Willie Birrell

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Willie Birrell

• Willie Birrell, 1913 (DC) William Oswald Birrell was born on Thursday, 2nd March, 1893, in Dunfermline, Fife. The midfielder appeared as a trialist for George Easton's Thistle in March, 1913, whilst an Inverkeithing United player. Aged 20, he made his only appearance on Tuesday, 4th March, 1913, in a 3-1 defeat at home to Kilmarnock in the Glasgow & District Mid-Week League. There were no goals for Willie in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Inverkeithing United, Partick Thistle, Cowdenbeath and St Bernard's. Willie died on Monday, 23rd December, 1968, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Island of Montreal, aged 75.

Bio Extra

Inverkeithing United's centre half will have come to the attention of the Thistle management when he - along with his teammate Nipper Ramsay - appeared at Firhill for 1-0 win over Muirkirk to finally settle a long-running Scottish Junior Cup Quarter Final tie. In fact, it was just 3 days later - the 4th March 1913 - when he appeared for a low-key Tuesday afternoon fixture at Firhill, Thistle losing to Kilmarnock by 3 goals to 1 in front of just 600 in the poorly supported Glasgow & District Mid-Week League. The performance of both trialists was critiqued in the Daily Record the following day: All the junior critics are agreed that Birrell, the Inverkeithing centre-half, and his clubmate Ramsay who footed it at inside-right in a Scottish Junior Cup tie on the same field last Saturday, are first-class players. They may be clever juniors but as the old song has it — "they've got a long way to go" before they are fit to step higher. Ramsay is cleverness itself. I have seldom seen a boy of his years gifted with such a fine conception of the inside game, but he is far too light yet to hold up his end with profit to his team among men. That isn't his fault of course. For a bit, I thought that Birrell would make his mark. But he took too much out of himself in the first half on the sticky ground; or perhaps it was the double journey from the Rosyth Naval Base in twice as many days that proved too much for him. At any rate he fizzled out after the interval and ultimately retired. There was no deal for either player after the trial, but both returned to Firhill some 10 weeks later to contest the Scottish Junior Cup final. 15,000 were there on 24th May 1913; Inverkeithing United 1 Dunipace Juniors 0. It was a tremendous achievement for the Fifers to “claim the blue riband in their first season of juniorism”. And what a season they had, gunning for a cup treble. The Cowdenbeath Junior Cup was also annexed, but they had to settle for silver in the Fifeshire Junior Cup. Cowdenbeath signed Willie that summer. He was a commanding presence in their 1913/14 League campaign, which culminated in Cowden winning the 2nd Division title. However, in December 1914, Willie enlisted in the Cameron Highlanders and departed for the front. In 1919, Willie was demobbed and returned to play regularly for Cowden. In 1921, he was awarded a testimonial match v Hearts. Thereafter, Willie Birrell remained a fixture in the Cowden side. He played a major role in Cowdenbeath's promotion success in 1924 and made his 1st Division bow in a royal blue jersey some 11 years after his debut for Cowdenbeath. Willie played his part as Cowden finished in a lofty 5th place. He played one final season in the League with St Bernards before hanging up his boots. Willie's worth as a Cowdenbeath stalwart was later recognised by the club when he was posthumously inducted as a hall of fame member. Willie, who had emigrated to Canada and worked for the Salada Tea Company, died at St Anne's Military Hospital just before Christmas 1968. In the Sherbrook Daily Record he was described as the dearly beloved husband of Mary MacLeod and dear father of Catherine (Mrs. James Clemens) and William and dear step father of Annie (Mrs. J. MacIver), Mary (Mrs. Donald Clark), Kenneth and William MacMillan. The funeral was held in Cote des Neiges Presbyterian Church, Montreal, on boxing day, and Willie was laid to rest at Lingwick Protestant Cemetery in Gould, Québec. On account of his service during WWI, Willie is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle returned →.

(WS/AFK/CFC/ANB)

Gallery

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• Published 13 July 1913, Willie Birrell enjoying his holiday, camping at Westhaven. (DC)

• With Inverkeithing, c1912. (FF)

• The historic cup team, 1913. (FF)