William Robertson
For William Robertson football was something of a side-show, albeit that he had a real talent for the game, but then he also had it for others, beginning with rugby, the sport of his school years, but also sprinting, speed he would use as a right-winger, tennis and golf. He was also a man who rose in life. He would be born on Dumbarton High St. alongside the others in the Dumbarton teams of the era, Sparrow Brown was up the street, Willie Lang a few doors down. But he would spend his adult, his working life at addresses in North Dumbarton that were and are still in some cases, shall we say, substantial. His father was a wine and spirits merchant, probably a publican. The son would go to University, train as a lawyer and be a partner in a local firm, be a Bank Agent, be politically involved and be awarded the M.B.E..
Willie Robertson's birth was in 1866. and he joined Dumbarton FC at the age of twenty, when, having been offered the captaincy and declined, he was selected for the county. He would stay with the club for seven seasons, in the process losing a Scottish Cup Final and winning two Scotland caps, both in winning teams, but would drift way from the game as his various careers took off. In essence he remained very much the very talented amateur, in 1893 even being part of the formation of a short-lived, elite, amateur club, The Roamers; a fine player but one with several more lucrative work- and other charitable irons in the fire even as football professionalised around him.
He was also in 1901 in Rhu to marry Mary Gilchrist. They were to have one son, who appears to have emigrated to North America. Mary can be seen travelling in Canada and The States after William's sudden death in 1926 at the age of only sixty, to be buried in Dumbarton Cemetery.
Birth Locator:
1866 - 147, High St., Dumbarton
Residence Locations:
1871-81 - 157, High St., Dumbarton
1891 - N/A
1901 - "Kenwyn", Round Riding Rd., Dumbarton
1911 - "Hartfield House", 3, Latta St., Dumbarton
1921-26 - "Machrina", Kirktonhill, Dumbarton
Death Locator:
1926 - "Machrina", Kirktonholl, Dumbarton
Grave Locator:
Back to Dumbarton
or the SFHG Home page
© Copyright. 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.