| James Cameron |
 James Cameron was born in 1868 in Glasgow, although we've been unable to establish a date as of yet. * The defender first appeared for Thistle in May, 1893, having most recently been with Linthouse. Aged 24 or 25, he made his first known appearance on Wednesday, 17th May, 1893, in a 3-3 neutral-venue draw against Dykebar in the Greenock Charity Cup. There were no known goals for James during his spell with Thistle. He played his last known game for the club on Saturday, 27th May, 1893, in a 7-4 win away to Morton in the Greenock Charity Cup, having appeared for the Thistle on at least 3 occasions. His club-list included Glasgow Perthshire, Linthouse, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Liverpool and Pollokshields Athletic. James died in 1934, aged 65 or 66. *
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 This full back played in the juniors with Glasgow Perthshire before joining Linthouse in the early 1890s. He played with the Govan side in the first-ever Scottish Alliance season in 1891-92 and won a gold medal as they finished as the champions, 4 points ahead of Kilmarnock. An interesting match took place on 30th March 1892 whereby representative teams of the Scottish Alliance (in its inaugural season) and Scottish League (in its second season) squared off, no doubt in an attempt to settle a few scores as to who deserved to be where! James (who played in both Alliance games against Thistle that season) represented the Alliance as right back, but was on the wrong end of a 4-3 defeat. With no pathway for "promotion" Linthouse again played alongside Thistle in the Scottish Alliance of 1892-93, and finished runners-up second time around. In May 1893, James swanned in as a guest for Thistle for three games in the Greenock Charity Cup. In the space of 11 days, he played three times for the Jags at Cappielow, a 3-3 draw and a 6-0 win versus Dykebar ensuring a place in a classic final tie against the hosts. 2 goals in 10 minutes set Thistle up, although Morton fought back to 2-2 at half-time. Thistle played with 10 men after the break (injury), went behind, levelled, then Morton scored from a penalty. After that “Thistle fairly nonplussed the ground team” (GT) with 4 more goals to win the cup more than comfortably in the end. Amazingly, James's medal turned up at McTear's Auctioneers in late 2020 and sold for around £1,800 including fees. See 'Gallery' tab above for the striking image. Along with many others, both Linthouse and Partick Thistle resigned from the Scottish Alliance and took their place as founder members of the Scottish Football League Second Division, 1893-94. James, however, initially bypassed this "promotion" fast-forwarding to the top-flight with Rangers. He made no impact at Old Ibrox though, and returned to Linthouse before too long. In July 1894, the Scottish Referee reported that Liverpool considered they had made a splendid catch in acquiring the services of James Cameron from Linthouse, adding “there is no doubt of it”. Nice when the papers have your back! He played on 4 occasions in the English First Division that term, getting his first League start in a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United in front of 12,000 at Anfield. His single season at Liverpool was followed by two seasons back at Linthouse, as well as making guest appearances for Pollokshields Athletic. |
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