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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) => Topic started by: helpmaboab on Wednesday 23 August 06 20:26 BST (UK)
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Hi, looking for any information on the Mossend Swifts Football Club. Would love to see a copy of a team photo, my gt grandfather used to play for them.
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There were actually 3 football teams called Mossend Swifts.
The first team were around from 1879 - 1903. They were a SENIOR football team from West Calder in West Lothian, Scotland. Senior meaning that they were the same level as Rangers and Celtic of today. They played at a football ground called Mossend Park.
The second were a JUNIOR team around for one season in 1898-99. Junior football is the level below Senior football and is a semi professional level, nothing to do with age.
The last team of that name were around from 1932-34 and agin were a Senior team entering minor senior tournaments and played in the Edinburgh & district league.
I will try and search for some photos but am not hopeful.
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Hello juniorhistory,
There was a team photograph of Mossend Swifts taken about 1888 - this was stated at the end of a match report in the West Lothian courier/Midlothian Advertiser? following a Cup Final they had played in. I don't have the exact details to hand at the moment but I do have copies of the match reports at home of their cup finals played in the 1880's. I'd love to see a copy of this photo as five of my Great-Grandmothers brothers played for the Swifts, the Ellis brothers. The library in West Calder does not appear to have a copy although I have been told one of the pubs in West Calder used to have a copy hanging behind the bar - maybe it still does.
Canisp
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The library in West Calder does not appear to have a copy although I have been told one of the pubs in West Calder used to have a copy hanging behind the bar - maybe it still does.
Canisp
One way to find out Canisp, let's do a pub-crawl of West Calder....... purely for research purposes of course! 8)
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Good idea, why not ;D
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This is what my trusty search engine throws up....
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=img&cs=utf8&q=%22mossend+swifts%22&rys=0&itag=crv
Hibee
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Have just finished football book on West Lothian senior teams, hopefully available early next year, includes Mossend Swifts, have details of some matches, but also looking for photos.
pm for more details
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Thanks for all replies, nice to know people are interested, I'll keep looking and post anything I find, but at the moment I haven't turned up much.
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Hello Mossend Swifts searchers
don't know if this will help (no photos - sorry) but this is an Extract from "Cauther Thoughts", and is in the period of the 1920's. The initial paragraphs are Dick Wilson's memories, the additions are from Bill Calder, my Uncle Bill, who was an apprentice Report with the Midlothian Advertiser at that time.
cheers ... Meg
Dick Wilson:-
The football teams operating at that time were West Calder Hearts, Mossend Burnvale, West Calder I.O.R. and West Calder Juniors. A few years later Mossend and Hermand operated 2 teams each in the Lothian Amateur League, with Woodmuir, Seafield, Addiewell, Loganlea, Newpark and Tarbrax also represented. Mossend were admitted to the 3rd division which they duly won. They continued and won the second division, and the following season were 3rd in the first division. Tom Boyd, George Boyd, Johnnie Bird, Fred Greig, Tod, Bob Reid, Dodger Fairley, Jimmie Eady, Billy Rutherford and Harry Walters, being some of their players.
Hermand 2nd team was almost wholly comprised of Girdwoods. A few of the first team players were Jim Martin, Gongie Paterson, Tom Borland, Jackie Hastie, Jimsie Forrester, and Will Crookstone. The latter received a broken leg during a match, as did Hastie (Newpark) against Mossend and Quin, West Calder Juniors against Port Edgar.
One evening match which took place at Hermand was against Addiewell. At the dancing the previous week, Jock Young (roadman) and Corrigan of Addiewell had come to blows, and the spectators all realised that the stage was set for a further confrontation., Sure enough the battle commenced, and when I arrived on the scene of the conflict, Jock had a hand inside each side of the others mouth, and was pulling with all his strength, which was considerable. All the while the crowd were shouting “Give us a fair fight”. I dread to think what would have happened if they had been allowed to continue.
NB by William Calder.
There was no such football team as Mossend Burnvale. (That was a cricket team captained by Tom Boyd). Nor can I recollect the I.O.R. running a team. The football team was known as Mossend Swifts and they played in top class football until they became defunct before the first war.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s the Mossend Amateurs operated in the Lothian Amateur League and were very successful. Their chairman was Wattie Ross and the Secretary Billy Rutherford. At that period every little row of homes had their football team. As a reporter I have had to go to Mossend, send off the report of the first half to the ‘News’ and ‘Dispatch’, race up the ‘loop’ line and through Parkhead Farm to Hermand, get what was happening there, sprint back to Burngrange for the end of the junior game, and hand the results in to the office for transmission to all Scottish papers, for that I sometimes, got one shilling!
West Calder Juniors were then quite a decent team and most of the players were local lads. I can recall seeing Tam Borland, who was captain and left back of the side, turning up at Burngrange Park in his pit clothes having worked the 6 - 1 shift in ‘West Mains’.
In junior football at that time the teams were raised locally and consequently the partisanship was intense. Who, for instance could ever forget seeing Jock Balloch gallop from his own goal mouth the whole length of the pitch to floor with one mighty blow an opposing fullback who had badly fouled Cauther’s outside right (Anderson from Seafield). This incident occurred in a Scottish Cup Tie at Blackburn in the days before buses had reached West Calder, when at least 80 per cent of he village males waked every step of the way to support their team.
Teams which appeared at Burngrange included Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic, Armston Rangers, Ormiston Primrose, Loanhead Mayflower, Tranent Juniors, Wemyss Athletic, Musselburgh Bruntonians, Dalkeith Thistle, Easthouses Lily, Portobello Thistle, and, of course, Edinburgh Emmett against whom the aforementioned Jim Balloch scored a really fantastic goal. His playing was more brawn than brain and on this occasion he belted a clearance from the Burngrange Farm end and from about the eighteen yards line. As there was, as usual, a strong west wind blowing the ball got caught up in a sort of slip stream and finished up in the back of the Emmett net without touching a soul. The goal keeper was Scotlands’ current international junior number one and he just stood transfixed.
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Hi , my great grandfather was robert Boyd who played for the swifts, I have one of his international
Caps and various of his medals. Be interested if any one has photos or any history about his football career. Also be interested in any history of the swift.
Thanks
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Hello cauther bairn and welcome to Rootschat,
The Scottish Football Historian booklet No. 66 has an article on your Great Grandfather taken from the West Lothian Courier of 04 Jan 1890 - "Pen picture - Robert Boyd (Mossend Swifts)". The SFH also did an article on the Ellis brothers and another on the history of Mossend Swifts. Once you have reached 3 posts you will be able to use the PM facility. If you would like copies of these articles send me your e-mail address by private message and I will send them to you. I also have copies of various Courier match reports between 1887 and 1889 if you would like them.
Cheers,
Canisp.
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Hi canisp,
Any information you have would be much appreciated. I don't have much information on him at all. My father had a lot of family tree stuff but nothing on my gr grandfathers football career. The cap and medals are now in the football museum in Glasgow.(on loan). Once I get to grips with sending a pm I'll send you my email. The stuff you have will be brilliant.
Thanks
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That is fascinating that you are descended from Robert Boyd. Do you have his dates of birth and death?
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Hello Contributors
I don't know what I might have got into here (if anything) but I believe the 3 Ellis brothers may be my great uncles.
My grandmother was Christina Ellis who attended Garvieside School, and I have a "Certificate of Merit" from the West Calder School Board (original document) for the school year ended 31 May 1883.
My grandfather was Thomas Anderson (don't know of middle names) and they had 6 children that I know of, including my father, (*), and they lived in Airdrie.
I grew up knowing I had uncles (great-uncles obviously) who played for Mossend Swifts and I have misty memories of seeing Ellis relatives during my young days in the 1960s, including 3 great-aunties who lived in East Kilbride.
Boy, if I could find out anything interesting out of this I would be thrilled.
Canisp, the Scottish Football Historian booklet would be of great interest and I would be happy to pay for a copy if one was available, or at least receive a scan copy of the article.
I left Scotland as an 18 yo in 1973 and now live in Australia with no contact whatsoever with any relatives.
Regards to all.
(*) Names removed to protect people's identity who may still be living.
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Hi Siggah73
Welcome to RootsChat :)
Have taken off the name of your father from your post for now as it is not clear whether he may still be living.
Monica
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Hi Monica
Thanks for your welcome and for advising me of the "living persons" rule.
My father, who was born in Airdrie in 1912, passed away in 1996.
In a few months we will be celebrating his 100th.
Regards,
Tom
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Thanks for the update, Tom :)
Now that you have made a couple of posts here on the main board, you should be able to use the Private Message Service (PMs) if you need to be able to exchange personal emails with Canisp or another member.
Enjoy your time here!
Monica
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Tom, I have sent you a PM.
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You should get MacRae's Battalion by Jack Alexander ISBN978-184018-232-2
A picture of the Mossend 'Cow-punchers' is in the photos including Robert ( Bob) Boyd.
Buzancy18
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I Think the photo of M-Swifft,s. Was in the Central bar W-Calder.
It would be worth a look. If you are in the area.
And a couple of questions. You may well find what you seek ;)
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Hello,
Anyone know where I can get a photograph of Robert Boyd who played for Mossend Swifts FC in the early 1890s?
Thanks
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Sorry,
Only just seen the post above from Buzancy18 - thank you.
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Robert Boyd with Scotland Internationals approx. 1890
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I have two photographs of Robert Boyd, one with the Mossend team (not very good quality, it's
a copy of a copy) and another with the Scottish national team that he played two games with.
I've tried uploading full team photos but the file size may be too big, will not let me upload. I found
the international team photo on ancestry.com, I have been searching quite a while for something
like that-I will continue to try and upload it, but if I cannot, feel free to contact me and I will email
photos to you. My mother had the Swifts team photo, Robert Boyd was her grandfather, so I suppose
it was passed on to her by family. The Robert Boyd in Mcrea's Battalion book (The Cowpuncher!)
was the son of Robert Boyd of Swifts.
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Robert Boyd from Mossend Swifts team photo
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Mossend Swifts team photo. Robert Boyd front row, third from right
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jboydkennedy - thank you so much for your photographs - much more than I could have hoped for - absolutely delighted.
Thanks again
Dave
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Last one-full photo of Scotland side. Cheers from America!
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Hello jboydkennedy, fantastic photos. Do you happen to have a list of the names of all of the players in these photos?
Thanks,
Canisp.
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I've rescanned photo, hopefully looks a little better. The copy of team photo my mother
has does have names, listed below:
front row: J Hill, R Paterson, J McNab, A Kay, G Ross, W Leslie
middle row: T Hamilton, J Rutherford (trainer) J Wilson, J Paterson, T MacPherson, J Fraser,
T Halliday (Match Secretary)
front row: J. Henderson (trainer), W Walker, R. McCartney (captain), Robert Boyd, M. Gillespie,
R. Marshall
I've always believed (and was told) this was the Swifts, but I think it may actually be a photo
from Robert Boyd's days at Leith Athletic. I will have to search more-I know there was a Willie
Walker on Leith, will keep digging. Apologies for identifying the photo as Mossend Swifts, but
it is definitely Robert Boyd pictured in both, for those who were looking for photos of him
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Here we are
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I think you may be correct about this photo not being Mossend Swifts. There is no mention in that list of any of the five Ellis brothers who played regularly in the 1880's and 90's. There is a reference in The Courier (West Lothian) of 23rd June 1888 to a photo of Mossend Swifts being taken which states "The players are all in their football attire , while in the midst of them stands a table draped in red, with their two elegant trophies in the centre". Of course there may well have been other photos taken of the Swifts back then.
Edit - Just done a few google searches and quite few of those names you listed played for Leith Athletic.
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Hello jboydkennedy, thank you so much for uploading these images of Robert Boyd.
Robert Boyd is actually my Great Great Grandfather, I have the cap he is wearing in one of the images and some of his medals.
I believe we must be related, would be happy to give some more info I have of his career and would be great to hear what more you know of him.
Kind Regards,
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Hello All,
After doing some more research it would appear that the team image attached is Leith Athletic as the Mossend Swifts strip was as attached. See also the image of the Mossend Swifts badge I have also attached.
I have another image of Robert Boyd with Leith Athletic I will post.
Thanks
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This the other image of Robert Boyd with Leith Athletic. (Top row, 1st on the right)
Also for those interested, Robert Boyd was the uncle of James Boyd of the Hearts Mcrae's Battalion and Archie Boyd, Hearts goalie of around that time.
Thanks
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Once again, I am wrong. By reverse image searching this team photo, it is Third Lanark FC team photo. BBC Scotland had a program about the team and THIS is the photo they used to promote it.
So it is Third Lanark, still Bob Boyd in photo...it is the Mossend Swifts pic(s) that remain elusive, I know they exist!!