| Willie Wiseman |
 William Wiseman was born on Sunday, 11th October, 1896, in Rayne, Aberdeenshire. The 5' 11 (13st 0lbs) defender appeared as a guest for George Easton's Thistle in April, 1926, whilst a Queen's Park player. Aged 29, 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 Willie in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Aberdeen University, Queen's Park and Partick Thistle. Willie died on Friday, 2nd January, 1981, in Edinburgh, aged 84. |
 At Hampden Park, tragedy struck in Thistle's league game against Queen's Park in October, 1925, when right back Tom Crichton collided with Barr, the Queen's centre, sustaining a career-ending compound fracture of his left leg. Subsequently, Tom received a (second) testimonial game on Tuesday 27 April 1926 at Firhill. The noble Queen's Parkers sent five men to assist Thistle in facing a Glasgow Select which included Andy Cunningham of Rangers from the 1921 Scottish cup final. As well as the goalie, Jack Harkness, the QP contingent was Willie Wiseman (no.3), Robert Gillespie (no.5), James Crawford (no.7) and James McAlpine (no.10). The 4 outfield Queen's Park players who played in this benefit had all played in the game that ended Tom's career. The Thistle fans turned out in force, around 10,000 of them providing a tangible benefit of some £500 for the player. Willie was educated at Fordyce Academy and Aberdeen University, initially leaving the latter institution in 1916 to serve in the First World War with the Gordon Highlanders. During his time on the Western Front, he was gassed, wounded and posted missing for a week. He transferred to the Tank Corps, and ended the war with the rank of captain. After the war, he went to India to assist with the restructuring of the British Indian Army. After leaving the army, Willie studied engineering, dividing his studies between Glasgow Technical College and Aberdeen Univeristy, where he excelled not only as a footballer, but as a golfer and tennis player too. Willie joined Queen’s Park in August 1922 when he was described as one of three Aberdeen University students to be doing so. Described as an efficient and powerful left back, he would make over 260 league appearances for the Spiders between 1922 and 1930. During this time, he was capped twice for Scotland, six times for the Scotland Amateurs side, and once for a Scotland League XI. He later served on Queen’s Park’s committee. in 1930, Willie took up a Deputy County Surveyor position in Banffshire, which brought his senior football career to an end. Willie married that same year, and had one son. He wasn’t finished with the military though, for in World War 2 Willie served as a Major in the Royal Engineers, principally on recruitment and training personnel at Redford Barracks and then working on infrastructure projects in Ireland and Cardiff. After retiring from his role as County Roads Surveyor with Banffshire Council, Willie moved south to Edinburgh to enjoy his later years. On account of his service during WWI & WWII, Willie is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle returned →. Willie is also included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists → |
| (DMAC/WS/AM) |
2 caps, 0 goals
d. Edinburgh, 1981 (84)