Andrew Watson (footballer, born 1856)

Andrew Watson

Watson (top centre, 1882 photograph)
Personal information
Date of birth	(1856-05-24)24 May 1856
Place of birth	Demerara, British Guiana
Date of death	8 March 1921(1921-03-08) (aged 64)
Place of death	London, England
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Full back
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
?	Maxwell F.C.
1874–1880	Parkgrove F.C.
1880–1882	Queen's Park	0	(0)
1882–1884	Swifts
1884–1885	Corinthians
1885–1887	Queen's Park	0	(0)
1887–1892	Bootle
National team
1881–1882	Scotland	3	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Andrew Watson (24 May 1856 – 8 March 1921) is widely considered to be the world's first black person to play association football at international level. He played three matches for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. Arthur Wharton was commonly thought to be Britain's first black player, as he was the first black professional footballer and the first to play in the Football League, but Watson's career predated him by over a decade.

Watson was the son of a wealthy Scottish sugar planter Peter Miller Watson (1805-1869) (the son of James Watson, of Crantit, Orkney, Scotland) and a local British Guianese woman named Hannah Rose. He came to Britain with his father, and his older sister Annetta, and they inherited a substantial amount when their father died in London in 1869.

He was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax, West Yorkshire and then from 1871 at King's College School, in Wimbledon, London, where records show he excelled at sports including football. He later studied natural philosophy, mathematics and engineering at the University of Glasgow when he was 19, where his love of football blossomed. He played in the full back position, on either the right or the left flank.

Watson left Glasgow University after one year and in 1877 became a partner in Watson, Miller, and Baird, a wholesale warehouse business in Glasgow. In November 1877 he married Jessie Nimmo Armour (1860-1882); she was the daughter of John Armour, a cabinet-maker. Their son Rupert Andrew was born in 1878, and a daughter Agnes Maude in 1880. Watson moved to London with his family in the summer of 1882 for work reasons. His wife died in the autumn of 1882 and their two children returned to Glasgow to live with their grandparents.