Bob's father would die when he was relatively young, one of six children, and his mother in 1901 would remarry. And he as a young man would work presumably in the building trade for it was such that he would find work in 1910, when at twenty-one he emigrated. He went first to the United States, there joining a maternal uncle, but within two years had found his way to Canada, to Winnipeg in Manitoba.  

And there he might have stayed but for The Great War. Whether he enlisted or was called up is unclear but from 1914 he was part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force sent to Europe and, having been decorated for bravery, was in 1916, presumably in France, wounded, badly in the legs. Certainly in 1917 back in Airdrie when from his mother's address in Chapelhall he married local girl, Margaret McMeekin, confirming he was a bricklayer to trade, he was in the military and giving his last address as a convalescent hospital in Woking in Surrey in England.  

Clearly by then his War was over. Soon after the wedding he returned to Canada with Margaret and in 1918 the first of their two sons was born back in Winnipeg. And it was there too that he, already thirty, recuperated enough to restart his football. Said once to have been a Rangers' youth player he was a centre-half, but at only 5ft 4ins very much of the Scottish variety. 

He played for and captained local club, United Weston. It had been founded in 1909. In 1921 he was a member of teams for both Winnipeg and Manitoba against the touring Scottish F.A. party. In 1924 by then in his mid-thirties there was the Australian trip, two wins, three losses and two draws, however, it seems to have been more or less his last major action on field. He was not part of his club team when it was Dominion champions in both 1924 and 1926.