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| James Kirkland |
 James Kirkland was born on Saturday, 23rd October, 1875, in Stewarton, East Ayrshire. The forward signed for Thistle on Tuesday, 18th October, 1898 (after a trial game), having most recently been with Stewarton. Aged 22, he made his first known appearance on Saturday, 15th October, 1898, in a 5-1 defeat away to Heart of Midlothian in the SFL First Division. That day, James became a member of our scoring debutant's club. He scored the last of his 7 known goals on Saturday, 29th April, 1899, in a 3-1 defeat at home to Celtic in the Glasgow League. That turned out to be his last known game for the club, having appeared for the Thistle on at least 22 occasions. His club-list included Southern Athletic, Stewarton and Partick Thistle. James died on Thursday, 18th April, 1940, in Stewarton, East Ayrshire, aged 64.
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 This left-sided forward joined Thistle several games into their second-ever top-flight campaign in 1898-99. Thistle seemed to have regressed since last term and won only two of their eighteen League matches. The club were up for re-election for the third season in a row, and the first-ever relegation was confirmed via election at the League AGM on 30th May, 1899. James had scored around one in three in just over 20 appearances, but he was part of the end-of-season clearout all the same. Only one of his goals - a 4-3 Glasgow League win at Clyde in January - resulted in a victory, so it can be imagined that the 23-year-old James experienced very little joy in his six month spell as a Jag. |
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