| George Watson |
 George Whyte Watson was born sometime between 1st October and 31st December, 1905, in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. * The forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Tuesday, 20th September, 1932, having most recently been with Motherwell. Aged 26, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 24th September, 1932, in a 2-1 defeat at home to Aberdeen in the SFL First Division. That day, George became a member of our scoring debutant's club. He scored the last of his 3 goals on Saturday, 1st April, 1933, in a 7-2 win away to East Stirlingshire in the SFL First Division. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 22nd April, 1933, in a 1-1 draw away to St Mirren in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 13 occasions. His club-list included Motherwell Juniors, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Halifax Town, Dunfermline Athletic and Cowdenbeath. George died on Monday, 10th January, 1994, in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, aged 88.
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 Nicknamed ‘Sodger’, George was an ex-soldier who had been stationed at Hamilton Barracks when he signed for Motherwell from Motherwell Juniors in 1928. Sensationally, he scored six in a 7-0 win over Falkirk in his first month, and finished the season at roughly one goal per game in the League, having played 13 top-flight games. Despite this, he could make neither the centre forward or inside left spot his own, and spent a considerable amount of time playing for the reserves in the seasons which followed. He racked up an astonishing tally of 55 reserve team goals in 1930-31. Shifting to Firhill to try and re-establish his profile, he got off to a scoring start in September 1932, although Thistle went down 1-2 at home to Aberdeen. A double in a 7-2 win at East Stirlingshire was another highlight, but that was it as far as his scoring prowess went in the (new) red and yellow shirt. Made the move to Dunfermline at the turn of 1934 and played his part in the Pars side which won the 2nd Division title that term. George married twice, to Mary Cook in 1929 and to Sally O'Neill in 1967. He was buried at Airbles Cemetery, Motherwell. |
| (WS/JK/MON) |
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