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

Whatever happened to Johnny Gilchrist?

16/4/2015

5 Comments

 
Picture
The story of Scottish football is littered with tales of wasted talent and falls from grace. Yet few can match the slide experienced by Celtic's John Gilchrist who, within a year of helping Scotland to a victory over England, found himself banished from Parkhead, and was effectively out of the game before his 25th birthday.
   Gilchrist apparently had a mighty conceit of himself, and thought himself far too important to listen to those in authority, or to bother with regular training. He came to Celtic in 1919 from junior side St Anthony's, and had the skill and build to be a really impressive half-back. He went straight into the first team, won his Scotland cap at right half in a 1-0 win over England at Villa Park in 1922, and was an ever-present the following season until January. Then, after several warnings, Celtic lost patience with his 'wilful inattention to training' and lost no time in selling him to Preston North End.
  It was the start of a long and slippery slope. Despite a big transfer fee, reported as £4,500, he was a disaster at Preston and almost exactly a year later the club cut their losses and terminated his contract. His next stop was Carlisle United, then in the North-Eastern League, where he was player-coach till the end of the season. In the summer of 1924 he returned to Glasgow with Third Lanark, who soon regretted the move and sold him on to Dunfermline after only three league games; and although this was initially seen as a good bit of business he lasted less than a month in Fife.
   He was clearly finished in Scotland, and salvation (of sorts) came from across the Atlantic in the summer of 1925, when he sailed to New York. He joined Brooklyn Wanderers but made just six appearances, then had a year at Pawtucket Rangers, with only three games. That was that, as far as his football career was concerned.
   But while John Gilchrist's football talent was thrown away, there is an even bigger mystery as to what happened to the man himself.
   Reference books, including the excellent Alphabet of the Celts, all say that he was John Wotherspoon Gilchrist, born 30 March 1899. This is not correct. By studying SFA player registers, I found his address while at Celtic was 4 Balmoral Terrace, in Tollcross. He and his family were at the same address in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, and that was also the address he gave when he married in 1922 (stating 'professional footballer' as his profession). John Gilchrist was, in fact, born in Kirkintilloch on 15 April 1900, with no middle name.
   What happened to him later in life is less clear. He was divorced by his wife (she remarried in 1934) and settled in the USA. A newspaper mentioned him making a visit home in 1931 after six years in America, and then in 1940 a reporter wrote that he had bumped into Gilchrist in Glasgow; he had come back to sign up for the Royal Navy as a stoker when war broke out.
   After that, nothing. There are football books which suggest he died in Birkenhead early in 1950, but having ordered the death certificate for that man, although the age is correct and he can't be ruled out entirely, there is nothing to link him to the footballer - this was a married construction engineer who died of pancreatic cancer.
   I suspect he may have embarked on a maritime career, working on ships from New York, which would explain his absence from US census records; there are some possible links on shipping manifests. However, until proof can be found, the fate of John Gilchrist remains a mystery.
5 Comments
Josh Gilchrist
21/2/2016 11:36:10 pm

Hi, not sure if this will ever be seen but I am his great grandson, the death certificate is correct (confirmed after a conversation with my Nan) and he had remarried at that point also

Reply
Andy Mitchell
22/2/2016 09:33:26 am

Josh, many thanks for posting this info, which is incredibly useful. If you could get in touch with directly me via the contact page I would appreciate it, as I am curious about some other elements of his life. Thanks.

Reply
Ian Rigby
20/9/2016 12:38:38 am

Hi, did you ever come to a conclusion over John Gilchrist?
Ian Rigby PNE Historian

Ian Rigby
6/6/2017 09:05:55 pm

Hello Andy, now that John Gilchrist has been confirmed as dying in 1950 could you possibly let me have his death date please? Thanks. Regards,
Ian Rigby PNE Official Historian

Reply
Jill Gilchrist
14/8/2018 06:16:43 am

Hi There,
I am his granddaughter. Just wondering where you got this photo from? We have tried to find photo's of him and I would be interesting in obtaining a copy. I concur with what Josh said about his death too.
Thans Jill

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

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

    Categories

    All

    Author

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