Born this day in 1856, Andrew Watson became the first black international footballer, first captain of Scotland, first black captain of Queen's Park and Corinthians, and one of the most influential footballers in football history.
Andrew Watson (24 May 1856 – 8 March 1921) was a Scottish footballer who is widely considered to be the first black person to play association football at international level. He played three matches for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. He was previously commonly thought to be the first black player, as he was the first black professional footballer to play in the Football League, but Watson's career predated him by over a decade. There is evidence that Watson was paid professionally when at Bootle in 1887, two years prior to Wharton becoming a professional with Rotherham Town; however, the Merseyside club did not play in the Football Club at the time Watson played there.
Watson was the son of a wealthy Scottish sugar planter Peter Miller Watson (1805–1869) (the son of James Watson, of Crantit, Orkney, Scotland) and a local British Guianese woman named Hannah Rose. He came to Britain with his father, and his older sister Annetta, and they inherited a substantial amount when their father died in London in 1869.
He was educated at Heath Grammas School in Halifax, West Yorkshire and then from 1871 at King's College School in Wimbledon, where records show he excelled at sports including football. He later studied natural philosophy, mathematics and engineering at the University of Glasgow when he was 19, where his love of football blossomed. He played in the full back position, on either the right or the left flank.[
Watson left Glasgow University after one year and in 1877 became a partner in Watson, Miller, and Baird, a wholesale warehouse business in Glasgow. In November 1877 he married Jessie Nimmo Armour (1860–1882), the daughter of John Armour, a cabinet-maker. Their son Rupert Andrew was born in 1878, and a daughter Agnes Maude in 1880. Watson moved to London with his family in the summer of 1882 for work reasons. His wife died in the autumn of 1882 and their two children returned to Glasgow to live with their grandparents.
He returned to Glasgow and married for a second time, to Eliza Kate Tyler (1861–1949) in February 1887. She was the daughter of Joseph Tyler, East India merchant. Later that year he moved to Liverpool, where he worked on ships and sat exams to qualify as a marine engineer. Watson and Eliza had two children, a son Henry Tyler in 1888 and a daughter Phyllis Kate in 1891.
Through his father he was related to William Gladstone, who served four terms as British Prime Minister, during the late 19th century, and likely also related to the 21st-century English poet Laik Ahl Nasir through his mother,
Club career
After first playing for Maxwell in 1876, Watson signed for local side Parkgrove, where he was additionally their match secretary, making him the first black administrator in football. At Parkgrove he played alongside another black player, Robert Walker.
On 14 February 1880, Watson was selected to represent Glasgow against Sheffield at Bramall Lane, an annual fixture played between 1874 and 1960; Glasgow won 1–0. He was also selected for a tour to Canada in the summer of 1880 which was cancelled after the death of William Dick, secretary of the Scottish Football Association.
In April 1880, Watson also signed for Queen's Park – then Britain's most successful football team – and became their secretary in November 1881. He led the team to two consecutive Scottish Cup wins in 1881 and 1882, thus becoming the first black player to win a major competition.
Watson's entry in the Scottish Football Association Annual of 1880–81 reads as follows: Watson, Andrew: One of the very best backs we have; since joining Queen's Park has made rapid strides to the front as a player; has great speed and tackles splendidly; powerful and sure kick; well worthy of a place in any representative team.
In 1882, Watson moved to London and became the first black player to play in the English Cup when he turned out for Swifts In 1883, he was the first foreign player to be invited to join the leading amateur club in England, the Corinthians. His time there included an 8–1 victory against Blackburn Rovers, who were at that time the English Cup holders. He also played for other amateur English clubs, including Pilgrims, Brentwood and London Caledonians. As one of the group of the age known as the 'Scotch Professors' he helped introduce a more sophisticated and effective passing game into England where individualistic dribbling had previously been used, Watson was described by the founder of the Scottish Football Museum in a 2021 report as "the most influential black footballer of all time. There is nobody that comes close".
The colour of his skin was of no significance to his peers, and there is no specific historical record of racism on the part of the Scottish Football Association, although in an 1885 profile, mention was made of him "On more than one occasion being subjected to vulgar insults by splenetic, ill-tempered players".
One match report is more interested in Watson's unusual brown boots rather than the customary black boots of that time. As written in the minutes, before one match where Watson was injured and unable to play, an SFA vice-president said if Watson had been fit he would have happily drugged a fellow Scottish international to give Watson his place. He played his last match for Queen's Park in 1886.
Paul McDonald, writing for the BBC, noted: "Payments to players had been made legal in England in 1885 and professional footballers were paid decent salaries for that time. Ironically this attracted many Scottish players southwards to ply their trade in England, whereas in Scotland the game remained, in theory anyway, an amateur game until 1893."
Professionalism
In 1886 and 1887, the English Lancashire, club Bootle advertised for players in Scotland, as the Scotch Professors innovation of the modern passing game took hold in England. Several Scottish players were enticed to relocate by the offer:- Tom Veitch (Dumbarton), Campbell (Moffat), Frank Woods (Moffat), Robert Anderson (Dumbarton), Billy Hastings (Airdrieonians) among others. It was later found by a SFA committee investigating a Scottish player, Robert Calderwood, who returned north - he obtained a new job in Cowlairs, offering 30 shillings per week, and subsequently turned out for the company club. - that he received a wage of 26 shillings per week from Bootle F.C. The SFA found Calderwood guilty of professionalism and he was banned for two years, but they found that Cowlairs F.C. played the player unknowingly and they were merely ordered to replay a match against Third Lanark.
Watson also signed for Merseyside club Bootle in 1887. Bootle offered wages and signing fees to a number of players, and research by Tony Onslow outlined in The Forgotten Rivals. A History of Bootle Football Club indicates that Watson was paid professionally. This means that Watson's professional career would predate the professional career of Arthur Wharton, who was previously considered to be the first black footballer to play professionally.
Onslow writes that Watson was Bootle's star signing and that the club pulled off the biggest coup in Merseyside by signing the Scotland international player. It is not known exactly how much Watson was paid by the Merseyside club, but as their star signing he would have doubtless commanded more than the 26 shillings per week offered to Calderwood, who was similarly a Scotland international player.
When Bootle was drawn with a Smethwick side Great Bridge Unity FC, the Midlands club received a telegram from a 'Smith of Oakfield' who stated that Bootle's Watson and another Scottish player Robert Anderson were being paid – and as such should be ineligible for their tie. Watson and others were in the Bootle side that beat Unity 2–1; and so, directly after the match, Unity lodged a complaint with the F.A. The F.A. announced that they would let Bootle proceed to the next round, but they would instead launch an investigation into the club.
Onslow writes:
Both Robert Izatt and John Wier were Scottish players (formerly from Third Lanark) also signed by Bootle. Weir was a Scotland international, having just been capped that year. Much to the annoyance of Bootle, both players moved on from the club shortly after signing and moved on to Everton, who at the time were Bootle's main rivals in Merseyside.
The club was found guilty by the FA but the punishment was lenient – they had that same season closed Anfield for a month when Everton similarly paid players – and Bootle escaped with a mere caution. The new Everton players John Weir and Robert Izatt - alongside Everton's other Scotch Professors of Dick, Watson, Goudie, Cassidy, and Murray - were all deemed as professional players and had their registrations suspended.
The payment of Watson, Anderson, Calderwood and others at the club also explains the investigations of the local Bootle newspaper into the club's finances. Around the start of the 1887–88 season, The Bootle Times was asking questions into the club's finances, trying to work out who was getting what. It also, in passing, takes a dig at Bootle F.C.'s reliance on Scottish players by its phrasing of 'own local club, if indeed we may call it that', hinting that the newspaper suspected the payments made to the club's Scottish players were indeed where the club's financial surplus went. The payments to Scotch Professors around Merseyside would have been common knowledge.
Watson retired to London in around 1910 and died of pneumonia at 88 Forest Road, Kew, in 1921. He is buried in Richmond Cemetary.
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