| The Birth Of Partick Thistle FC |
by William Sheridan
On the BBC's 'Current Account' documentary for Thistle's Centenary (broadcast 10 December 1976) a great birth dilemma was aired for all to hear:
Everything about Partick Thistle is nearly but not quite right. This years centenary celebrations for instance. It might have been 1876, and again it might not. But anyway, the club started about that time. And of course they don't play in Partick at all, but in Maryhill.
Well! It simply wouldn't do to change our name simply for the benefit of map readers from deepest Brno but, 50 years on from that BBC documentary, rest assured that some of us are still working on that monemental moment of conception. Alas, not for Partick Thistle do we have the convenience and satisfaction of a clearly defined date, a meeting at a public place, nor stated founders. It's most likely our fooball club was formed in December 1875 and all known evidence weighs heavily in favour of the first known game on 19th February 1876 being the first actual game in reality. Perhaps we'll get a magical break and have it all cleared up by 2076. Or should that be 2075?!
In this piece, I'll boldly take some new steps in an attempt to crack the great mystery. As well as some great new information, I'll lay out the backdrop to the time and the place, bring out all the key facts as I currently understand them, and focus the lense on some of the earliest names in our story. Consider this an open-ended article, a work in progress, and I very much look forward to revisiting often with any little nuggets which might help further advance the story. In this spirit, I encourage anyone with an interest in the subject to keep an eye out and join in with the reporting of any further snippets which might help develop or extinguish any of the leads contained here within!
19th century Partick
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| ● Stepping stones at bend in the River Kelvin, upstream from Old Bridge, Partick. (GBL) |
The Partick of the late 18th and early 19th century was romantically described in “Glasgow and its clubs” (Dr. John Strang, 1864):
Among the many rural villages which at one time surrounded Glasgow, perhaps none surpassed Partick in beauty and interest. Situated on the banks of a limpid and gurgling stream which flows through the centre, and beautified as of yore with many fine and umbrageous trees, and above all ornamented with an old hoary castle, with whose history many true and many more fabulous tales were associated; and when to these were added its dozen or two comfortable, clean cottages, and its picturesquely planted mills, all combined to render the locality one of the most favourite of suburban retreats. It was, in fact, the resort of every citizen who enjoyed a lovely landscape, an antiquarian ramble, or a mouthful of fresh air. At that time, there was only a straggling house or two on the one side of the turnpike road from Anderston to the Crow Road. Partick was then truly in the country. Its thatched and whitewashed cottages with its ruinous castle, were such as to evoke the admiration of every tasteful limner, and its river, while it suggested a theme for the poet's lyre, offered at the same time an attraction for the angler's rod.
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| ● Old meets new housing at Keith Street & Dumbarton Road, Partick. (GBL) |
This was holiday brochure copywriting at its best from Dr. Strang - and I'm now fully versed in the ways of the “limner”! Despite some modest growth, Partick retained some degree of desireability as a leisurely retreat from the city until the 1840s, but the great transformation became too much going into the 1850s, largely as a result of the fast pace of industrial development, particularly in shipbuilding along the River Clyde. As the decades rolled on, the cottages of old began to sit awkwardly alongside great tenement buildings. Based on the census information, the population of Partick was around 22,000 by the middle of the 1870s. It had multiplied 22-fold since Strand's 1810-esque depiction. Concerned at the almost inevitable deteriorating standards (especially an alarming increase in the mortality rate), the householders voted for Partick to be re-invented as a police burgh in 1852, effectively localising their own elected authority responsible for paving, lighting, cleansing, water supplies and generally improving their community.
“Partick Past and Present” (Charles Margrave Taylor, 1902):
Communication with the city by tram was established, from the crescents to Whiteinch terminus. Up until 1874, the villagers were happy in the use of oil as an illuminant, but the new commissioners were not content to travel in the old rut, and they very readily availed themselves of the benefits offered by the Partick, Hillhead & Maryhill Gas company to introduce the new light into the little burgh.
In late 1875, John Ferguson, who served until 1878, became the 7th Provost of Partick. It's doubtful he paid any attention to Partick Thistle in his early tenure; we were just another club of little consequence at that stage. It was a different story several years later, by which time Thistle had made enormous progress in a relatively short time, winning cups and gaining membership of the SFA. Representing the local government, Bailie Storrie of Partick chaired Thistle's 4th Annual social evening, held in the Partick Burgh Halls at the beginning of February 1882. He congratulated the club on “its wonderful progress”, going on to recommend football to all young men of the burgh.
It's also interesting to note that the 9th provost of the burgh was Sir Andrew Maclean (knighted in 1887) who served from 1883 to 1891. He was a partner in the famous Barclay Curle shipbuilding firm who employed many Partick Thistle players including the great Willie Paul. While he was provost, Mclean was also a patron of Partick Thistle and introduced Alexander Craig Sellar (MP for Partick, 1885 to 1890) to the club in the late 1880s. These are just some small examples, but we were very much entwined with the burgh and its folk. For more than 30 years, Partick Thistle itself would bob and weave along with all of the great changes being made in the area.
The coat of arms of the Burgh of Partick was approved by the Lord Lyon in 1872. Two of the quarters contain ancient ships, likely a nod to the shipbuilding industry, albeit typically heraldic and outdated. The castle and bishop's mitre are thought to represent Partick Castle (built 1611) and the fact that the Bishops of Glasgow had a residence on the site before the 16th century reformation. At the top, the wheatsheaf and millstones hark back to the days of Partick's rural industries, and the mills on the banks of the River Kelvin.
Our Partick predecessors
Clearly reflecting the influx of workers to the area, a healthy number of teams started to emerge in the burgh in the early to mid 1870s. Preceding ourselves were clubs such as Burnbank, Carrick, Springfield, Whiteinch, Kelvinside, Partickhill and Western. The latter named played at Regent's Park, and were the first “big guns” of the area — relatively speaking — and represented Partick in the first-ever Scottish Cup in 1873. In fact, they chipped in a whopping £4 for the original trophy, the toffs! Western was formed out of a cricket club, as many were. In March 1875, Partick FC joined the ever-building local list, formed from the get-go as a cricket & football club.
There's not too much we've got to be jealous about when it comes to the Partick Football Club which existed from 1875 to 1885, but the clarity of their founding date (23 March 1875) together with a list of founding members is certainly one such thing, all contemporaneously reported in the Partick Advertiser, as Andy Mitchell discovered back in October 2015. They even have a birthplace noted in the shape of the Partick Burgh Halls (nicely depicted in the adjoining Art Print found on Etsy). Said location even faces directly on to the West of Scotland cricket ground which famously hosted what's considered to be the world's first-ever international in April 1872; Scotland 0 England 0. Okay, maybe we're a little jealous of Partick FC. Incidentally, Mum went to Hamilton Crescent school almost next door, so that's pretty cool. Also, when truanting she'd while away the hours in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, which is very close to where Thistle played its early home matches. Talk about DNA. Spirituality, see?
Are we staring our foundation stones in the face?
Cooking depots were springing up all over, effectively large-scale feeding houses for the working classes, where no dish would ever cost more than a penny, whether a bowl of broth, a hearty slab of bread & cheese or a plate of meat. The Merkland Street depot in Partick, with a huge hall that could accomodate upwards of 700, was a particularly community-minded variant of the phenomenon, often hosting communal singing events and competitions. The 8-year-old Willie Paul lived on Merkland Street in the 1870s, he'd have known it well - he was literally born there! I wonder if any of the Pauls were at the concert held there on the evening of Friday 18th December 1874? It was a well attended fundraising event, featuring an array of local talent, the purpose of which was to raise money for the purchasing of new instruments for… wait for it… the Partick Thistle Flute Band!
Now, most Thistle fans will baulk at the connotations of those 4 words appearing concurrently but, theoretically, such bands were not entirely without merit. There was a school of thought that “a body of young men associating themselves together for the purpose of the cultivation of music ought to be encouraged”; that it was preferable to sitting around in public houses. Merkland Street seems to have been a bit of a spiritual home for the band, as a summertime 1875 report affirms. On Saturday 26th June 1875, the boys had been booked to appear in Rutherglen at a Sunday School picnic in connection with the free church. It seems the hour was late when they set out for home and, with no public transport, they took it upon themselves to march and play en route, late into the Saturday night. By the time they'd reached Overnewton, a large crowd had latched on and it was a bit of a procession which is said to have taken them along Dumbarton Road and through Partick Cross before landing “home” at Merkland Street. There was much cheering and yelping, but so too there was jeering and counter-yelling; alarmed residents had cause to open windows all the way to see what the commotion was all about. The final destination was only reached at 11.40pm, and all of this was enough to land the band in court, charged with causing a breach of the peace.
| • The Partick Thistle flute band knew! (version performed by the California Consolidated Drum Band) |
The entire band - twelve of them - appeared before Bailie Ferguson at the Partick Police Court on Thursday 8th July 1875. In a way, I'm very pleased about this as they were all named - ideal for the purposes of historical research! They were: John Sinclair, William John Sommerville, H. Miller, William McClure, William Prout Jr., Samuel Redpath, Malcolm McKinnon, Archie Watson, John Newell, Robert Taylor, Peter Ross and Alex McDonald. Mr. Faulds, a writer, appeared for the band who pled not guilty to the charge. He spoke well, pointing out that they had set out in good faith that day, that it was not they themselves who were being riotous and tumultuous and that they were not playing any party tunes, only numbers such as “Flowers of the Forest” and “The Campbell's are coming”. The bailie was glad to hear that the band had given over playing party tunes, for if he was not mistaken, either the band or another in Partick had caused rows before by playing party tunes on the streets. He would allow them to go this time and leave it to their good sense to be more careful of themselves in the future. I'll say no more on this subject for now, but remember the name… H. Miller.
Anyone for cricket?
The explosion of Scottish rugby and association football clubs in the later half of the 19th century is well known but, when you look, it's surprising just how many cricket clubs similarly rose up and, generally speaking, cricket was first to take hold, a decade or two before the football codes. Cricket's well organised club structures almost served as a blueprint for the football, with committees, members, and even the concept of first and second teams. Some clubs were active in multiple sporting activities such as rounders, rowing and rugby, informally or otherwise. Playing cricket in the summer and football in the winter was natural to some of these, and there would be crossover with members representing the club in both sports.
This double (or even triple) activity would soon die out as a club trend, but was palpable in the early days when association football was an emerging pastime. As far as I can tell, an incredible 12 of the 16 clubs which entered the first-ever Scottish Cup in 1873 had cricketing origins or divisions, namely: Alexandra Athletic, Blythswood, Clydesdale, Dumbarton, Dumbreck, Eastern, Granville, Kilmarnock, Renton, Southern, Vale of Leven & Western. By the time of Partick Thistle's emergence in 1876, this figure had doubled in Scottish Cup terms. In fact, Richard Young (“As The Willow Vanishes”, 2014) tells that, by 1876, there were an incredible 120+ cricket clubs operating in the Glasgow area alone.
With all of this in mind, it's thoroughly intriguing to note that a Partick Thistle Cricket Club existed in 1875. It was Andy Mitchell who stumbled into this information when he was sifting through the Partick Advertiser around 10 years ago. As Andy tells, the club had a ground at Partickhill. The North British Daily Mail (12/6/1875) reports that Partick Thistle CC were down to play Jordanhill CC at Jordanhill that day, whilst the same paper 7 days later tells that Partick Thistle CC were next to play Black Watch CC at Whiteinch on the 19th June. In time, I hope to try and build up a picture of the club's fixtures, but it's my impression that it was a low-key and short-lived adventure. I note that Clydesdale had a cricketer called Duff at this time, whilst Govan Thistle had an Inglis. As I usually do when potential leads crop up in my mind, I have side notes behind the scenes on the worksheets for early Jags Andrew Duff and John Inglis. Well, you just never know!
The growth of the city sounded the death knell for mass cricket in Glasgow; soon the wide open spaces were being filled with houses, factories and other public buildings. That said, it's interesting to note that there was a Partick Thistle Thistle Cricket Club with direct links to the football club in the summer of 1900. As we can see from this Scottish Referee advert (21/5/1900) the match secretary was James Gilchrist of Crow Road, a well established official of the football club. The football team were down to play a fundraiser for the cricket club (this may have been the match on 14th May 1900). William Freebairn and Tom Hyslop were notable players for the cricket team throughout the summer. The initiative doesn't seem to have carried on in future seasons although Partick Thistle and Celtic played a fundraiser at Hamilton Crescent for the groundsman there, a Mr. Carter, on Thursday 13th September 1906. In a match that was “more amusing than serious, the ordinary rules of cricket were not religiously respected” (Daily Record, 14/9/1906). Thistle won by 101 runs to 77.
Leading in to season 1875-76
In previewing the sporting season ahead, the Bell's Life (9 October 1875) noted that it promised to be a lively one, reporting that the Association Football game had taken deep and lasting root in Glasgow and all over the western district, in contrast to elsewhere in Scotland where the rugby style had more prominence:
The Association style of play is almost exclusively confined to Glasgow and the West of Scotland. In fact, so extensively adopted in that quarter are these rules that by and by we are afraid Rugby football will die for want of young blood; for while we hear of Association clubs being formed by the score, we are not aware that a single Rugby club has sprung into existence in the western district for two seasons. Three years ago, only a handful of clubs playing Association Rules existed in Scotland, and this season there are over 120 of them, 50 of which have entered the Scottish Football Association, and intend to compete for the Challenge Cup.
The name of Partick Thistle was just several weeks away from being added to Scotland's rapidly expanding list of football clubs. Whilst costs weren't hugely prohibitive, putting a team together still presented a bit of a challenge at this time; the adjacent advert appeared in the SFA annual for 1875. Kits, boots, the ball and even the transportable goalposts had to be purchased, although if one of your lads was a carpenter then that was one start-up cost that could be reduced. Even near to first hand accounts are few and far between, but writing in the SFA Annual for 1881, “True Blue” (later revealed to be early Rangers player William Dunlop) wrote about several of the Rangers team (then known as Argyle) playing their first game (in 1872) in their civvies! He described how the genial Peter McNeil would travel on a Saturday morning to a desirable part of the Glasgow Green, set up the noted standards and stand guard “until the classic hour came when he would be joined by his friends for the game”. Sometimes he would pay a boy to stand guard instead!
The concept of a Saturday half-day, with factories often closing at 2pm, began to take hold in the industrial north at this time, so the more common kick-off times tended to be between 3 and 4pm. A genuine first-hand account of the formative Rangers was penned by a James Hill in Canada before he died in 1946. He was the younger brother of the more famous Davie Hill (a Scottish internationalist) and in his hand-written autobiography he told that, since he was a schoolboy, he was often tasked with “guarding the park” for Rangers, eventually leading to him getting a game for the second eleven and later the first team. Journalist John Allan (“The Story of the Glasgow Rangers”, 1923) wrote about them having to change behind a bush as there were obviously no facilities in public park football.
Brian Wright (son of Alex) is currently writing the history of St Mirren and I quite like the “money's too tight to mention” tale of the two St Mirren members who, in 1877, walked all the way from Paisley to Glasgow to purchase a ball and to seek advice on how best to prepare a football team for the winter ahead. They landed at McNeils on Union Street, owned by the brothers Harry (then a current internationalist with QP) and Peter (then match secretary at Rangers), both of whom had played for Rangers in their earliest incarnation 5 years earlier. Pleased to have their first-ever customers from Paisley, the McNeils wished them every success and generously paid for their tram fare home, a fine gesture of goodwill, and no doubt hoping for some future return on this modest investment!
Partick Thistle Football Club, formed December 1875
As we all know, contemporary accounts, even snippets, of Partick Thistle's formation, if they exist at all, remain elusive. However, a huge clue was delivered in the summer of 1880, when the club's application for SFA membership was accepted. For the first time, the name of Partick Thistle FC appeared in the official record book and the club would play in the Scottish Cup. The informant, who may well have been Hugh McColl, confidently stated that the club's formation date was December 1875. McColl had been the one constant administrative member up until that point. In the summer of 1880, it was he and J. Barclay (then president) who had led the move to purchase private grounds at Jordanvale Park in Whiteinch. As can be seen from the montage below, the 1875 formation statement remained solid for 7 consecutive yearly editions of the annual from 1880 to 1886. From 1887 onwards, formation dates weren't stated. This gives a degree of confidence that there must be something in it; if it were untrue surely there would've been someone in the know who would've corrected the record during all that time?
Incidentally, back on 7th April 2017, early members of the Thistle Archive convened at Coopers on Great Western Rd. For what it's worth, four of us who are all heavily invested in PTFC history - myself, Jack Little, Stuart Deans and Niall Kennedy - were unanimously of the opinion that the club's formation was, in all likelihood, December 1875!
As can be seen from the annual records, membership numbers doubled from 45 to 90 from 1880 to 1886. In the earliest days of football in Scotland, most of the members were actually the players themselves. Yes, they would pay for the privilege of playing for the club, different days! Others would purchase memberships to be involved in different ways. As Brian Wright tells it, there might be an aspiration to represent the club, but there was also a social element, access to the clubhouse, an opportunity to seek election to the committee, and the privilege of being able to watch the games for free in exclusive member-only areas. The concept of players as members would soon become a thing of the past, elimintated entirely with the advent of professionalism and ever-growing crowds.
Partick Thistle Football Club, first time in print
The North British Daily Mail of Saturday 12th February 1876 advertised our forthcoming game vs. Valencia on the 19th (click on image to get the overview in context). This demonstrates that there was some form of planning involved - it wasn't just a random kick-about. It's the first instance of Partick Thistle FC in print that I know about. At this time, the 'Local Football Fixtures' appeared in the Daily Mail on weekdays as well as Saturdays, and therefore a reminder of the game was repeated for several days running.
We're thankful that a brief report was printed on the Monday, as this was by no means a guarantee for low-level clubs:
What of our first opponents? The Berlin was built on the Clyde in 1867. It seems a safe bet that ships or shiplines, built or sailing from the Clyde, inspired the lads who formed local clubs such as Berlin, Valetta & Valencia. Thankfully, no club named itself after the SS Ringarooma (pictured), built at Whiteinch in 1875 (shurrup, it was the best I could do!) Valencia were busy for 2 seasons and ran 2 elevens. Home games were on Glasgow Green. It has been said that Partick was once a hotbed of orangeism. One thing's for certain from the shipping reports - nourishing oranges from Valencia were plentiful on the Clydeside at this time!
The “return leg” of our 19th February fixture was set for 3 weeks later, the 11th of March. It was again advertised in editions of the Daily Mail, all the way from the 24th February to the very day of the match. Possibly our first scheduled away game, it was to be played at Glasgow Green. The fact that no other matches were listed, it seems reasonable to assume that there were no matches on the 26th February or the 4th March. Alas, there was no result for the Valencia return listed in the edition of Monday, 13th March, nor in any other paper that we've checked.
The week after that, the 18th March, we took on Jordanhill at home. It was another victory by one goal to nil. If you're paying attention, you'll note that we had played Jordanhill at cricket just 9 months earlier. As Brian Wright notes in his St Mirren research, there was a universal sense of camaraderie in embarking on this burgeoning new sport and, significantly, friendships were forged on the cricket fields with lads from other clubs who similarly turned their attention from cricket in the summer to football in the winter. With this in mind, it makes a lot of sense to see Thistle play Jordanhill at cricket in June 1875, then at football in March 1876; the idea that at least a handful of the same group of lads would dually be involved within each club (as was the case with St Mirren and their local opponents) is a compelling one.
Partick Thistle FC actually have confirmed matches on 3 successive Saturdays in the initial springtime 1876 burst, the Jordanhill victory being followed up by a 2-1 win over Smithfield and a 3-0 win over Whiteinch Thistle.
Where did you go Thistle?
After that handful of games in early 1876 the club mysteriously dropped off the press radar for (what now seems like) an agonising 12 month period. As current knowledge has it, 379 days pass from the Whiteinch Thistle game of 1 April 1876 before the Partick Thistle name crops up again. The good news, however, is that the team for the game on 14th April 1877 was described as the Partick Thistle second eleven. The ramifications from this are clear; the club still existed, and actually had more playing members than ever before. On that day, a 0-2 loss to the Partick Ramblers was recorded. To date, 3 further first team results have been found (all fairly recent discoveries) over the course of the next two months, so we can be sure the Thistle was fairly blooming in the springtime of 1877.
That said, with no first-hand accounts emanating from our Partick Thistle forefathers, the uncertainty over that potential one year abeyance is a frustration. With this in mind, it does no harm to look elsewhere to help paint a picture. I again look to the Rangers story being told by their historians. It's only in the 21st century that the foundation year of Rangers was re-evaluated as being 1872. They know that their first recorded game was against Callander in late May 1872, yet it remains undated. In fact, well over a year passes before their matches start to become dated and recorded. When writing about “The Rangers Club” in the SFA annual of 1894-95, 'Obo' went into great detail about the early days in the Fleshers' Haugh (an area of Glasgow Green) in 1872, recalling how a small band of enthusiasts would gather there “Saturday after Saturday”. Despite this, not one match is specifically dated in 1872; much of their early activity seems informal.
So, who were our founders?
I'd expect that our founders - were we able to find them - would all turn to be very young, with most, if not all, being teenagers. This would be in line with other clubs of the day, with the four Rangers founders being a good example; Moses McNeil (16), Peter McNeil (17), Peter Campbell (15) & William McBeath (15). When we look to Kilmarnock, we see a group of young lads who had been playing sports together since school days.
As Niall Kennedy reported many years ago at PT Early Years, there was a general meeting in September 1877 during which the first committee of the club was elected as follows:
President – D. Stewart
Captain – J. Inglis
Vice-captain – H. Miller
Treasurer – G. Leckie
Secretary – H. McColl
H. Miller… there's that name again! These 5 must surely go down as founding member contenders. All are included in the following list, neither exhaustive or definitive, which lays down a number of candidates, some of whom have had extensive life details uncovered in recent years here on The Thistle Archive:
With his appearance and goal in a 5-0 win away to Smithfield on 12th May 1877, this Partick-born player made history, jointly becoming the first to be quoted as a Thistle man, not to mention being the joint-first to be quoted as a goalscorer (no sequence was clarified). At the end of 1875 when Thistle were (most likely) formed, Jack was 16, the perfect age to be one of the likely lads who banded together for the unwittingly historic deed. It's a great pity that reporting was so loose in those days, as the full justice is rarely served to the players of that era. With almost 70 appearances going well into the mid 1880s, we can safely say that Jack was a stalwart; in reality he's likely to have played in twice as many. Jack was one of Thistle's most highly regarded players in the early days, captaining the team and being selected to represent the Glasgow FA. The SFA annual of 1884 remarked that “he has been a splendid half-back for years; excellent tackler, and very judicious in placing the ball to his forwards.” At the tail end of that year, he was one of several Scots who joined the rebellious Burnley FC, a club who were quite openly paying some of their players, against the wishes of the FA.
Bennie, J.
Not a lot to go on, but he made his only known appearance on Saturday, 19th January, 1878, in a 4-1 win at home to Cowlairs in the West Of Scotland Cup. It was Thistle's first-ever competitive game.
Bowie, Allan
Allan appeared in the front line of the team on several occasions in the late 1870s and the early 1880s, playing in the public park days at Overnewton, as well as at the first private ground at Jordanvale. In those days, scorers, if anyone, were the ones most likely to get a namecheck, and Allan registered 3 goals in 1878, netting in a 3-0 home win over Camphill in February, and scoring both goals in a 2-0 win at Overnewton over Roseberry in November. In April 1879, Allan was a part of the historic Partick Thistle team which defeated Marchton 1-0 to lift the West of Scotland at First Hampden. As with many playing members of the club, he also assisted on committee duties, and must have impressed the others by his competence, for he was elected as treasurer at the AGM in May 1879.
Brash
A regular scorer in 1878 and 1879, and made history by scoring the goal which won the West of Scotland Cup in 1879.
Brown, T.
With his appearance and goal in a 4-0 win away to Partick Ramblers on 19th May 1877, Brown was amongst the very first to be quoted as a Partick Thistle player, with only Jack Beattie, Hugh McColl and John Young ahead of him by a mere 7 days. T. Brown was a man of many firsts in our story and, judging by his goals ratio of 8 known goals in 7 known games, he's likely to have been a very prolific goalscorer indeed. He was one of the eleven to be listed in the first fully quoted Partick Thistle team line-up, namely those who played in our first-ever cup final against Marchton on the 5th April, 1879. He was listed at #7 that day, and we've assigned him that number nominally throughout his 7 quoted games.
Burleigh, John
At the end of 1875 when Thistle were (most likely) formed, John was hitting his 17th birthday, the perfect age to be one of the likely lads who banded together for the unwittingly historic deed, even if the odds are against. Quite when he first joined is unclear, but John has 6 known appearances for Thistle in 1878-79 - and 6 known goals! It was during this season that Thistle won their first-ever trophy, and John played his part in the run to Hampden. The Evening News and Star (9 June 1879) tells us that the 20-year-old John BURLEY was President of the club, and that he was also acting as match secretary. It gives his address as 96 New City Road, Glasgow and, from this, we were able to cross-check the Electoral Roll to get a positive I.D. which was very pleasing! John was also listed as the club President for season 1882-83, so we get a sense of his both of his stature and his feeling for Thistle over a good number of these formative years. Press reports carried the confusion of the spelling of his surname, listing him as Burleigh, Burley and even the odd Birley but, as his story unfolded, we settled on the former, as he himself did.
As a Jag, or indeed in any guise, his name first appeared in the papers in February 1878 when he scored in a 3-0 win over Camphill at Overnewton Park, although it'd be as a goalkeeper that he truly made his mark. The 21-year-old Andrew was listed as the match secretary in 1880, with his teammate, and neighbour, Hugh McColl, the honorary secretary. Thistle were on the rise, having secured new private grounds at Jordanvale and, consequently, membership of the SFA. The 22-year-old took on the role of vice president in 1881-82. We can tell from reports that Andrew was greatly esteemed by his clubmates and the supporters, both as a player and also for his unassuming and gentlemanly ways. We can also tell from his actions during the 1890-91 season when he made himself available "on demand" that he retained a long-term affection for Partick Thistle. In October 1904, Thistle director Andrew Smith, who had joined the club in 1880 and served as secretary and president, was interviewed by the Scottish Weekly Record and included Andrew in his shortlist of first-class Thistle men.
Gilmour
He made his only known appearance on Saturday, 27th October, 1877, in a 2-0 friendly win at home to Paperstainers.
Not to be confused with his internationalist namesake Jock Inglis. With his appearance and goal in a 4-0 win away to Partick Ramblers on 19th May 1877, John was amongst the very first to be quoted as a Partick Thistle player, with only Jack Beattie, Hugh McColl and John Young ahead of him by a mere 7 days. You would have to put John down on the short-list as a potential founder-member too. He was captain of the team in 1877-78 and was a quoted member of the first-known committee in September 1877. John played in a number of forward positions and was a man of many firsts for the Thistle over several years. We know that John played at least once in the Yoker Cup so there's every chance he collected another medal or two as Thistle won it in 1881, 1882 & 1883. There's very little to go on in terms of developing his identity further, but if Inglis did nothing else in the game after Thistle, then he did plenty enough.
Might Andy & George Leckie be our Moses & Peter McNeil? Odds are against; Andy was celebrating only his 14th birthday on the very day of Thistle's first-ever match, the 19th February 1876. That said, Davie Hill is quoted as playing in Rangers first match a few weeks shy of his 14th birthday, so you just never know in those pioneering days. Andy's brother, George, was a member of the first-ever Partick Thistle committee in September, 1877. Both of them played in the same Partick Thistle team for a while, first proven on 8th April 1882 in a 3-0 home win over Clarkston. It's likely they will have played together as brothers before that, but teamlines weren't so regular for Thistle at the beginning of the 1880s, so we may never know. The Leckies are only beaten to first-known brothers status by a mere 2 days; Edward & Jerry Suter were first to be recorded on 6th April 1882 away to St Bernard's. In reality, both sets are likely to have been beaten by our Buchan twins of Brechin in the 1870s! Andy also followed in his brother's footsteps by serving on the Partick Thistle committee, first doing in the politically charged era of springtime 1885, just as Partick Thistle were set to move into Inchview, formerly home to Partick, who had now officially 'ceded to Thistle in the ruthless pursuit to be kings of the burgh. Andy served in the committee all the way to the end of the 1880s, long after his final match for the first team.
Leckie, George
George is a great contender to be one of Partick Thistle's founder members. At a general meeting on the 3rd September 1877, the first ever committee of the club was elected, and the 17-year-old took his place as the treasurer. He was clearly competent and trusted in the role, as he held the position for several years thereafter. His teenage pal, Hugh McColl, was listed as the secretary. Despite these rather grand and grown-up sounding titles for such young men, we need to bear in mind the grass-roots public-park level of the endeavour at that time. It was initially a youthful enthusiasm which drove the game onwards in the 1870s, and it's perhaps understandable that the seasoned committee beardies didn't come in to play until later, when a bit of money and prestige was swirling about. In April 1879, the 19-year-old George was part of the first-ever Partick Thistle cup-winning side, appearing as a half-back in the 1-0 win over Marchton. He was often listed as the club captain in press reports, and was officially reported as such in the AGM of 15th August 1881. The bold George sailed for those United States of America in 1884, working to his trade as a stonecutter. He applied for (and obtained) American Citizenship in 1890. We were very pleased to discover that, whilst back on a home visit to his mother in Partick, on Ne'erday 1910, George was at Hampden Park cheering on the Jags (as was the great Willie Paul). How different they must have looked by then, a quarter of a century later!
McColl, Hugh
Not to be confused with Hugh McColl (1852-1928) co-founder of the West End cricket and football clubs and co-founder of Valparaiso in 1889, the first organised FC in Chile. Nor indeed "Don Hugo", the Hugh MacColl (1861-1915) who was the co-founder of Sevilla, also in 1889. It's an extraordinary triple yolk! Our Hugh is a contender to be one of Partick Thistle's founder members with good reasons. Firstly, with his appearance and goal in a 5-0 win away to Smithfield on 12th May 1877, the 18-year-old made history. Alongside two others - Jack Beattie and John Young - he jointly became the first to be quoted as a Partick Thistle player, not to mention being the joint-first to be quoted as a goalscorer (no sequence was clarified). At a general meeting on the 3rd September 1877, the first ever committee of the club was elected, and Hugh, then just turned 19, took his place as the secretary. His 17-year-old pal, George Leckie, was listed as the treasurer. Hugh permanently held an administrative role for several seasons. We'll never know how many games Hugh played for Thistle, but he was quoted on at least 5 occasions in the days when reported teamlines were almost non-existent.
Miller, H.
Was listed as vice captain at the first general meeting in September 1877; there's every chance he's the same H. Miller who was listed as a member of the Partick Thistle Flute Band in July 1875. 23rd October is a famous date in Thistle history, albeit it's not normally associated with 1880. However, that was a day of firsts in itself; the first contest with Rangers, the first 4 figure crowd and the first-known referee (D. Murray) at a Thistle game. H. Miller carried an onfield flag that day, and he still remains our first quoted umpire. Several weeks later, he did likewise at Brechin in Thistle's first-ever game on New Years day.
Stewart, David
Was listed as club president at the first general meeting in September 1877. Although very little was written of him in the 1870s, his name carried down the years, so his credentials as potential founder are clear. In a Daily Record retrospective some 40 years down the line, the esteemed “Waverley” (Willie Gallagher) offered up some rare insight: “At Overnewton, goalposts, ropes and stakes were fixed up on the Saturday mornings by a band of enthusiasts, led by Mr. David Stewart, their first president.”
Wiles, John
This 21-year-old made his only known appearance on Saturday, 17th November, 1877, in a 1-1 friendly away to 2nd 10th D.R.V..
Young, John
With his appearance and two goals in a 5-0 win away to Smithfield on 12th May 1877, John was another to be making history. Alongside Jack Beattie and Hugh McColl, he jointly became the first to be quoted as a Partick Thistle player, not to mention being the joint-first to be quoted as a goalscorer (no sequence was clarified). With around 50 appearances going into the mid 1880s, it'd be fair to say John was an early stalwart; in reality he's likely to have played a great many more. He left Glasgow for the United States in early 1884 and a social event was held for him in Paterson’s Hall where he was presented with a watch by club members as a token of appreciation.
To be continued…
Undoubtedly, there's more to be said with regards to the first couple of seasons of Partick Thistle FC, but cohesive narratives require time to mature; the account as outlined will suffice for the time being.
At the Thistle Archive, our work never ends, and obscure column inches continue to be scoured. The smallest clues can often turn out to yield the biggest returns - please do get in touch → if you have the slightest snip which may fill another piece of this great Jaggy jigsaw.
In the meantime, happy 150th Thistle!
Beloved in Partick, Maryhill and beyond… forever & ever the great Glasgow alternative.
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An original Thistle Archive publication, 31-Dec-2025. |
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Latest edit version, 01-Jan-2026. |
With thanks to my Thistle Archive colleagues Jack Little & Joe Kelly, always keen on early years digging, and to Niall Kennedy for the inspiring and informing PT Early Years
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