| Allan Alexander |
 Allan McLean Alexander was born on Monday, 16th December, 1878, in Partick, Glasgow. The forward signed for Thistle on Friday, 4th November, 1898. Aged 19, he made his first known appearance on Saturday, 5th November, 1898, in a 5-0 defeat at home to Rangers in the SFL First Division. Amazingly, Allan scored his first 3 goals for Thistle in the same match! His account-opening hat-trick was registered on Saturday, 22nd February, 1902, in a 5-1 win away to Arthurlie in the SFL Second Division. He scored the last of his 5 known goals on Saturday, 13th December, 1902, in a 4-1 defeat away to Queen's Park in the SFL First Division. He played his last known game for the club on Saturday, 16th April, 1904, in a 1-0 friendly win at home to Leith Athletic, having appeared for the Thistle on at least 11 occasions. His club-list included Claremont and Partick Thistle. Allan died on Friday, 23rd May, 1941, in Linthouse, Glasgow, aged 62.
|
 The son of Andrew Alexander (school board officer) and Catherine Alexander (née McLean) who were married in Partick in 1874. In 1898, Allan, who could play anywhere across the forward line, came to Thistle from the highly scouted juvenile outfit, Claremont, recent winners of the Govan Cup. Several players from Claremont were snapped up by seniors at that time, and Thistle picked up two of them in Barker (who never made it out of the reserves) and Alexander who was in and around the fringes of the first team for a few seasons. In November 1898, the teenager had a baptism of fire when Thistle went down by 5 goals to nil at home to the invincible champions Rangers, who won all 18 of their league games that season. He was confined to the reserves for a couple of seasons after that but re-emerged for a couple of league outings during Thistle's title-winning season of 1901-02, memorably scoring a hat-trick in a 5-1 win at Arthurlie. He featured on several occasions in the top-flight the following season, and scored in league games away to Hearts and Queen's Park, although these were consolation prizes in 2-4 and 1-4 defeats respectively. Allan married Isabella McGillivray in Govan in 1913, by which time he had morphed into Allan MACLAINE Alexander, which also appeared on his death cert, despite his Dad's profession! The Craigton Cemetery lair book shows Allan died 23 May 1941, was buried on 26 May 1941 and was aged 62 years old when he passed away in the Southern General Hospital. |
| (WS/JK) |
