Archibald "Archie" Devine
Archibald "Archie" Devine was born in Ballingry, at the top of the valley above Lochgelly. He was the son of an Irish-born miner-father and a mother from Dundee, would be brought up largely in Lochore, between the village and the town, initially going down the pit himself.
But he was from eighteen also turning out for Lochgelly United, as a powerful inside-left with a shot in him. That is before in 1907 at twenty-one marrying a Lochgelly girl, Mary Gibb, with whom he would have six children, joining Kirkcaldy's Raith Rovers for a single season and then Falkirk for the best part of two, there winning a single cap.
And it was at that point in 1910, having the previous season scored thirteen goals in twenty-five starts, that, , albeit with the family staying in Scotland, he was signed South to Bradford City, there to remain for three years, including in 1911 being in the team that included nine Scots in winning the FA Cup. However, the truth is that at Valley Parade he was never fully able to command a first-team place with just forty-eight appearance in three seasons and at still only twenty-six he was moved on. He went to Arsenal in a failed attempt to avoid Division One relegation, stayed a further season and then was let go once more.
It might then have been expected that Archie would have returned home and that he did but circuitously, via Shelbourne in Ireland and a Gold Cup winners' medal. But by 1915 he was back in Lochgelly and cutting coal again, turning out initially for the town-team and again in 1920-21, with the 1919-20 season spent at Dunfermline in the briefly-formed Central Football League.
It is then said that Devine would remain in Lumphinnans/Lochgelly for the rest of his life. However, there may have been at least the thought of emigration. In 1923 he crossed the Atlantic, specifically to SoccerToon USA, Kearny in New Jersey. Perhaps he was seeking to find work in the American soccer boom but it seems to have been unsuccessful. Instead he was to return home to work as a labourer until admittance, still in Fife, to the Stratheden Hospital by Cupar, where he died in 1964, aged seventy-eight. He would be buried back in Lochgelly in the town's cemetery, survived by Mary by seven years. She would pass away in 1971 at the age of eighty-five.
Birth Locator:
1886 - Lochore Rows, Ballingry, Fife
Residence Locations:
1891 - West Lochore Village, Fife
1901 - 10, Minto St., Lochgelly, Fife
1911 - 17, Grosvenor Road, Bradford, Yorkshire
1921 - 6, Lumphinnans Road Lochgelly, Fife
1923 - 6, Reids Terrace, Lumphinnans Rd., Lochgelly, Fife
1964 - 47, Cartmore Road, Lochgelly, Fife
Death Locator:
1964 - Stratheden Hospital, Cupar, Fife
Grave Locator:
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