| Graham Henderson |
 Graham Henderson was probably born in England, although his place and date of birth remain unknown to us. * The goalkeeper joined George Easton's Thistle for a trial in August, 1905. He made his one and only appearance on Wednesday, 30th August, 1905, in a 3-2 win at home to Queen's Park in a Benefit match. His known club-list included only Partick Thistle. We don't know where or when Graham died. *
|
 Almost nothing is known of this mystery goalkeeper and we can't even be sure that we have his name correct. In late August 1905, Thistle obliged Rockbank Juniors by playing a midweek fundraiser against Queen's Park at Meadowside. 1,000 were there to see it, and a few young trialists featured on the night, including Lyon (Clydebank Juniors), McCall (Darvel) and Donaldson (Yoker Athletic). The goalkeeper position gave cause for confusion in the reports. The Glasgow Herald listed "Howden Jr", suggesting either a guest/trialist psudeonym or perhaps J. Howden (who was the brother of regular goalie Willie Howden). However, the goalie was named as G. Anderson of Repton School in both the Derby Daily Telegraph and the Athletic News, both of which were English newspapers. Repton is a private school in Derbyshire for 13 to 18 year olds, so quite why such a youngster should suddenly appear in Partick is quite the mystery. The school did have a reputation for sporting excellence back in the day. Both the Scottish Referee and the Daily Record named him as Graham Henderson, but with no mention of Repton School. Clearly, somebody somewhere misheard and mistyped. We take the punt on Graham Henderson which gives us one less forename to worry about, if nothing else. Thistle won 3-2 on the night, and subsequently there were deals for John Lyon and Adam McCall, but nothing doing for the young 'keeper. Perhaps he had school the next morning and had to catch a late train back to Derbyshire… |
| (WS/JK) |
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