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Sydney & Leonard Puddefoot

September 1, 2015, 3:25 pm
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It is well recorded that Sydney Puddefoot signed for Falkirk in the 1920s after having wowed the fans when he was stationed in Scotland during the Great War. The Falkirk fans & the board put all other considerations aside to raise the £5,500 price tag which West Ham had put on him largely to deter Falkirk, it did not deter Falkirk FC.

What is less well known is that during Syd's time at Falkirk his little brother also turned up: Leonard Puddefoot. Unlike Sydney I can find very little written about Len, either as a footballer or otherwise.


Falkirk Team v Hibernian Wed 16th Aug 1922

I do not know why he played for the club, other than this one match I have never found any record of him playing football at any level whatsoever; Perhaps Syd convinced the board to give his brother a trial, perhaps it was part of Syd's contract. All I know is that Len is missing from the usual sources: he is not in John Listser's CD-Rom of Scottish Players' Registration; nor in Michael Joyce's Football League Players' Records 1888-1939. Which would suggest that his main football was with juvenile and non-league football in and around London.

Whatever the case, I found the brothers in the 1911 census, I looked because even though Puddefoot is a very rare name, I had to look because I had very little to go on to be sure that this was another case of a pair of brothers playing for Falkirk FC.


click to see a larger version.

Note -Oops, looking about in the same paper, I found a reason why Len might have been about, though not why he played a league match. I seems he played more than once for Falkirk FC



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Motherwell Thieves

September 14, 2015, 6:19 pm
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Now I have never been a big fan of Motherwell, either as a town or a Football Club [and don't get me wrong this goes way further back than when that fat, ignorant get Cowan got on the BBC], and it seems there is precedent. Not only is there a dirty thief from Motherwell in the story, he is also a Motherwell player.

I found this doing my usual, looking through matches, to see if any had played for Falkirk.

The Falkirk Herald - 28th April 1900


Like I say, "Motherwell Thieves"
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Three Falkirk FC Players in one House

October 21, 2015, 3:53 pm
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I spend a lot of time digging about the geneological records with the same gusto as some category-Z celebs on "Who do you think you are?", Except, I am not trying to prove I am related to royalty.

The opposite in fact, I know I am loosely related to the Meffen Brothers who played for Campsie in the early 1880s, and that is that.

But I do use the same tools to look up people from a long time ago, so we are just doing the same thing.

NB: In the 1870s, 1880s & 1890s we had to look up football players using other evidence [ie other than football], in the 1901 [and especially] the 1911 Census the profession "Professional Footballer" started becoming more prevalent in the Census.

And thus it was that I found at Bradford a singular boarding house that had not only two former Falkirk Footballers [Archie Devine and William Gildea] but at the same time a [yet to be] Falkirk FC player [David Taylor]



Of course, this is not magick, this is not a portent, it was three Scottish Footballers living together in England, I still like it.
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In Search of the Founders of Falkirk FC : William Gentleman

December 2, 2015, 3:08 pm
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For a good number of years I have been looking out for traces of the founders of my favourite club Falkirk FC [and I can tell you it has been arduous and they have been elusive], but where is that to start?

The origins of Falkirk are murky at best! Ignore the badge: that is wishfull thinking, the first mention of the club was in December of 1877, but even then it is without fanfare, after all it was just another football team playing this new-fangled sport. Many other teams were doing the same thing!

It is not until 1902, and the Club's Semi-Jubilee celebrations that anything is reported in the local press on the origins of Falkirk, when Murdoch McIntyre Club Secretary stated:

“He did not see many of the old members present that evening who were at the institution of the club. He had expected another gentleman [damaged] who was one of the three who held a meeting about the Cross in the High Street, when there was some talk of the club being formed. A meeeting [sic] was held in the Newmarket Inn, which used to be the club headquarters, and they decided to advertise the matter. They did so, and the result was that a large meeting of the young men of the town was held and the club formed.” (Falkirk Mail, 15 March 1902)

This puts it down to three 'founder' members of Falkirk, without giving much else away, and so it remains until March of 1909 when the Falkirk Herald reported on a meeting of Falkirk Bairns in Jacobsen's Hall, Chicago:


Of course it could be bluster on the part of Mr Gentleman, but there is no doubt that he was there at the time, for that you simply have to return to the earliest report of a Falkirk FC match in the Falkirk Herald published on the 30th of March of 1878:


What can I say? Maybe he got to play Centre-Forward because he had paid up the money, maybe he was just very good ;). So, he was there at the start but who was this William Gentleman? Through reading the other columns of the Falkirk Herald, and other research it would seem that at one time the Gentleman family were quite big about the district at one time.  - There are fully ten people called William Gentleman in the Falkirk District Census of 1881!

But our William Gentleman was but one of these, as far as I can find out the family were cattle merchants from around the Slamannan area, however it seems they had more than one business holding, as William [Falkirk FC] was born in Avonbridge [sometimes cited as Muiravonside] in January 1857, yet is registered as living in Slamannan in the 1861 Census. However by 1871 the family had moved to a house [I am not sure where exactly] in Parkfoot [long before the advent of High Flats this was seen as a rather nice area].

Then comes football, and inevitably for an eligible young batchelor: marriage. William married Eliza McGregor in 1879, and pretty soon had their first child, Catherine, the first and last of the siblings to be born in Falkirk [even Scotland]!

It is because of Cath [as she seems to have been known], that I managed to trace them across the water. In 1882 there is an entry in the US Immigration records for a Mrs William Gentleman & Cath Gentleman [aged 1 moving to cook County, Illinois, to meet up with William who had moved the year before.

In 1890 and 1900 he was listed in the US Censuses as being involved in the Cattle trade in Chicago, only to suddenly dissapear from the 1920 Census, this perturbed me greatly at in looking for William Gentleman in Chicago I had often come across the case of William Gentleman's murder in 1911! Now this through a spanner in the works, especially since the US papers seemed against the idea of putting any biographical details in print!

I did eventually find the family in 1920, in the San Diego Census! No explanation is forthcoming. However they were back for the 1930 Census in Chicago.

From 1909 it seems to have dropped from the scene that William Gentleman Cattle dealer of Chicago Cook County, Illinois was one of the founders of Falkirk FC, and it must be said his obituary [which stated his birthplace as Falkirk] in the Chicago Tribune of 2nd July 1938 missed that point completely:


And there it might have ended, me doubting whether this William Gentleman was the same person that was instrumental in the formation of the best Club in Stirlingshire, just due to the vagueness, and the lack of anything in the Falkirk Local press ... until out of the blue, and out of left field I came across a little thing in a Canadian paper a week or two later: From the Winnipeg Tribune


So it seems that more than sixty years later, and on another continent, 'somebody' had not forgotten William Gentleman's contribution to Scottish Football. I salute you fine person!

William is buried in Mt Hope Cemetery, Cook County, Illinois, if anyone reading this is ever in the area, please pop round and take some pictures for me, as it will save one helluva trip!

William Gentleman 

b 24th January 1857, Avonbridge, Stirlingshire
d 30th June 1938, Chicago, Illinois

Debut – Saturday March 23rd 1878 v Grasshoppers (H) Friendly
Positions – Back, Half-Back, Centre-Forward

Scottish Cup Matches/Goals [1/-]
Other Matches/Goals [7/-]

Known Career – Falkirk [1877/78-1878/79]

Played in Falkirk's first ever Senior Competitive Match v Campsie Glen (H) Scottish Cup, 28th September1878
Played for Lenzie 2nd XI v Falkirk 2nd XI, Friendly at Randyford Grd, Falkirk, 27th September 1879

John
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No bloggage

January 12, 2016, 3:07 pm
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Sorry, I have been reading a lot of newspapers and although some points of interest have come up nothing too interesting, unless you think that Jimmy Henderson playing for Falkirk, Falkirk Amateurs & East Stirlingshire in the same season was that interesting! No! I did not think so! What was interesting was that Jimmy Henderson lived at the same adress as the current councilor David Alexander, grandson of the East Stirlingshire & Scotland player of the same name.

Like I say, not very interesting: I am currently trying to put together a proper list of Falkirk Amateurs matches, and the Stirlingshire Junior League for http://www.scottish-football-historical-archive.com/

I'll be back to irrelevant stuff soon.
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Stirlingshire's Pioneer Clubs

January 20, 2016, 4:20 am
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Lenzie? WTF? Since when has Lenzie ever been in Stirlingshire?

FH 27th Dec 1933


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Joshua Cochrane 1894

January 20, 2016, 9:29 pm
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I recently found a drawing of Joshua Cochrane, the former Falkirk & Grahamston centre-half in the St Paul Daily Globe [24/5/1894]. The drawing is of him playing "McStuart, traitorous scot" in Rob Roy, which was held at the Grand Opera House, St Paul on Saturday 19th May 1894




Falkirk Herald 28th September 1889




Joshua Cochrane 

b 15th January 1869, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

d 20th April 1955, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA


Debut – Saturday January 5th 1889 v Clydesdale Harriers (H) Friendly

Competitive Debut – Saturday September 7th 1889 v Tillicoultry (H) Scottish Cup 1st Rd

Positions – Centre-Half
Known Career – Grahamston [1887/88-1888/89], Falkirk [1888/89-1889/90], Minneapolis Rangers FC [1890], Minneapolis FC [1892-1897]

Notes
Emigrated to Minneapolis, USA sailing from Glasgow to Boston arriving on the 9th October 1889 on the S.S.Nestorian.

Brother of Peter Cochrane [Falkirk 1887/88]


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Revisionism: the First mention of East Stirlingshire

February 4, 2016, 10:10 am
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In History revisionism has a bad name, as if the crusty Victorians were right and anyone with new ideas were wrong. However, luckily football history never really started until the 1920s so we do not have to put up with the same stigma as the new wave of 19th Century social historians did.

I was recently reading a thirty year odd old book about East Stirlingshire, which claimed that the first mention of the club in the press was of a friendly against Dunipace on the 19th of November 1881 [and I will gloss over the fact that the author had missed a report of Armadale v East Stirlingshire in the midweek Falkirk Herald dated 3rd November], but this entire mistruth comes from the fact that the author had clearly only used the Falkirk Herald as a source.

Every football match takes two teams, and so it was that there was an earlier report of an East Stirlingshire match which exists not reported in the Falkirk Herald. Nearly a month before any mention of East Stirlingshire in the Falkirk Herald the West Lothian Courier of the 15th October 1881 carried this:

Armadale v East Stirlingshire

Played at Falkirk, and after a very pleasant and well contested game, resulted in favour of Armadale by two goals to nothing.


I am not saying this is the earliest mention of ESFC in the press, I am simply saying that this is the earliest I have found, and I welcome anybody who revises it to an even earlier date.
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Alex Turnbull: Falkirk Goalkeeper

February 24, 2016, 3:27 am
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Alex Turnbull was one of Falkirk FC's first serious goalkeepers: to go further on this is difficult, he [of course] was not a professional, but the goalkeepers before him seem to have been slightly random, more like the worst player in the eleven rather than a specialist goalkeeper.

Coming from Plean [well,,, Touchhill Farm just outside of Plean] it seems that the Turnbull family also had links with Falkirk causing the footballing sons to play their football in Falkirk district rather than Stirling [Alex was the only footballing brother who never also played at some point for East Stirlingshire & Stenhousemuir].

Alex was good for Falkirk, good enough to represent Falkirk District & Stirlingshire when those kind of matches mattered, but truth be told probably not likely of going to a higher level.

And so it was he decided to emigrate to Canada about 1885 from where it was reported in the Falkirk Herald that he was playing with Montreal FC. But before professionalism that was not good enough to make a life in the new world, so Alex returned, with the resolve to return to the New World south of the Mason/Dixon line.

Soon Alex was off again, this time to Cheyenne, but presumably with the same level of failure as he turned up in Spokane [quite a distance apart] soon after.

It is difficult to determine the exact order of events from this remove, but it seems Alex was involved in quite a few schemes [including gold mining, diamond mining and local politics] before settling down as an undertaker in his new city, but not any old undertaker, he was active in the Rotarians, set up another branch of the the Order of Oddfellows, and in various school committees during his time in Spokane.

But important to me is the fact that in 1921 he returned to the Old World for a tour of Europe, and for this he had to apply for a US Passport, from where I have an image of the man [albeit nearly 40 years after the last time he kept the sticks for Falkirk] but him all the same








If you follow the Spokane Newspapers Alex seems to have kept in touch with his little World from then on writing to his local papers in as much a right wing fashion as many Daily Mail letter writers do to this day, but hey, that is their problem for being Right-Wing loons, not mine.

Alex died in the aptly named Medical Lake Center, just outside Spokane in 1945, where seemingly no-one except he knew of his input into the development of Football in Falkirk/Stirlingshire, since I find no obituary.

Alexander William Turnbull

b 14th May 1862, Bannockburn, Stirlingshire
d 18th September 1945, Medical Lake, Washington, USA

Debut – Saturday September 2nd 1882 v East Stirlingshire (A) Friendly
Competitive Debut – Saturday October 28th 1882 v Renton (A) Scottish Cup 3rd Rd Replay
Positions – Goalkeeper
Representative Honours – Stirlingshire v Lanarkshire 1883/84
Club Honours – Stirlingshire Cup W 1883/84

Scottish Cup Matches/Goals [4/-]
Stirlingshire Cup Matches/Goals [4/-]
Falkirk & District Charity Cup Matches/Goals [1/-]
Other Matches/Goals [23/-]
Scottish 2nd XI Cup Matches/Goals [1/-]

Known Career – Falkirk [1881/82-1884/85], Montreal

Notes
Played for Grasshoppers v East Stirlingshire, Friendly at Merchiston Pk, Bainsford, 27th December 1884
Played for Grahamston v East Stirlingshire, Benefit Match at Crichton Pk, Falkirk, 27th May 1885
Played for Falkirk District XI v Rangers, Benefit Match at Falkirk, 30th May 1885
Emigrated to Canada c1885-86
Emigrated to Spokane, Washington, USA in May 1888 sailing from Liverpool.
Brother of James [Falkirk 1903/04] & Thomas Turnbull [Falkirk 1893/94-1897/98].

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Robert Stalker 1904/05

March 6, 2016, 3:42 pm
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Continuing my informal series on former Falkirk players who ended up on the other side of the Atlantic I bring what little I know about Robert J. Stalker, a man of several clubs but comparatively few games.

Seemingly born in the Newington area of Edinburgh, as far as I can find out the earliest football played by Bob was with Edinburgh Myrtle in East of Scotland Junior football, where he had impressed enough for Queen's Park to pick him up in 1903/04. From the middle of December he played regularly with the Spiders in Inside-Forward and Center-Forward positions for the next month, playing 6 and scoring twice while at Mount Florida.

Whether or not Hibs actually signed him next or simply played him is unknown. I have no way of knowing whether he was a fixture in the reserves in between his 2 appearances for the club, or whether he was a "free man". The latter is possible, especially in the light that his matches were in two different seasons. Robert had scored on his debut, but neither this nor his second game [both, incidentally against Kilmarnock] were enough to convince those in charge that he was worth continuing with [it must be said that he was about 25 by this time].

Curiously enough, four weeks after his last appearance for Hibs, Robert was in the Hearts line-up against Hibs on the 29th Oct 1904 for what seems to be his only appearance for the Jambos.

His situation at Hearts was clearly only temporary [perhaps a loan?] because on Christmas Eve 1904 Robert Stalker was now playing Centre-Forward for Falkirk at Abercorn [scoring twice], and there he stayed for the next three matches until Jan 14th 1905 [scoring another brace v Albion Rovers the previous week].

Yet, within the week the SFA has Bob listed as signing for his fourth team of the season [it is now impossible to play for more than two without UEFA's special permission], when he turned out for Motherwell in two league matches.

Toward the end of the season an R.Stalker again played for Falkirk v St Bernards in an East of Scotland League match, this was probably the same player but I am not 100% sure.

From this point on it seems that he disappeared from senior football in Scotland, and apart from a single game for St Bernards in the 1907 Roseberry Charity Cup possibly from all football [though I suspect he may have returned to the junior folds], suggesting that football was not his first priority.

So, what to make of such a short and transient career? There are two possibilities. 1) going on from his time that he was with Queen's Park, Robert was an amateur with employment elsewhere which did not allow him to devote the time to full-time football, but was good enough for several clubs to desire his services where and when or 2) after his time at QP he signed for Hibernian who after failing to find a place for him subsequently loaned him out to whoever needed him for the rest of the season.

While the former sounds nice and romantic, the fact that he effectively dissappeared from football after 1904/05 seems that he either was too busy in his 'other' employment or that he never found a place in football [whether through injury or lack of ability I cannot tell], but it points toward the latter.

Nearly two decades after his time in football [1926] I found Robert on a ship's manifest from Scotland to Boston, he described himself as a 46 year old 'house-painter' and gave his previous address as '2 Merchiston Place, Edinburgh", within 4 years he is found in the Philadelphia Census, and was then a 51 year old 'golf professional'.

This raises the possibility that he was mainly a golfer [and not a footballer] in his youth, possibly explaining his sporadic appearances, and it is to an extent borne out by his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer [December 13th 1930] which stated that he was "the coach for Andrew Jamieson who defeated Bobby Jones in 1926."

But the simple fact is that his passing went, as far as I can tell, largely unnoticed by the majority of Scottish Football, however, he hardly set Scottish Football on fire.


Sunderland Echo - Mon 12th January 1931

Robert Stalker

b 1879-1880, Edinburgh
d 11th December 1930, Abington, Pennsylvania, USA

Positions – Centre-Forward, Inside-Left, Inside-Right

Known Career

Edinburgh Myrtle

Unknown

Queen's Park [1903/04]
Scottish League Matches/Goals [6/2]

Hibernian [1903/04-1904/05]
Scottish League Matches/Goals [2/1]

Heart of Midlothian [1904/05]
Scottish League Matches/Goals [1/-]

Falkirk [1904/05]
Scottish League Matches/Goals [4/4]
EoS League Matches/Goals [1/-]

Motherwell [1904/05],
Scottish League Matches/Goals [2/-]

St Bernards [1906/07]
Roseberry Charity Cup Matches/Goals [1/-]

Height – 5” 7½'
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Daniel Daye: The Falkirk player who seems not to exist.

March 14, 2016, 6:24 pm
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What's in a name? Throughout his time at Falkirk one player was listed as Daye, Day, Daze and Dey. His name was mostly written as Daniel Daye though, and that is how I call him. But the simple fact is that when I go back through the records, there is next to no record of any Daniel Day.

I did find a record of the death of Daniel Day [no obituary].


Add this to the fact that there is a Falkirk player called Daniel Daye regularly listed as Centre-Forward in the 1890s of whom I even have a photograph.


Then why when I look through the census, do I get this result?


That there was a centre-forward playing under the name of Daniel Daye in the 1890s there is no doubt [just look up the Falkirk Heralds of the time], that there was a Daniel Daye before 1945 I have no evidence.

There was a family that lived on Canal Street, Camelon, who were mentioned in an 1891 Falkirk Herald as Daye -


Yet are listed in the 1881 census as Day!


But still there is no Daniel! I know, perhaps it was a middle name, but which son? How do I know this was even the correct family?

Until something comes Deus Ex Machina, I fear I will never truly solve the Enigma of the Daniel Day that seemingly never existed.


Daniel Daye

d 21st October 1945, Falkirk, Stirlingshire?

Debut – Saturday August 31st 1889 v Campsie (A) Friendly
Competitive Debut – Saturday September 28th 1889 v King's Park (H) Scottish Cup 2nd Rd

Positions – Centre-Forward

Club Honours – Stirlingshire Cup W 1889/90, Falkirk District Charity Cup W 1889/90, Falkirk Infirmary Shield RU 1889/90, 1890/91, Stirlingshire 2nd XI Cup W 1891/92

Scottish Cup Matches/Goals [3/1]
Scottish Federation Matches/Goals [5/-]
Stirlingshire Cup Matches/Goals [7/8]
Falkirk & District Charity Cup Matches/Goals [3/2]
Falkirk Infirmary Shield Matches/Goals [3/1]
Other Matches/Goals [33/21]
Stirlingshire 2nd XI Cup Matches/Goals [5/3]

Known Career – Falkirk Excelsior, Falkirk [1889/90-1892/93]

Notes
Played for Laurieston v Kilsyth Wanderers, Friendly at Garrell Garden Pk, Kilsyth, 17th September 1892
Scored five goals in the Stirlingshire Cup Final v Gairdoch (N) 8th March 1890

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James Richardson - WWI in Ruhleben

May 4, 2016, 12:00 pm
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I have spent some time trying to find the details of all the Falkirk FC players who served in the Great War, it is not always easy because most of the files were destroyed in 1940 during the blitz. However there are long and laborious ways around this 'problem'.

However it was during this that I came across another Falkirk FC related tragedy from the first war: that of James Richardson.

James Richardson was like most Victorians Bairns, apart from the fact that due to his Father's profession of Master Mariner, he seems to have born on the Chinchas Islands off the coast of Peru in 1858!

An engineer by trade the first time we come across him in the world of football was whilst studying in Glasgow he was playing with Kelvinbank, and brought the team through to play against a team of players from Falkirk in what was reported to be the first match ever played in Falkirk. This was in December of 1877.

As far as I can tell he played no actual part in the formation of Falkirk FC, however his wee brother George was the first proper secretary of the club [so he was probably in contact], and he probably helped in teaching the initiates in the early days.

After his time in Glasgow he returned to the town where he joined Falkirk for the next couple of seasons, before getting a proper job on the high seas.

The next I learned of his life was his return from Germany at the end of World War One. It seems that the steamer on which he was serving was in port in Hamburg when war was announced between Germany and the UK, and the crew were interned in the Ruhleben Internment Camp for the duration.


Upon his return to Falkirk he got a post as tinsmith in the Gothic Works in Camelon, where he ultimately died within ten years of his time.


James Richardson 

b c1858, Peru 
d 1stOctober 1927, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
 
Debut – Saturday March 8th 1879 v Kelvinbank (H) Friendly
Competitive Debut – Saturday September 27th 1879 v Grasshoppers (H) Scottish Cup 1st Rd
Positions – Left-Back
Scottish Cup Matches/Goals [1/-]
Other Matches/Goals [8/-]
Known Career – Kelvinbank [1877/78], Falkirk [1878/79-1880/81]
Brother of George Richardson [Falkirk 1877/78-1880/81]

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William Sanderson

May 7, 2016, 6:42 pm
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I recently found his obituary. [NB - I only found it because I had found his middle name elsewhere]



William Gaff Sanderson

b 8th June 1861, Polmont, Stirlingshire
d 19th June 1937, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

Debut – Saturday November 26th 1881 v Alexandra Athletic (H) Friendly
Competitive Debut – Saturday October 2st 1882 v Renton (H) Scottish Cup 3rd Rd

Positions – Centre-Forward
Scottish Cup Matches/Goals [1/1]
Other Matches/Goals [6/2]
Scottish 2nd XI Cup Matches/Goals [1/-]

Known Career – Falkirk [1880/81-1883/84]
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Falkirk Footballers v Grangemouth Footballers 1879

May 14, 2016, 2:59 am
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I cannot be 100% sure, but I think I may have found the first occasion in which Falkirk FC took part in a sporting occasion outside of football. The following cutting was in the Falkirk Herald of Thur 6th February 1879, and relates to a curling match in Grangemouth.


The difficulty in asserting this is pretty obvious though: for a start "Footballers of Falkirk" is not the same thing as Falkirk Football Club. On the other hand there is no record of other football going on in Falkirk at the time. There is also the fact that there was a Grangemouth Football Club at this time [however they played their football with the oval ball], and that there was contact between the two clubs is beyond doubt, due to the fact that the Peddie brothers played for both clubs.

So all in all I think that it is most likely that the two local clubs, in the middle of the season, instead of playing a match at one or other code of football, had a friendly competition in a completely different sport.
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Pen Pic - Robert Orrock - East Stirlingshire FC

June 15, 2016, 5:54 am
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I just found a picture of Robert Orrock at the start of his senior career, he joined East Stirlingshire at the beginning of the 1906/07 season, and would go on and on and on and on.


Soon after this Bobby Orrock joined Falkirk, got capped and played a lot of football before winding up his career back at East Stirlingshire. Last thing I know the Orrock family headed off down under, to enjoy a bit of sunshine.
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Pen Pic - Clyde Skene - Falkirk FC - 1907

June 17, 2016, 1:26 am
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Since I recently came across a series on "Prominent Falkirk and District Football Players" published in 1907 I might as well continue to share them for the World's edification ;/

Today we have the legendary Clydesdale Duncan Skene [for that was his full name], from Tryst Road, Larbert.


The Skenes were a sporting family Clyde also playing in the local cricket leagues, whilst his brother Dr Leslie Skene was a senior goalkeeper for [among others] Glasgow University, Falkirk Amateurs, Stenhousemuir, Queen's Park, Fulham, Glentoran and Scotland.
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Pen Pic - Thomas Baird - East Sirlingshire - 1907

June 17, 2016, 10:18 am
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Yet another in the series of Pen Pics of Prominent Falkirk and District Football Players. This one, Thomas Baird is a rarity, in that he is one of few footballers that played for all three Scottish League teams in the District: Falkirk, Stenhousemuir then East Stirlingshire. The only catch being that he played for Falkirk and Stenhousemuir before they had joined the League.


Although a local, I have never quite been able to pinpoint where he was from, and he dissappeared off the radar not long after this season.
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Pen Pic - John Morrison - Falkirk FC - 1907

June 17, 2016, 3:16 pm
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John Morrison is the next in this series of prominent players from 1907, and I have to say he is one of my pet favourite players in the history of Falkirk FC. Although he would be special because [as far as I am aware] he is the only player to play for the club in every single position of the old 2-3-5 formation [okay he only played in goal once, in a friendly v Peebles Rovers]: but most importantly, by 1910 he went by the nickname "Slasher", there, that is enough.

He would have been a 'one club man' apart from the fact that his work took him to Paisley, and wartime restrictions on movement compelled him to play for St Mirren in 1913/14.


After his playing career he became the Secretary/Manager of East Stirlingshire, Third Lanark then St Mirren, retiring in Paisley during the second war.
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Pen Pic - John Simpson - Falkirk FC - 1907

June 18, 2016, 4:32 pm
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This the legend that was Jock Simpson in 1907.


Nothing more need be said.
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Pen Pic - James Reid - Falkirk FC - 1907

June 19, 2016, 3:09 pm
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This post from the prominent footballers series is that of James 'Punkie' Reid. Another local lad who Falkirk pinched from East Stirlingshire twice. Although starting his career at Inside-Right, in his second spell at the club he played almost exclusively at Right-Half, to such success that in 1907 he played in the Scottish League International Trial, then in 1909 in the Scottish International Trial, sadly though not being given the honour of representing his country.


After his Falkirk career he moved on to Cowdenbeath, then served in the Great War with Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.
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