| James Crawford |
 James Crawford was born on Saturday, 21st May, 1904, in Tollcross, Glasgow. The forward appeared as a guest for George Easton's Thistle in April, 1926, having most recently been with Queen's Park. Aged 21, he made his only appearance on Tuesday, 27th April, 1926, in a 5-2 defeat at home to Glasgow Select in a Benefit match. There were no goals for James in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Queen's Park and Partick Thistle. James died on Monday, 24th May, 1976, in Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, aged 72. |
 James was a Queen’s Park player for 15 years, from 1922 to 1937. He was a Scottish internationalist, and played his sole match for Thistle in sad circumstances. During an SFL 1st Division fixture against Queen’s Park at Hampden Park on 3rd October 1925, Thistle player Tom Crichton was injured, sustaining a compound fracture of his leg. His playing career was over. On 27 April 1926, the following year, a testimonial match was played between a Thistle / Queen’s Park select, and a Glasgow Select. 10,000 fans turned out for the contest for Tom Crichton, with around £500 being raised. This was a good crowd for a Tuesday evening, and showed the respect held for the longtime Jag and Scottish Cup winner. James was one of 5 Queen’s Park players who played that day. Although the Jags / Spiders team were beaten 5-2, the fans had the pleasure of seeing a cracking goal by Willie Salisbury, to open the scoring. Born in Tollcross in May 1904, his family moved to Dennistoun, and he attended Whitehill School where he was capped by Scotland Schoolboys. James appeared for Queen’s Park competitively on around 510 occasions, scoring around 130 goals in the process. He was a speedy winger, who also held sprinting records. In his debut season, the Spiders won the 2nd Division title. Thereafter during his time at Hampden they remained in the 1st Division. He was selected for the Scotland International side on 5 occasions, as well as playing for the Scotland amateur side 10 times. His full Scotland International caps came against Northern Ireland twice; Wales and England in British Championship Internationals between 1931 and 1933. The only defeat was against Wales. He also played against France in a friendly in 1932, with Scotland winning 3-1. He played for the Great Britain Olympic team at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, when GB played Poland (a 4-5 defeat) and China (a 2-0 victory). James was also capped 3 times by the Scottish League. As a sprinter, he won the Scotland 100 yard title on 3 occasions. He worked in the clothing retail industry. During World War 2 James was initially a Flight Sergeant, but was subsequently commissioned as a Flight Lieutenant. He dealt with trans-Atlantic flight traffic. James passed away in 1976 aged 72. On account of his service during WWII, James is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle Returned →. |
| (DMAC) |