Watson
was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, to a 51-year-old plantation
manager and former slave owner called Peter Miller Watson, originally
from Orkney, and Anna (or Hannah) Rose. He was almost certainly
illegitimate and even his date of birth is open to question [ed. 26
May 1856]. Generally
quoted as 18 May 1857, this does not tally with his age on later
documentation such as census returns and marriage certificates, which
all make him a year older. As an infant, he left the colony with his
father and older sister Annetta for a life in England, apparently
abandoning the mother.
When Peter Watson died in 1869, he left his
children a vast fortune of £35,000, the equivalent of many millions
today. It gave his son financial security for life, but it must have
been a lonely childhood for the boy, who was educated at a succession
of boarding schools in England. Being of mixed race would have made it
even harder, but he came through the experience and, in 1875, enrolled
at Glasgow University to study Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and
Civil Engineering. However, he left after just one year to start an
engineering apprenticeship and, in 1877, married 17-year-old Jessie
Armour; they soon had two children, Rupert and Agnes.
Meanwhile, he came to national prominence as a
superb footballer. With his first senior club, Parkgrove, he showed
enough promise to be chosen to represent Glasgow, and was invited to
join the country's premier side, Queen's Park. He won his first medal
almost immediately in the Glasgow Charity Cup final of 1880 and
quickly established himself as an outstanding full back, being
selected as the captain of Scotland against England and winning the
Scottish Cup in his first season with Queen's Park. He played in two
further emphatic victories over England and Wales, both games ending
5-1, and would certainly have won more caps but, in the summer of 1882
having won the Scottish Cup for a second time and at the height of his
footballing powers, he moved to London for work at a time when only
home-based Scots were selected.
Tragedy struck that autumn as his wife Jessie
died. Their two children were sent back to Glasgow to live with their
grandparents, leaving Watson to continue not just with his engineering
career but also as a footballer. For the next three seasons he played
in the FA Cup for London side Swifts, getting as far as the
quarter-finals, and turning out on occasion for other clubs, including
Brentwood and Pilgrims. More significantly in terms of his social
status, he was sufficiently well regarded not just as a player but as
a gentleman amateur to be invited in to join the exclusive Corinthians
club. He toured with them twice, the highlight being an 8-1 crushing
of FA Cup holders Blackburn Rovers in 1884.
As a man of independent means, Watson could
afford to travel regularly to Glasgow to turn out for Queen's Park,
mostly for charity cup ties but also for the opening of the second
Hampden Park. He came back for a year to take part in the club's
successful campaign which brought him his third Scottish Cup winner's
medal in 1886 and, in February 1887, married second wife Eliza Kate
Tyler.
That summer they moved from Glasgow to
Liverpool, where he found not just work as a maritime engineer, but
also enjoyed a football swansong. He was recruited by Bootle FC, an
ambitious club who were Everton's main rivals and reached the FA Cup
fifth round.
They offered wages and signing-on fees to a
number of prominent players, with Watson the star attraction, and an
interesting question about his involvement with Bootle is whether he
was paid, having previously been an amateur. If he was, Watson would
be the first black man to play football professionally, a distinction
usually accorded to Englishman Arthur Wharton, who turned professional
in 1889.
From his Merseyside base, Watson spent the
next 20 years working on ships and sat Board of Trade exams to qualify
as an engineer.
He and Eliza had two children, Henry and
Phyllis but, although he was often away, there is some evidence he was
not a completely absent father, as in the autumn of 1901 they all
travelled from Liverpool to the USA. Meanwhile, Watson's son and
daughter from his first marriage remained in Glasgow with their
grandparents and never joined his new family. It seems a sad
arrangement, but it was perhaps because he was at sea for long periods
of time, and did not think he could have been much of a father to
them.
After Watson retired, he and the family moved
to the west London suburbs at Kew, where he died of pneumonia at 88
Forest Road on 8 March 1921, aged 64. Unnoticed by the media and the
football establishment, he was buried in Richmond Cemetery (as his
wife and daughter also would be in later years). Andrew Watson
pre-dates two other prominent black football pioneers,
Arthur Wharton
and Walter Tull, who have memorials to mark their lives. Now that his
last resting place is finally known, it opens the door for a similar
commemoration of the achievements of this gentleman Scot. - Andy
Mitchell and his excellent research, March 2013
Andrew Watson (top centre) with
members of the Scottish team (right) that played against England at the Hampden
Park on the 11 March 1882. Scotland played in blue and white hoops.
- The Glasgow Story
England Football Factbook: Cris Freddi
Andy Mitchell's Scottish Sport History website
FA.com
Scottish Football Association
England Expects: James Corbett
The Story of Association Football.: J.A.H. Catton
100 Great Black Britons
Scottish Football Museum
Anton Gorovik
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CG
England
Football Online
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England
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