Daniel "Danny" Blair
Daniel Blair was born in 1905 in Camachie in Glasgow, the son of local mother but an Irish-born, coal-merchant father. And that is only part of the reason why knowing where young Danny learned his football is difficult. He is also said from about fifteen to have been living in Northern Ireland, turning out for two local village teams before at seventeen heading for Toronto in Canada, playing for three more clubs there then crossing the border and at just nineteen signing for the Providence Clamdiggers for a season as full-back cum wing-half. And it was only then at still only twenty that he headed back to Scotland to Parkhead Juniors close to where the family lived in Glasgow for a few months then to picked up by Clyde. So was it Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the USA or Scotland once more?
Blair was to spend six seasons at Shawfield. In the first he would see the club win the Glasgow Cup, defeating Celtic and be promoted back to the First Division. In 1927 he was in the party that the SFA took on a summer tour of Canada. In 1928 he won a first cap. That was followed in 1929 by one more, five in 1931 including victory over England and as captain against Austria, the first non-British team to play against Scotland in Scotland. It was the Jimmy Hogan game, a 2:2 draw. Furthermore, in 1932 and now in the second of five seasons at Aston Villa, where he had been transferred in October 1931, he was to be capped for the last time. Yet that year it was not to be his only visit North. The match took place in Edinburgh at Tynecastle in October, but he had already been back in June, to Glasgow to Shettleston even to marry Nora Lane.
In fact Danny's time at Villa Park was not really a success and in 1936, with the team relegated, he was sold to Blackpool, already in the Second Division. There he was made captain and, playing behind Alex Munro, the team was immediately promoted and stayed up. By then Blair was already in his thirties and was to continue to play until 1940, when the war brought an almost natural end to on-field matters. Yet neither he nor Nora returned to Scotland. They remained in Blackpool, he working for the Post Office and also continuing to coach the town club's youth team until retirement, they both dying still there in 1985, he buried in the Methodist churchyard in the village of Pilling.
Birth Locator:
1905 - 9, Salamanca St., Camlachie, Glasgow
Residence Locations:
1911 - 160, Westmuir St., Parkhead, Glasgow
1921 - N/A
1924 - into The States
1925-27 - 72, Culrain St., Shettleston, Glasgow
1932 - 381, Tollcross Rd. Glasgow
1939 - 6, Dauntesey Ave. Blackpool
1985 - Blackpool, Lancashire
Death Locator:
1985 - Fluke Hall, Fluke Lane, Pilling, Preston
Grave Locator:
Pilling Methodist Churchyard, Pilling, Lancashire
Back to The North Lancs Trail,
or the SFHG Home page
© Copyright 2022-2025. All rights reserved/Todos los derechos reservados.
Any use of material created by the SFHG for this web-site will be subject to an agreed donation or donations to an SFHG appeal/Cualquier uso del material creado por SFHG para este sitio web estará sujeto a una donación acordada o donaciones a una apelación de SFHG.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.