| Willie Murray |
 William Kedslie Murray born on Friday, 14th June, 1889, in Canongate, Edinburgh. The midfielder was a guest player for George Easton's Thistle in April, 1915. Aged 25, he made his only appearance on Tuesday, 13th April, 1915, in a 2-2 draw at home to Rangers in a Benefit match. There were no goals for Willie in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Loanhead Mayflower, Partick Thistle, Falkirk, St Bernard's, YMCA and Seacliff. Willie died on Monday, 30th December, 1974, in Christchurch, Canterbury, aged 85. |
 The son of John Murray (journeyman baker) and Jane Murray (née Kedslie), who were married in 1886, in Edinburgh. In March 2025, we were delighted to hear from granddaughter Lynette who was instrumental in helping us to fill much of Willie's story below. See the 'Gallery' tab above for a snap from the family album! And thanks also to some excellent research assistance by Ceri Austin-Hart (Senior Collections Assistant, University of Otago) we are able to learn a great deal about Willie's time as a footballer in New Zealand. Willie was a left-half specialist who gave several years of great service to his local team, Loanhead Mayflower, and was once capped as a junior internationalist for Scotland, featuring in his usual left half role in front of 9,000 in a 1-1 draw vs. Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast, on 13th March 1915. Several weeks later, under their column "Doings Of The Juveniles", the Edinburgh Evening News of 17th April 1915 reported: “Partick Thistle were assisted by McLean and Murray of Loanhead Mayflower, in their evening game with Rangers last week. In all likeliehood, both these Edinburgh lads will be fixed up at Firhill next season. Raith Rovers will probably have a "deal" in the arrangements.” At Firhill on Tuesday, 13th April, 1915, 3,000 were there for the 6.15pm kick-off between Thistle and Rangers, the raising of funds for the Orange Lodge being the purpose of the occasion. Rangers gave a trial to Jimmy Lister, the son of Thistle's trainer at the time. Sandy Lister had to endure the quandary of his son netting a brace against the Jags on the night! Jimmy's goals were sandwiched between two from Neil Harris, the equaliser coming at the death, thereby making Sandy's life that little bit easier behind the scenes. Thistle had 4 from the juniors playing on the night. As well as Willie (left half), there was McAllister (right back), Malcolm McLean (inside right) and Robertson (inside left). All four played their one and only game for the club. Neil Harris would go on to play for Scotland, as would Jimmy McMullan, who played alongside Willie in the half-back line that evening. It would've been a good claim to fame story for Willie in later days! Falkirk, under manager William Nicol, were struggling in the SFL at the turn of 1919, and were looking to rebuild in the post-war period. Brewster (Aberdeen) and Murray (Loanhead Mayflower) were brought in to toughen up their half-back line. Willie appeared several times for the Bairns, before moving on to St Bernard's in December 1919, who were competing in the first re-formed season of the Central Football League, a body which was acting independently after being snubbed by the SFL. The Central League, won by Bo'ness in successive seasons, was a great success and, by 1921, it was formally absorbed by the Scottish Football League as the Second Division. A year after joining St Bernard's, Willie made the life-changing decision of emigrating to New Zealand. Setting sail from Southampton on 9th December 1920, he arrived in Lyttelton (South Island) with his wife, Margaret (née Anderson), and two daughters in tow. They went on to have three more daughters and a son. Settling in the Otago region for much of the 1920s, Willie kept his love for the fitba' alive, joining that region's YMCA club in 1921 before transferring to Seacliff in May 1922, a newly formed club at that time. Frank Tod's “Seacliff: a history of the district to 1970” enables us to go into some great detail. The club was formed under the auspices of Dr Alexander McKillop, medical superintendent of the Seacliff mental hospital. McKillop was a keen supporter of soccer, and his staff of attendants included a number of Scotsmen who were recognised as superior players. The small ground at Seacliff Mental Hospital was enlarged towards the end of 1923, and the Seacliff team became a force to be reckoned with throughout the decade. Willie did well at Seacliff and became club captain. He added a number of medals to his CV as they won the Otago League in both 1922 and 1924. In Tod's book, he spoke of their success in winning the first ever Chatham Cup in 1923:
The Chatham Cup remains the premier national cup in NZ soccer and little Seacliff reached further finals in 1924, 1925, and 1929, but lost to Auckland Harbour Board (3-1), Wellington YMCA (3-2) and Auckland's Tramways (4-0). Willie played in each and every one of these contests. We were able to learn that Willie played representative games for Otago and, as stated previously, he did indeed play for New Zealand, turning out against the touring Chinese University side in Dunedin on 6th September, 1924 - see the 'Scrapbook' tab for some excellent press cuttings. The Chinese Universities tour of New Zealand lasted around 2 months from July to September 1924, contesting over 20 matches against club sides, regional selects and 4 against the national team. They were predominantly from the Shanghai region. Unfortunately, Willie's cap of honour for his adopted homeland is not classified as a full international by the NZFA or FIFA, but it was a nice honour all the same, and he was on the winning team, the home nation (in black & white) defeating the Chinese (in maroon & gold) by 5 goals to 3. An excellent crowd of 10,000 were at the Carisbrook ground to see it; see the 'Scrapbook' tab for more on the occasion. As an aside, it's quite something to have won caps for both Scotland and New Zealand! As gleaned from the New Zealand Electoral Rolls for 1925, the family was residing in Waitati, which is relatively close to Seacliff. After his playing career was over, he continued to be involved in the game as a coach. Life wasn't easy for Willie as a plumber with a large family, and they moved to a couple of towns for work before settling in Christchurch. In his 86th year, he passed away in his hometown of Christchurch just as 1974 was drawing to a close. By then a widower, his funeral took place on the last afternoon of 1974, when he was described as a much loved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. In May 2025, Granddaughter Lynette reported back in to tell us that Willie's daughter Ruth (Lynette's mother who is 97) was the fifth girl of the six children, that she was unaware of much of the detail and that all of this is making for some lively conversation over the lunch table with her friends. At the Thistle Archive, we're just as pleased as Ruth to be uncovering Willie's interesting story! |
| (WS/JK/LGO) |
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