The Thistle Archive

The son of Daniel Suter and Catherine Suter (née Cooke). Jerry was the younger brother of Edward Suter (Partick, Darwen, Partick Thistle) and Fergus Suter (Partick, Darwen, Turton, Blackburn Rovers).

Clearly a capable young fellow, the 16-year-old Jerry was acting as the match secretary of his first club, Hayburn, in 1879! There's every chance that was his first introduction to the members of the Partick Thistle club, as Hayburn went up against Partick Thistle Reserves twice in 1879-80, drawing 0-0 in October and winning 3-0 in May. In a strange quirk of fate, all three of Jerry's first known clubs played home matches at Inchview Park. Hayburn ground shared with Partick, and Partick Thistle would famously takeover the ground upon Partick's almost inevitable demise in the close season of 1885.

More often than not a left sided forward, Jerry was another of those who could qualify as a bit of an early Thistle legend, making over 160 confirmed appearances between 1882 and 1890, passing the half-century mark of goals in the process. Again, it should be emphasised that many goal scorers in these days went unreported and almost certainly do not reflect the full extent of each player’s prowess. Nonetheless, his known 11 goals total in season 1884-85 is enough to give him the accolade of top scorer for that campaign. Whilst a Jag he guested at least once for a touring London Caledonians side, and for Rangers.

His talents were recognised by the Glasgow FA and he was selected to play against Dumbartonshire in October 1884, scoring twice in a 3-3 draw. Alongside him that day were fellow Jags Andrew Duff, John Hendry, Jack Beattie and Bob Robertson. Jerry was honoured with two further appearances for Glasgow in February 1887, again scoring vs Edinburgh (L2-3), and providing assists vs Sheffield (W10-3). Amongst his many scoring highlights for Thistle were 3 career hat-tricks including one in the FA Cup (11-1 vs. Cliftonville, Dec 1886) and one in the Scottish Cup (10-0 vs. Westbourne, Sep 1887).

Undoubtedly, our man would have been inspired by his older brother, Fergus, who had moved down South and gained some degree of fame as an early professional and pioneer of the passing game. Unlike his brother, Jerry remained in Scotland at that time, and his strong commitment as a Jags man was underlined in the mid-1880s when he accepted the dual role of Player / Match Secretary, taking chief responsibility for arranging a fixture card which was as attractive as possible for the treasurer.

Jerry did eventually follow his older brothers down to Lancashire. In June 1894, he was reported as working as a barman in the pub belonging to his brother Fergus, the Bay Horse Hotel, in Blackburn. The March 1901 census still has him living and working (as a barman) in Blackburn. Just several months later, Jerry was residing with his other brother, Edward, at 73 Luddell Road in Darwen. He contracted pneumonia in the autumn of 1901 and Edward was present in the house when Jerry succumbed to the illness, aged just 38. Edward signed the death register entry on the 8th October 1901, one day after the passing.

Jerry was laid to rest at Blackburn Cemetery, in the same lair (EN6012) as Frank Almond, an in-law of Fergus Suter. Subsequently, several folks were interred in that same lair (see 'Gallery' tab), including Fergus Suter in 1916, but, strangely, the first two to be interred (Frank Almond, 3 November 1900 & Jarvis Suter, 9 October 1901) were not included on the headstone, whenever that came to be. A sad state of affairs.