Sports History Blog - Scottish Sport History

Published on: December 19, 2012

Scottish rugby's 'fifth man': JH Oatts

rugby Scotland

While the association footballers took their time building up to a full international in 1872, their rugby counterparts beat them to it by a year and a half. Five Scottish club captains mooted the idea of a challenge to England to play an international under rugby rules, and together they penned a letter, dated 6 December 1870, laying down the gauntlet to the English.

we, as representing the football interests of Scotland, hereby challenge any team selected from the whole of England to play us a match, twenty-a-side

Published in Bell's Life, The Field and the Scotsman, the signatories were John Arthur (Glasgow Academicals), Benjamin Hall Blyth (Merchistonians), and Francis Moncreiff (Edinburgh Academicals), Alexander H Robertson (West of Scotland) and JH Oatts (St Salvator FC).
The full letter is well known in rugby lore (you can read the full text here), as are four of the signatories: Arthur, Moncreiff and Robertson all took part in the match when it was played in March 1871, while Hall Blyth served as president of the fledgling Scottish Rugby Union. But who was Oatts? He has always been something of a mystery figure but now I can reveal his identity.
John Henry Oatts was a student at St Andrews University, where he attended St Salvator College and captained the university football team, which played under rugby rules. He had entered the university in 1866 after a couple of years at Madras College, where his sister Harriett was also enrolled, but appears to have made slow progress. He reached second year in 1868, and third year in 1870-71, but does not appear in the roll for fourth year, which indicates he failed to graduate. However, if not suited for academia, he certainly thrived on the sporting atmosphere and among his contemporaries at school and university were several early rugby internationalists, including Alfred Clunies Ross, Robert Munro and Duncan Irvine.
Born in 1850 in Jessore, Oatts was the only surviving son of an indigo planter in Bengal, where he spent his early years, and as soon as he had finished his studies at St Andrews he returned to the east to continue running the family estates called Porehatty and Hizrapore. He was an active volunteer in the Bengal Light Horse, married in 1885 and had four children, but their lifestyle came to an abrupt halt when the indigo trade collapsed in the 1890s following the invention of synthetic dyes. The estates went bankrupt and were sold off for a pittance in 1896 (although it was an uncle, James Tweedie, who appears to have borne the brunt of the financial misfortune).
There was nothing for it but to return to Scotland. Oatts lived in Edinburgh for a few years, playing golf at Glencorse (where another sporting hero, Leslie Balfour Melville was also a member). He then moved south and spent his remaining years in Bedford, where he died in 1930.

Published on: November 30, 2012

The Scots who launched international football in 1872

football origins Scotland

For the third instalment of my commemoration of that game in 1872, I take a look at the Scots eleven who faced the English, 140 years ago today. Captained by Robert Gardner (pictured left), they were relative novices at the game, as Queen's Park was only founded five years earlier, yet their innovative style of passing play was good enough to hold the English to a draw. Not only that, they continued to develop the style and before the end of the decade they were almost unstoppable, and in 1878 beat England 7-2 and Wales 9-0.
You can read more about the players in my book, First Elevens, which puts right many of the myths which have grown up around them. Did you know that as many of them were born in Aberdeen as in Glasgow (three in each)? It's a common complaint of mine, but don't believe a word you read about them on Wikipedia.

Robert Gardner: pushy and opinionated, yet utterly dedicated to football, he stormed out of Queen's Park in 1874 to join nearby rivals Clydesdale. Elected president of the Scottish FA in 1877, he died in 1887 while working on the Forth Bridge project.
William Ker: son of a famous physicist (look up the Kerr Effect), he emigrated a year after the international and married a cousin of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
Joseph Taylor: a talented athlete from Dunoon, he became a Queen's Park stalwart and was club president, but left a widow and four sons when he died of tuberculosis in 1888.
James John Thomson: born in Annan, he captained Queen's Park to victory in the first Scottish Cup of 1874, but then went south and made a fortune in the meat industry.
James Smith: older brother of Robert, son of the Earl of Fife's head gardener, and founder of Queen's Park, he had moved to London in 1871. Died young of a stroke in 1876.
Robert Smith: educated at Fordyce Academy, he was also working in London and would soon emigrate to America where he became a prominent politician and newspaper proprietor in Wyoming.
James Biggar Weir: a joiner to trade, he was a Queen's Park regular for a decade before emigrating to Australia, where he died at a remote outback camp. His middle name is often quoted as 'Begg' but Biggar is correct.
Robert Leckie: a farmer's son from Killearn, he had a short football career before emigrating to South Africa, where he died in 1886.
Alexander Rhind: the man from Aberdeen had only a brief stay in Glasgow, and a year after winning his cap had returned north. Worked in the drapery business and had ten children.
William Muir Mackinnon: won nine Scotland caps and three Scottish Cup winners' medals, but his first love was music and when he died aged 90 his obituary was entitled 'Veteran Glasgow Musician'.
David Wotherspoon: best friend of Robert Gardner (he was a witness at his wedding), he also made the move to Clydesdale in 1874 after serving on the Queen's Park committee for five years. Did well in the metal trade and died in 1906.

Published on: November 29, 2012

Rare survivors of the first international match

England football origins Scotland

One of the great joys of the 1872 international - 140th anniversary this week - is that there are some carefully preserved original artefacts from the match, as well as the illustrations which appeared in the Graphic.

The ticket (above) is held by the Scottish Football Museum in Glasgow. They could be bought in advance of the game from Queen's Park committee members, and despite the high price, sales were so buoyant that there were fears the ground would not cope with the anticipated large crowd. The Glasgow Herald suggested admission should be by ticket only, but then published an anxious response on the day of the game from an intending spectator: 'I do not know the committee of management, nor anyone who has tickets to dispose of, and it would be too had if I had my journey to Partick for nothing.' In the event, the crowd behaved impeccably 'and never once trenched upon the field of play'.
The shirt (below left) worn by England forward Arnold Kirke Smith, in his only international, was kept by his family until 1998, when it sold at Christie's for £21,000 and is now on display in the National Football Museum - the first of eleven 'milestones in the game' that visitors see. Picture courtesy of Umbro football's photostream.
Caps were not awarded specifically for this match, but Scotland's JJ Thomson made sure the honour of playing against England in 1872-3-4 was recorded on his cap (below right) when it was presented a couple of years later. It is now held at the Scottish Football Museum.

Who knows if there are any other souvenirs of the match still to be discovered?

Published on: November 28, 2012

140 years on - the world's first football international

football origins Scotland

This week is the 140th anniversary of the first international football match, Scotland v England, played in Glasgow on 30 November 1872. To mark the event, here are a few little-known facts about the game, which finished 0-0:

The Scotland team wore blue jerseys and white knickerbockers with blue and white hooped socks. These were the colours of Queen's Park FC, whose committee selected the team and made all the arrangements for the game as the Scottish FA had not yet been formed. To distinguish the jerseys, a red lion rampant was embroidered onto the chest by Marion Wotherspoon, sister of one of the Scotland players. Unfortunately, if the pictures of the game are accurate, she sewed them on back to front.
Although all of the Scotland players were members of Queen's Park, two of them had to travel from England specially for the game. They were the brothers Robert and James Smith, who were founding members of the club in 1867 but had since moved to London and were now playing for South Norwood. In fact, they turned out for their London club in the FA Cup the week before and the week after the international.
Two of the England players, Frederick Chappell and Arnold Kirke Smith, had previously played for Scotland against England in the series of unofficial internationals that preceded this match.
A photographer was asked to attend the ground but left as the players refused to commit to buy his prints. Therefore the only images of the match are the engravings which appeared in The Graphic two weeks later. They were drawn by William Ralston, a young Glasgow artist who went on to a successful career with Punch.
The attendance is often quoted as four thousand, but some contemporary newspapers gave a figure of 2,500 which seems more likely. The gate receipts were just under £103, which equates to just over two thousand admissions at a shilling each. Ladies were admitted free.
Both teams changed goalkeepers at half-time. Robert Barker started in goal for England but changed places at the break with William Maynard. For Scotland, team captain Robert Gardner moved upfield for a while with Robert Smith going between the sticks, but Gardner reverted to his original position during the second half.
After the match, the teams enjoyed dinner at Carrick's Royal Hotel in George Square, where the lengthy toast list included the Sheffield FA and the Scotland rugby team.

Read the full story of the match in my book, First Elevens. Order now for Christmas!

Published on: November 15, 2012

Scottish football's first trade unionists

football Scotland

I recently obtained this fascinating rule book from 1898, which sets out the aims of the ill-fated first attempt in Scottish football to form a trade union. It was run in line with the organisation of the same name in England, the Association Football Players' Union, which was itself established by two Scotland internationals, John Cameron and Jack Bell. With the slogan 'Defence not Defiance' the booklet lists a committee of management which comprised some major names in Scottish football at that time: secretary James Miller was a Rangers forward in their league-winning side, and the other four were all internationalists: Dan Doyle of Celtic, William Baird of St Bernard's, James Gillespie of Third Lanark and James Raeside of Clyde. Details of what happened to the Union are scant, and require further research, but this marked a landmark in players' rights.

Published on: November 14, 2012

Time for a new Scotland football Who's Who

publications Scotland

I've been spending a bit of time recently on the biographical details of early Scotland internationals. The standard reference work is Doug Lamming's Scotland Who's Who, published in 1987, but in the 25 years since then the technology revolution has opened up a wealth of resources which were not available to him. So, a first point of call is the Scotland's People family history centre in Edinburgh, which has digitised census, birth, death and marriage records, among a lot of other information. I've also trawled through the player registration books at the Scottish Football Museum, which provide home addresses for many players, an essential pointer to identifying those with common names. And the outcome is an opportunity to identify for the first time quite a number of Scotland caps, and correct some false information which is circulating. It's an ongoing project, but here are some results: William Barbour Agnew (3 caps 1907-08), who played for Kilmarnock, Newcastle and others. Date of birth generally given as 16 December 1879, but this was a twin who died six weeks later. His parents had another boy the following year, born 30 December 1880, and this was the footballer. He died on 19 August 1936 in Moffat. David Alexander (2 caps 1894). From an era when an East Stirlingshire player could be capped, Alexander's address is in the SFA register, and by tracking him in the census it was possible to work out that he was born in Cambusnethan, Wishaw, on 22 April 1869. An iron moulder by profession, he died in Glasgow on 14 January 1941. William Bowie (1 cap 1891). The only Linthouse player to be capped. He was born in Govan on 31 December 1869 and died in the same area on 9 June 1934. He was a ship plater. Thomas Hamilton (1 cap 1891). Capped with Hurlford in the same game as Bowie, he could be tracked from his address in registration books and comparing that with the census. He was born in Dundee on 22 March 1872 and moved to Ayrshire at an early age. He died on 17 October 1942 in Kilmarnock.

Bernard Breslin (1 cap 1897). An early Hibernian great, Breslin was working as a bartender in Harthill when he died of tuberculosis on 10 November 1913. His birth was a bit harder to locate, but eventually I found it had been recorded phonetically as Bracelan, as his illiterate father had signed the birth certificate with an X. He was born on 2 May 1874 in Carfin.
There are too many others to list here, but this gives a flavour of what can be done with newly available digital resources. Is there scope for a new Who's Who?

Published on: October 5, 2012

JJ Thomson's final resting place in London

gravestones Queen's Park Scotland

I spent an afternoon in London this week tracking down the grave of another of the first football internationalists, Scotland's JJ Thomson. He is a character who I plan to research in more detail as his life went far beyond his sporting prowess. He not only played for Scotland in 1872, he also captained Queen's Park to victory in the first Scottish Cup in 1874, but later that year gave up the game for a job in the meat trade in Liverpool with Eastman and Co. He then moved to London and became the company's managing director, and was so successful that when he died in 1915 he left over £46,000 in his will - that's about £2.8m in today's money.
The grave is in East Finchley Cemetery, close to his home in Highgate, and I am delighted that the cemetery is well looked after, although the headstone itself is leaning at quite an angle and may require stabilisation. Also recorded on the grave are his wife Sara and four of his children.
As detailed in my book, James John Thomson was born near Annan on Christmas Day 1851. His cap (pictured) and Scottish Cup medal are both in the Scottish Football Museum, rare survivors from the pioneer days of football.

Published on: September 3, 2012

The Scot who played for England

Edinburgh England football Scotland

This is Stuart MacRae, who despite his fine Scottish name played football for England, winning five caps in 1883-84. He was a son of Duncan MacRae of Kames Castle on the Isle of Bute, and it was thought that Stuart had been born there. However, although he had indisputable Scottish ancestry, I have now found that he was in fact born on 7 December 1855 in Bengal, where his father was serving in the Indian Army. Stuart was sent back to Scotland for his education at The Edinburgh Academy, where he was captain of the school rugby team in 1872-73, and later moved south to Newark where he married into a brewing family. There, having switched to association rules, he played for Notts County and was duly capped by England. He also introduced golf to the town (this photo comes from the Newark GC) and was a decent cricketer for Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire.
This discovery of his birthplace means that the only man to have been born in Scotland and played for England was John Bain, born to English parents in Bothwell, Lanarkshire in 1854. He moved south soon afterwards, won his one cap in March 1877 against Scotland while a student at Oxford University, and three weeks later he played for the University in the FA Cup Final.

Published on: August 23, 2012

When Scotland met Canada in 1891

Canada football Scotland

I came across this photo of a Scotland team group from 1891 in an old scrapbook - except that it isn't really a Scotland team. This was the side that defeated Canada 5-1 on 3 October 1891 at Ibrox, part of a lengthy tour undertaken by the visitors in which they faced club sides and local selects from the end of August to early January, as well as national sides from all four home nations. These games are not considered official internationals.
The people in this photo are (back, from left): JK McDowall, JM Marshall, M McQueen (Leith Athletic), A McCredie (Rangers), W Maley (Celtic), H Smith (Third Lanark), G Sneddon (SFA President), J Reid (Irish FA, referee); centre: J Hector (Battlefield), W Berry (Queen's Park), W Arnott (Queen's Park), A McMahon (Celtic), J Bell (Dumbarton); front: J McLaren (Dumbarton), J Hamilton (Queen's Park).

Published on: August 14, 2012

When even the Scotland B team had star quality

football France photography Scotland

I recently bought this postcard from 1952, signed by the Scotland B footballers who faced their French counterparts in our first ever B international, played at the Municipal Stadium in Toulouse (below). It is a sad indictment of the lack of international talent at our disposal just now that Scotland would struggle to field a side at this level, but 60 years ago we could count on a number of talented men - and notably two future Scotland managers, Willie Ormond and Tommy Docherty. Thanks to the Partick Thistle archive, there is a team photo available. The match was drawn 0-0.