Peter McBride
Peter McBride was born in 1874 in Newton, just across the river from the town of Ayr. His mother was local, his father a tailor from Wigtownshire. But his mother would die when he was five, his father remarry and he grew up in a large family of step-siblings. He also grew up for the time a large man at six feet and fourteen stones, a slater to trade but from his mid-teens with a growing reputation as a player of versatility. It meant that, after spells in the junior game locally with Westerlea and Fairfield, at eighteen he was signed by Ayr F.C., remaining for four years, playing at centre-forward for a time but finally settling on goal-keeping in 1894.
And even whilst still at the town's club and outwith the League he then soon attracted enough attention to be in 1895 given an international trial. So it was hardly when in 1896 Preston came in for his services and, such was the impression he rapidly made, retain them for the next seventeen seasons, a period in which, despite stiff competition from initially the likes of Matt Dickie, John Patrick and Ned Doig, then latterly from Harry Rennie, the man to change the face of 'keeping, and to be eventually replaced by the great John Brownlie he would also between 1904 and 1909 win six caps.
However for all but the first year of his stay at Deepdale McBride would not be alone. In 1897 he returned to Scotland, to Dalrymple, six miles south of Ayr, to marry Hannah Blakely, a loom-worker at the local Skeldon Mill with the couple returning to have six children and settle in Preston for the rest of their lives.
Thus it was when McBride stepped down from the senior game in England in 1913 it was after almost four hundred and fifty League starts alone. He then made a few appearances for a local team, whilst starting work as a labourer for the local council and eventually living in Ribbleton. And it was there that in 1945 Hannah would pass away at sixty eight to be buried at Preston Old Cemetery to be followed six years later in a Preston hospital by her husband, to be laid alongside her, aged seventy-six.
Birth Locator:
1874 - Main St., Newton-on-Ayr, Ayrshire
Residence Locations:
1881 - 19, Content St., Newton-on-Ayr, Ayrshire
1891 - 94, Wallace St., Newton-on-Ayr, Ayrshire
1897 - 130, Cross (now King) St., Newton-upon-Ayr, Ayrshire
1901 - 14, St. Martin's Rd., Preston, Lancashire
1911 - 1, Penguin St., Preston, Lancashire
1921 - N/A
1939 - 15, Hatfield Rd., Preston, Lancashire
1951 - N/A
Death Locator:
1951 - Sharoe Green Hospital, Preston, Lancashire
Grave Locator:
Preston Old Cemetery, Preston, 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.