Athletic News, identified the initial group as comprising himself, Robert and James Smith, Donald Edminston, Lewis Black and 'a couple of others'. They were all north of Scotland men: Grant came from the Highland village of Duthil, not far from Black's home in Grantown-on-Spey, the Smiths had been brought up in Morayshire and Edminston was from Aberdeenshire.
Grant related how initially they practised traditional Highland sports at Strathbungo but when the ground became too confined they decamped to Queen's Park Recreation Ground in Langside. There, they encountered about forty youths from the local YMCA who were kicking a ball about and the men from the north joined in their game of football. They enjoyed it so much that they went into town to buy their own ball, as even in the 1860s footballs could be bought over the counter – there was a range on sale at the Royal Polytechnic Warehouse – which indicates the game was already popular in Glasgow.
As more and more people joined in their football games, in the summer of 1867 they decided to form a proper club, hence the meeting at 3 Eglinton Terrace in Crosshill. It was attended by about 20 young men, of whom 13 were elected onto a committee, and this is where the minute of that first meeting merits close examination, with a particular focus on those individuals.
William Klingner, the secretary, came from Portsoy on the Banffshire coast, the son of an émigré from Dresden who was village doctor.
The treasurer is recorded as 'Smith senior' to distinguish himself from 'Smith junior' who was one of the ordinary members. These were James Smith and his younger brother Robert, the sons of the Earl of Fife's head gardener at Innes House in Morayshire. (Richard Robinson got them the wrong way round in his book.)
The Smith brothers and Klingner were all educated at the same school, Fordyce Academy. It is really at the epicentre of Queen's Park's foundation as just five miles west of Fordyce is the coastal village of Cullen, birthplace of Queen's Park's first captain, Lewis Black.
Fordyce Academy was a remarkable institution. It was endowed in 1790 by George Smith, son of the village blacksmith who had made his fortune as a merchant in Bombay. He left £10,000, known as the Smith Bounty, to fund a schoolmaster and minister and to pay for the education of boys whose surname was, preferably, Smith.
Not surprisingly, there was fierce competition for places, with entrance exams for seven bursaries each year as well as for private fee-paying pupils. This gave it a cosmopolitan mix of pupils from different classes.
With the benefit of their surname, the Smith brothers from Morayshire were among the bursary pupils, probably as boarders as the family home was about 25 miles away. Klingner, however, could easily have travelled the three miles from home to school each day.
The Academy only had about 40 pupils, but the education they received could be life-changing and former pupils included surgeons, barristers and men such as Thomas Glover, responsible for introducing Western technology to Japan, and Sir James Clark, physician to Queen Victoria. The school enjoyed immense prestige in the Victorian era, described on occasion as the 'Eton of the North' (although it must be admitted that the term has been applied to several other schools such as Sedbergh, Rossall, Glenalmond and Fettes). In 1902, HM Inspector of Schools wrote 'The position of this school is now well established as the most important feeder of the university outside the city of Aberdeen.'
The last of the four Queen's Park office bearers was 30-year-old Mungo Ritchie, chosen as president, who came from Madderty in Perthshire. Lewis Black would succeed Ritchie as club president the following year.
The other members of the club, at least those who can be identified, came from various parts of Scotland ranging from Ayrshire to Inverness-shire and it appears that only one of them, the future club captain Robert Gardner, was a native Glaswegian.
With so many different backgrounds, and with none of the club members coming from schools with written rules, one of the first acts of the new committee was to decide which form of football to play. They wrote to Lillywhite's sports shop in London to ask for examples, and soon adopted their own 'Rules of the Field'. These were based on those of the Football Association and copies were printed in 1868 for the members, although none are known to have survived. Thankfully Robinson reproduced them in full in his book.
Rather than adopting the FA's rules entirely, the Queen's Park pioneers took their own view, and a sub-committee redrafted some of the text. Crucially they came up with a different wording to Law 6, covering offside.
The original text reads: When a player has kicked the ball, any one of the same side who is nearer to the opponents' goal-line is out of play, and may not touch the ball himself, nor in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so, until the ball has been played, unless there are at least three of his opponents between him and their own goal; but no player is out of play when the ball is kicked from behind the goal-line.
The text in italic was altered to read: 'unless there are at least two of his opponents between him and their own goal, who must not be more than fifteen yards from the goal-line'.
By relaxing the number of opponents from three to two, and introducing a stipulation that those opponents had to be performing a defensive role in the last fifteen yards of the pitch, there was clearly a desire to have greater freedom to pass the ball forwards. This indicates that the Queen's Park players had an understanding about how to play football that was based on a passing game. They did not have the mental baggage that constrained public school-educated footballers in England.
They were not alone in choosing this approach. Also playing football in Glasgow then were young men from Callander, brought up in the tradition of the town's Hansel Monday game. One of them, John B Connell, claimed to have brought the first football to the city back in 1862 and his team, the Thistle, was Queen's Park’s first opponents in August 1868. Connell's story of the early games on Glasgow Green was related in The Mighty Kick, published in 1933.
From these pioneers' approach to the rules there is a strong inference that they already knew how they liked to play the game, and the outcome of that understanding is that Scottish football in the 1870s and 1880s was defined by the ability to pass the ball, while English football foundered on its 'manly' origins that valued strength over teamwork.
The challenge for the football historian is to demonstrate the facts behind this theory, as there are few written records. The complete truth of Scottish football's origins will probably never be known as there is little hard evidence that boys played a kicking and passing type of football at Fordyce Academy, or at other Scottish rural schools, in the 1850s and 1860s.
What is evident, however, is that while the pioneering club in Scottish football was founded in Glasgow, the roots of the club and its founding fathers can be traced to a small school at the other end of the country.
Today, Fordyce is a conservation village caught in a time warp. It boasts a medieval castle at its centre, a church which has stood since Pictish times, and a historic schoolhouse. Fordyce Academy may have closed in 1964, and the building is now a private house, but its legacy remains.
The established narrative of the birth of association football in Scotland generally starts with the foundation of Queen's Park FC in 1867. But if you look behind the bare facts of that event in Glasgow you will discover that a little village school in Aberdeenshire can stake a claim as a birthplace of Scottish football.
At least three of the founders of Queen's Park were educated at Fordyce Academy, while many of their fellow pioneers also came from Scotland's north-east. Their origins encapsulate a story which helps to explain why football north of the border evolved along different lines to that in England, with passing and teamwork rather than dribbling and individuality as its principal characteristics.
Scotland's first association football club came into being on 9 July 1867 when a group of young men met in Glasgow 'for the purpose of forming a Football Club'.
The minutes of Queen's Park's inaugural meeting were captured in beautiful script by 19-year-old William Klingner, a merchant's clerk, who was elected secretary. The single sheet recorded a few basic rules and a list of committee members from whom four office bearers were appointed to lead the club.
Unfortunately for researchers it is not possible to consult the original document, which was lost in a fire at Hampden Park on Boxing Day 1945. However, a picture of the minute was reproduced in Richard Robinson's History of Queen's Park, published in 1920. His book is widely accepted as the definitive version of how the club was formed, and who its founders were, but in the course of my research I became aware of a few anomalies in Robinson's version of events, which merited a close re-examination.
Dublin-born Robinson, the club historian, was in fact more of a cycling aficionado when he came to Glasgow in his youth and was one of the founders of the Scottish Cyclists' Union, elected its president in 1896. His day job was managing the Post Office telegraph office in the city, with a sideline as football editor of the Glasgow News and he also launched the Scottish Athletic Journal. Newly-retired at the time of the Queen's Park jubilee, he was in a good position to write the club's history.
In the build-up to the club's fiftieth anniversary there was copious newspaper coverage of some early reminiscences, and two books of press cuttings from 1916-17 are held in the Scottish Football Museum. These provide a number of pointers which are not in Robinson's book, which had to wait until the First World War was over to see the light of day.
What is clear is that the Queen's Park story began in the mid-1860s when a group of young men exercised together each Saturday on a patch of ground in Strathbungo, on the south side of Glasgow.
One of them was James Cruickshank Grant who, when interviewed in 1916 for the Athletic News, identified the initial group as comprising himself, Robert and James Smith, Donald Edminston, Lewis Black and 'a couple of others'. They were all north of Scotland men: Grant came from the Highland village of Duthil, not far from Black's home in Grantown-on-Spey, the Smiths had been brought up in Morayshire and Edminston was from Aberdeenshire.
Grant related how initially they practised traditional Highland sports at Strathbungo but when the ground became too confined they decamped to Queen's Park Recreation Ground in Langside. There, they encountered about forty youths from the local YMCA who were kicking a ball about and the men from the north joined in their game of football. They enjoyed it so much that they went into town to buy their own ball, as even in the 1860s footballs could be bought over the counter – there was a range on sale at the Royal Polytechnic Warehouse – which indicates the game was already popular in Glasgow.
As more and more people joined in their football games, in the summer of 1867 they decided to form a proper club, hence the meeting at 3 Eglinton Terrace in Crosshill. It was attended by about 20 young men, of whom 13 were elected onto a committee, and this is where the minute of that first meeting merits close examination, with a particular focus on those individuals.
William Klingner, the secretary, came from Portsoy on the Banffshire coast, the son of an émigré from Dresden who was village doctor.
The treasurer is recorded as 'Smith senior' to distinguish himself from 'Smith junior' who was one of the ordinary members. These were James Smith and his younger brother Robert, the sons of the Earl of Fife's head gardener at Innes House in Morayshire. (Richard Robinson got them the wrong way round in his book.)
The Smith brothers and Klingner were all educated at the same school, Fordyce Academy. It is really at the epicentre of Queen's Park's foundation as just five miles west of Fordyce is the coastal village of Cullen, birthplace of Queen's Park's first captain, Lewis Black.
Fordyce Academy was a remarkable institution. It was endowed in 1790 by George Smith, son of the village blacksmith who had made his fortune as a merchant in Bombay. He left £10,000, known as the Smith Bounty, to fund a schoolmaster and minister and to pay for the education of boys whose surname was, preferably, Smith.
Not surprisingly, there was fierce competition for places, with entrance exams for seven bursaries each year as well as for private fee-paying pupils. This gave it a cosmopolitan mix of pupils from different classes.
With the benefit of their surname, the Smith brothers from Morayshire were among the bursary pupils, probably as boarders as the family home was about 25 miles away. Klingner, however, could easily have travelled the three miles from home to school each day.
The Academy only had about 40 pupils, but the education they received could be life-changing and former pupils included surgeons, barristers and men such as Thomas Glover, responsible for introducing Western technology to Japan, and Sir James Clark, physician to Queen Victoria. The school enjoyed immense prestige in the Victorian era, described on occasion as the 'Eton of the North' (although it must be admitted that the term has been applied to several other schools such as Sedbergh, Rossall, Glenalmond and Fettes). In 1902, HM Inspector of Schools wrote 'The position of this school is now well established as the most important feeder of the university outside the city of Aberdeen.'
The last of the four Queen's Park office bearers was 30-year-old Mungo Ritchie, chosen as president, who came from Madderty in Perthshire. Lewis Black would succeed Ritchie as club president the following year.
The other members of the club, at least those who can be identified, came from various parts of Scotland ranging from Ayrshire to Inverness-shire and it appears that only one of them, the future club captain Robert Gardner, was a native Glaswegian.
With so many different backgrounds, and with none of the club members coming from schools with written rules, one of the first acts of the new committee was to decide which form of football to play. They wrote to Lillywhite's sports shop in London to ask for examples, and soon adopted their own 'Rules of the Field'. These were based on those of the Football Association and copies were printed in 1868 for the members, although none are known to have survived. Thankfully Robinson reproduced them in full in his book.
Rather than adopting the FA's rules entirely, the Queen's Park pioneers took their own view, and a sub-committee redrafted some of the text. Crucially they came up with a different wording to Law 6, covering offside.
The original text reads: When a player has kicked the ball, any one of the same side who is nearer to the opponents' goal-line is out of play, and may not touch the ball himself, nor in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so, until the ball has been played, unless there are at least three of his opponents between him and their own goal; but no player is out of play when the ball is kicked from behind the goal-line.
The text in italic was altered to read: 'unless there are at least two of his opponents between him and their own goal, who must not be more than fifteen yards from the goal-line'.
By relaxing the number of opponents from three to two, and introducing a stipulation that those opponents had to be performing a defensive role in the last fifteen yards of the pitch, there was clearly a desire to have greater freedom to pass the ball forwards. This indicates that the Queen's Park players had an understanding about how to play football that was based on a passing game. They did not have the mental baggage that constrained public school-educated footballers in England.
They were not alone in choosing this approach. Also playing football in Glasgow then were young men from Callander, brought up in the tradition of the town's Hansel Monday game. One of them, John B Connell, claimed to have brought the first football to the city back in 1862 and his team, the Thistle, was Queen's Park’s first opponents in August 1868. Connell's story of the early games on Glasgow Green was related in The Mighty Kick, published in 1933.
From these pioneers' approach to the rules there is a strong inference that they already knew how they liked to play the game, and the outcome of that understanding is that Scottish football in the 1870s and 1880s was defined by the ability to pass the ball, while English football foundered on its 'manly' origins that valued strength over teamwork.
The challenge for the football historian is to demonstrate the facts behind this theory, as there are few written records. The complete truth of Scottish football's origins will probably never be known as there is little hard evidence that boys played a kicking and passing type of football at Fordyce Academy, or at other Scottish rural schools, in the 1850s and 1860s.
What is evident, however, is that while the pioneering club in Scottish football was founded in Glasgow, the roots of the club and its founding fathers can be traced to a small school at the other end of the country.
Today, Fordyce is a conservation village caught in a time warp. It boasts a medieval castle at its centre, a church which has stood since Pictish times, and a historic schoolhouse. Fordyce Academy may have closed in 1964, and the building is now a private house, but its legacy remains.
- Published on
If you have watched the Netflix series The English Game, you will know all the main characters. Arthur Kinnaird and Fergie Suter are celebrated for their football exploits and are both famous enough to have entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
But what about Jimmy Love, Suter's partner who came with him from Partick to Darwen? Love is a crucial figure in football history, yet so little is known about him that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.
This is the sad story of Jimmy Love's short and memorable life.
But what about Jimmy Love, Suter's partner who came with him from Partick to Darwen? Love is a crucial figure in football history, yet so little is known about him that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.
This is the sad story of Jimmy Love's short and memorable life.
In the spring of 1883, a package arrived at the Love family home in Glasgow, addressed to Mr James Love. It contained the campaign medal - just like the one pictured above - awarded posthumously to his son Jimmy, a Corporal with the Royal Marine Light Infantry, who had died aged 24 of enteric fever while on active service in far away Egypt.
Jimmy Love never won any medals during his lifetime, but he did earn many plaudits for his achievements as a footballer. Just a few years earlier he was Darwen's top scorer in their epic FA Cup run that pitched them against the mighty Old Etonians.
He was born in 1858 on the south side of Glasgow to James and Janet Love. His mother died when he was five, and his father remarried soon after. The family moved to Greenock, where his father was a coal merchant and general contractor, then about 1876 they settled in Partick, a Glasgow suburb.
Jimmy set up his own business in Partick as a street cleaning contractor, and at the same time started playing in the forward line of the local football team. However, his business was not a success and in 1878 he found himself in deep financial trouble. One of his creditors petitioned for sequestration of his assets, a forced sale of his equipment was ordered, and on 28 October he was summoned to the Sheriff Court to face bankruptcy procedures. However, he didn't turn up and the proceedings were adjourned for a month. When he failed again to appear on 21 November, Sheriff Walter Spens issued a warrant for his arrest.
Jimmy Love never won any medals during his lifetime, but he did earn many plaudits for his achievements as a footballer. Just a few years earlier he was Darwen's top scorer in their epic FA Cup run that pitched them against the mighty Old Etonians.
He was born in 1858 on the south side of Glasgow to James and Janet Love. His mother died when he was five, and his father remarried soon after. The family moved to Greenock, where his father was a coal merchant and general contractor, then about 1876 they settled in Partick, a Glasgow suburb.
Jimmy set up his own business in Partick as a street cleaning contractor, and at the same time started playing in the forward line of the local football team. However, his business was not a success and in 1878 he found himself in deep financial trouble. One of his creditors petitioned for sequestration of his assets, a forced sale of his equipment was ordered, and on 28 October he was summoned to the Sheriff Court to face bankruptcy procedures. However, he didn't turn up and the proceedings were adjourned for a month. When he failed again to appear on 21 November, Sheriff Walter Spens issued a warrant for his arrest.
The warrant was never served as Love had run away from his debts. He had found a new home in the Lancashire town of Darwen, not an obvious choice but an escape route which was open to him thanks to his skills as a footballer. Jimmy had friends there, having visited the town with Partick at New Year 1878.
Going straight into the Darwen team in October 1878, 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 scored twice against Eagley in the FA Cup second round, by which time Fergie Suter had also arrived in town, got two more in the third round victory over Remnants at the Oval, and was in top form when Darwen faced Old Etonians in the famous 5-5 draw on 13 February 1879. With Darwen 5-1 down at half-time, the comeback was well and truly kick-started by Jimmy Love, who scored twice in the second half.
He was an integral part of the team, but it was not to last. Early the next season he played three times for Darwen, but after the defeat of Haslingden in the Lancashire Cup on 25 October, he disappeared from the team.
He cropped up once the following month in a friendly for local rivals Blackburn Rovers, when 'Jimmy Love of the Darwen club assisted Rovers on the right wing'. Then nothing more until what appears to be his last football match, on 10 January 1880 for village side Haslingden.
What went wrong in Darwen may never be known, although perhaps his past was catching up with him. He had an income from the football club, which even played a benefit match for Love and Suter in April 1879, and he may also have done some odd jobs, but without those he was lost. Unlike the man portrayed in the Netflix series, he was not married. What is more, he could not go home because of the arrest warrant hanging over him.
He took perhaps the only escape 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.
Going straight into the Darwen team in October 1878, 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 scored twice against Eagley in the FA Cup second round, by which time Fergie Suter had also arrived in town, got two more in the third round victory over Remnants at the Oval, and was in top form when Darwen faced Old Etonians in the famous 5-5 draw on 13 February 1879. With Darwen 5-1 down at half-time, the comeback was well and truly kick-started by Jimmy Love, who scored twice in the second half.
He was an integral part of the team, but it was not to last. Early the next season he played three times for Darwen, but after the defeat of Haslingden in the Lancashire Cup on 25 October, he disappeared from the team.
He cropped up once the following month in a friendly for local rivals Blackburn Rovers, when 'Jimmy Love of the Darwen club assisted Rovers on the right wing'. Then nothing more until what appears to be his last football match, on 10 January 1880 for village side Haslingden.
What went wrong in Darwen may never be known, although perhaps his past was catching up with him. He had an income from the football club, which even played a benefit match for Love and Suter in April 1879, and he may also have done some odd jobs, but without those he was lost. Unlike the man portrayed in the Netflix series, he was not married. What is more, he could not go home because of the arrest warrant hanging over him.
He took perhaps the only escape 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.
Jimmy Love's attestation papers for the Royal Marines
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. Ahmed Urabi's 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.
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. Ahmed Urabi's 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.
Royal Marine infantry pictured (left) in Alexandria, Egypt. Jimmy Love would have worn this uniform before his death.
But then he fell ill with enteric fever and, sadly, died aged just 24 in the military hospital in Ismailia. Corporal Love was buried in Tel-el-Kebir cemetery, where there is a stone memorial, and is also commemorated on a Royal Marine memorial in Rochester Cathedral.
Outside his family, his death was barely noticed. 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.
Thanks to The English Game, the legacy of Jimmy Love can now be truly appreciated. He was a football pioneer, and although Fergie Suter is often described as the 'first professional', we should acknowledge that Jimmy was there first.
Outside his family, his death was barely noticed. 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.
Thanks to The English Game, the legacy of Jimmy Love can now be truly appreciated. He was a football pioneer, and although Fergie Suter is often described as the 'first professional', we should acknowledge that Jimmy was there first.
The medal roll for the Royal Marine Battalion, which records Jimmy Love's posthumous Egypt campaign medal
James Love
Born 17 March 1858 at Gushetfaulds Cottage, Glasgow.
Died 27 September 1882 at Ismailia, Egypt.
To read more about the connections between Partick and Darwen, read my earlier blog, From Partick with Love.
Born 17 March 1858 at Gushetfaulds Cottage, Glasgow.
Died 27 September 1882 at Ismailia, Egypt.
To read more about the connections between Partick and Darwen, read my earlier blog, From Partick with Love.
- Published on
I have just published a new edition of my biography of Arthur Kinnaird, who was one of the most important figures in the history of association football. This coincides with the launch of the Netflix drama The English Game.
Described as 'without exception, the best player of the day', Kinnaird played in nine FA Cup finals (still a record), represented Scotland and was President of the Football Association for 33 years. He was involved in the game all his life and was so highly regarded that he was presented with the FA Cup in gratitude.
Kinnaird is now famous again thanks to the Netflix series, which sees him and the Old Etonians pitted against Fergus Suter's Darwen team. The teams met in a titanic FA Cup clash in 1879, and although the Etonians won that one, it gave the first indication that football was about to change for ever, thanks to the influx of players from Scotland, the 'Scotch professors', who introduced the passing game to England.
I was asked to be a consultant Football Historian for The English Game, and was able to give advice on various aspects such as style of play. The series has been a long time in the making, and the first I knew about it was way back in 2007. Since then, I have published my Kinnaird biography, and have also written extensively on Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love, the two pioneers who moved from Partick to Darwen in 1878.
This new revised edition of First Lord of Football has additional material which has come to light in the past decade, and a number of new images. It is on sale on Amazon for £8.99, and there is also a Kindle edition at £3.99.
I also have several pages on this website devoted to Kinnaird, which provide an introduction to this football legend, who 'did more to popularise soccer than any man who ever lived'.
I'm often asked where my cover image comes from. It was on the front of one of the earliest football books ever published, by Routledge in 1867, and I am lucky enough to have one in my own collection. Although the prominent man on the cover is not identified, there is little doubt in my mind that it could be based on Arthur Kinnaird, complete with bushy beard and long white trousers, and of course in control of the ball.
Described as 'without exception, the best player of the day', Kinnaird played in nine FA Cup finals (still a record), represented Scotland and was President of the Football Association for 33 years. He was involved in the game all his life and was so highly regarded that he was presented with the FA Cup in gratitude.
Kinnaird is now famous again thanks to the Netflix series, which sees him and the Old Etonians pitted against Fergus Suter's Darwen team. The teams met in a titanic FA Cup clash in 1879, and although the Etonians won that one, it gave the first indication that football was about to change for ever, thanks to the influx of players from Scotland, the 'Scotch professors', who introduced the passing game to England.
I was asked to be a consultant Football Historian for The English Game, and was able to give advice on various aspects such as style of play. The series has been a long time in the making, and the first I knew about it was way back in 2007. Since then, I have published my Kinnaird biography, and have also written extensively on Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love, the two pioneers who moved from Partick to Darwen in 1878.
This new revised edition of First Lord of Football has additional material which has come to light in the past decade, and a number of new images. It is on sale on Amazon for £8.99, and there is also a Kindle edition at £3.99.
I also have several pages on this website devoted to Kinnaird, which provide an introduction to this football legend, who 'did more to popularise soccer than any man who ever lived'.
I'm often asked where my cover image comes from. It was on the front of one of the earliest football books ever published, by Routledge in 1867, and I am lucky enough to have one in my own collection. Although the prominent man on the cover is not identified, there is little doubt in my mind that it could be based on Arthur Kinnaird, complete with bushy beard and long white trousers, and of course in control of the ball.
- Published on
Cutting from the Caledonian Mercury, 13 November 1828 (via British Newspaper Archive)
In several years of research into the Foot-Ball Club of Edinburgh, it was always thought that there was not a single mention of its activities in the papers of the day, and that the only record was John Hope's personal archive. That view can now change, with the exciting discovery of a report from 1828.
Thanks to fellow historian Javier Terenti, I have been alerted to this cutting from the Caledonian Mercury, published on 13 November 1828. Although this newspaper has been available online for some time, the key words did not appear in OCR searches, and it was only because this snippet was then republished in a recently-digitised London paper that it was found.
This brief report of a club dinner reveals much about the activities of the football players. For a start, it shows that the members were numerous, with 60 of them coming to the annual dinner in a Stockbridge pub. It details the breadth of their activities, not just football but also athletic exercises similar to other well-known Edinburgh clubs. And it reveals where they sometimes played, on the city's main recreational area at Bruntsfield Links, even though the club also rented Dalry Park at the time.
Most importantly of all, however, this discovery confirms that the club was widely known about in the city at the time.
The conviviality of a dinner was clearly important to the football players, and helps to emphasise that this was a sporting club in every essential: it had subscriptions, it had rules, it met regularly, it was active, and the members not only played together, they socialised together.
There is also a bit of wider Edinburgh history, as the venue was a new coffee house and tavern at 4 Hamilton Place, Stockbridge - the building is still there to this day and I think it is now Caffe Nero. It was run by Charles Presgrave, who clearly wanted to cater for many more such club dinners, judging by his advert (below) which appeared a few weeks later. It seems not to have worked as he was declared insolvent the following year.
Thanks to fellow historian Javier Terenti, I have been alerted to this cutting from the Caledonian Mercury, published on 13 November 1828. Although this newspaper has been available online for some time, the key words did not appear in OCR searches, and it was only because this snippet was then republished in a recently-digitised London paper that it was found.
This brief report of a club dinner reveals much about the activities of the football players. For a start, it shows that the members were numerous, with 60 of them coming to the annual dinner in a Stockbridge pub. It details the breadth of their activities, not just football but also athletic exercises similar to other well-known Edinburgh clubs. And it reveals where they sometimes played, on the city's main recreational area at Bruntsfield Links, even though the club also rented Dalry Park at the time.
Most importantly of all, however, this discovery confirms that the club was widely known about in the city at the time.
The conviviality of a dinner was clearly important to the football players, and helps to emphasise that this was a sporting club in every essential: it had subscriptions, it had rules, it met regularly, it was active, and the members not only played together, they socialised together.
There is also a bit of wider Edinburgh history, as the venue was a new coffee house and tavern at 4 Hamilton Place, Stockbridge - the building is still there to this day and I think it is now Caffe Nero. It was run by Charles Presgrave, who clearly wanted to cater for many more such club dinners, judging by his advert (below) which appeared a few weeks later. It seems not to have worked as he was declared insolvent the following year.
Advert in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 4 December 1828 (via British Newspaper Archive)
Meanwhile, I recently had the privilege of talking about the story of the Foot-Ball Club and its long-term influence to the members of the Old Edinburgh Club.
I have now published my talk and the associated PowerPoint presentation, which can be accessed on the following links in pdf form. They should be opened and read together.
Click here for the PowerPoint.
Click here for the text of my talk.
If you are interested to read more, my book 1824, The World's First Foot-Ball Club is available price £11.99 (post free) from this website, or from Amazon.
I have now published my talk and the associated PowerPoint presentation, which can be accessed on the following links in pdf form. They should be opened and read together.
Click here for the PowerPoint.
Click here for the text of my talk.
If you are interested to read more, my book 1824, The World's First Foot-Ball Club is available price £11.99 (post free) from this website, or from Amazon.
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Author
All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell.