The Leslies
- Arnot, William and Leslie

In 1864 in Tradeston in Glasgow a young, Gorbals man, Arnot Leslie, a journeyman tinsmith, a plumber, to trade, married a Paisley-girl, Janet Easdon. And within two years they were on the other side of the World, in Buenos Aires, where he had found employment and their first child, named Janet for her mother, had been born. 

And with wee Juana being the first of seven children Arnot and Janet Leslie were to stay in the Argentine capital for thirty-five year, only to return on retirement to Glasgow's Southern Suburbs. But in the interim they had been in considerable part responsible albeit by proxy for the implantation of football in their adopted country.

Whilst Arnot was already in his early thirties and in any case outwith Scotland by the time football exploded in Glasgow, after the birth of Janet, and Grace, who followed, the Leslies would have a first boy, Arnot Jnr., a second, Alexander, and two more, George and William. And even in Buenos Aires three of the four would catch the bug, or at least the Diasporan version it. In 1891 Arnot Jnr. would play a part of the first Argentine Football Association and from 1893 "manager" of the club, Lomas Athletic, which from that year won five Argentine titles with Lomas Academy taking the other for six  in a row. 

And in the Lomas eleven from 1893/4 would be Arnot Jnr.'s two youngest brothers, seventeen and fifteen respectively and just having returned from schooling in Glasgow, there living with their uncle and his family in Shawlands, so within walking-distance of Queen's Park and 3rd Lanark, with George, at least, having whilst still in Buenos Aires also been to Alex Watson Hutton's English High School, so with some football knowledge before Scotland. Moreover, both too as they matured with the game and it became embedded would go on to play for Argentina's national team, William was a full-back, George a forward. Indeed, in 1901 such was their status that each would appear in the first ever meeting of Uruguay and Argentina, sometimes regarded as unofficial but nevertheless an important, first marker for both countries. It took place on 16th May 1901, in Montevideo, resulted in an Argentine 2-3 away-win with George scoring what may have his adopted country's first ever international goal. The other scorers were the English Charles Dickinson and John Anderson, also a Scot, also a Lomas player and team captain for club and country. 

Furthermore, the next year, in July 1902 , in the follow-up encounter William would be there once more, another away-game, this time won by Argentina 0-6, Anderson again captain and scoring. However, by that time Arnot Leslie Snr. had made the decision to retire and by 1891 he had returned with Janet to Glasgow's Southern Suburbs, to Eastwood. Arnot Leslie had a accompanied them, recorded as a plumber himself, at which point the decline of Lomas had begun, it to be replaced as the leading team by Alumni, William moving to the Quilmes club and stepping back from playing, as in 1902 he married for the first time. 

And so it stayed until 1904, when in Glasgow in Newlands in a house that had been named Argentine Arnot Leslie Snr. Passed away. Janet would survive him by six years but it would allow Arnot Jnr. to return to Buenos Aires. And it his highly likely that he did it with the Copa Lipton, the trophy presented by Sir Thomas Lipton, grocery-entrepreneur, Gorbals-born and quite possibly family-friend of the Leslies and/or the equally Gorbals-born, Father of Argentine Football, Alex Watson Hutton. It also produced a brief revival of Lomas. For 1906 the Argentine top division had been split into two leagues of six and five. Lomas, with George Leslie as Secretary finished top of the former and played off against the winner of the latter, Alumni. However, it would be a 4-0 defeat, after which the Lomas began a decline that would lead to the club abandoning football altogether in 1909, having turned to rugby and nowadays to cricket and hockey.

As for the Leslies two, Arnot Jnr., also a noted golfer, and William simply seemed to disappear, apart from the former possibly travelling to England as a Merchant in 1913. As for George he was to work as an accountant, becoming the Managing Director of a Buenos Aires financial company, and marring for a second time, to Olive Gray. They were to have three children, he would retire in 1933 and at just fifty-seven die the following year to be buried in the Buenos Aires's British Cemetery.

Birth Locator:

1871 - Buenos Aires, Argentina (Arnot Jnr)

1876  - Buenos Aires, Argentina (William)

1878 - Buenos Aires, Argentina (George)

 

Residence Locations:

1869 - calle Cangallo, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Arnot Snr. & Janet)

1891 - 26, Stevenson (now Deanston) Drive, Shawlands, Glasgow (William and George)

1895 - Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires, Glasgow (Arnot Snr., Arnot Jnr., William & George)

1901 -"The Wern", 35, Mansewood Rd., Pollokshaws, Glasgow (Arnot Snr, Janet, Arnot Jnr.)

1904 - "Argentine", 75, Monrieth Road, Newlands, Glasgow (Arnot Snr. and Janet)

1934 - Echeverria 3669, Buenos Aires (George)

 

Death Locator:

1904 - "Argentine", 75, Monrieth Road, Newlands, Glasgow (Arnot Snr.)

1934 - Echeverria 3669, Buenos Aires (George)

 

Grave Locator:

Cemeterio Britanico, Chacarita, Buenos Aires (George)

 

 

 

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