| Peter Buchan |
 Peter Buchan was born on Wednesday, 23rd November, 1859, in Careston, Angus. The forward appeared for Thistle in January, 1881. Aged 21, he made his only known appearance on Saturday, 1st January, 1881, in a 6-0 friendly win away to Brechin. There were no known goals for Peter in that game. His known club-list included only Partick Thistle. Peter died on Friday, 7th November, 1924, in Brechin, Angus, aged 64.
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 We know about Peter thanks to a letter from a John D. Strachan, sent to the Brechin Advertiser in late 1929:
Mr. Strachan didn't quote any names for the twins, which was a little frustrating. When examining the team lines for the game on New Years Day 1881, one thing stood out straight away - there was a Buchan in the Brechin team, and a Buchan in the Thistle team. It was a sign! To say Thistle team lines were a rarity in the early days would be an understatement. In fact, the West of Scotland cup final of April 1879 was the only occasion in the 1870s when an eleven was named (as far as we know). The Brechin game in question - by far Thistle's farthest venture at the time - was just the 3rd earliest instance of a full eleven being named (the other being the Rangers Scottish Cup tie of October 1880). We got to work in no time at all and had the boys fully traced and identified as the twins Charles & Peter Buchan, born on 23rd November, 1859, in Careston, Angus, sons of Mary Buchan, an unmarried domestic servant. We were able to see that the boys had indeed travelled to Glasgow for work (they were lodging together in Govan in 1881) and, despite the aforementioned difficulties with teamlines, we were able to spot quite a few handy references in our reserve games lists. We first see BUCHAN as a scorer on the 2nd February 1878 in a 2-0 win away to Surrey (not a glamorous touring outfit - they played at Queen's Park!) Furthermore, the North British Daily Mail was able to verify a handy initial: “Goals kicked by P. Buchan and R. McFedries.” Buchan was on the scoresheet again on 19th October 1878, helping Thistle to a 4-0 win away to Greenbank Rutherglen (don't you just love these names?) He once again turns up as a scorer in a 2-1 home win over Harmonic in March 1879. Incidentally, "home" in these days was a public park at Overnewton. From the first-team line at Brechin, it's implied that Peter played as a central forward for Thistle and Charles played wide in the 2-2-6 line for Brechin, so we kind of get the impression that the Buchan scoring all the goals for the reserves was more likely to be Peter. We've no reason to doubt that Charles played too, but non-scoring players had very little chance of getting a mention in the 1870s. As we have it with our limited data, Peter registered only one known appearance for the Partick Thistle first team when he turned out at centre forward in the aforementioned New Years Day friendly at Brechin in 1881. At that time, it was easily the furthest that Thistle had ever travelled for a game, the previous record having been set at Helensburgh just weeks before. The Earl of Dalhousie gave up his fields at Brechin Castle Park for the occasion and a large and curious crowd turned out. The ground was in good condition, although the players had to contend with a strong wind. During the game (!) the Brechin Brass Band played "a choice selection of music". Thistle won six nil but, alas, no goalscorers were reported. It's likely Peter also turned out a day or two later, although - even if we knew the score - will never be official since it was very much a bounce game whereby the two teams were split in half, the defenders of Brechin teaming up with the forwards of Thistle and vice-versa! In the 1881 census, both bachelor boys were lodging at 14, Stewartville Street in Govan, when Peter was described as a house joiner and Charles a mason. It may be an enumerator error or Peter may well have been a house joiner in his earlier days, but later he was described as a mason, employed in that capacity by the Bradford Corporation Waterworks, per the 1921 English census. Peter passed away at Brechin Infirmary in late 1924 when he was described as the beloved husband of Mary Donald. The funeral took place on Monday 10th November 1924 when Peter was laid to rest at Brechin Cemetery, next to Glebe Park. Read more in our feature piece, Partick Thistle's pioneering twins of Brechin! →. |
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