The Thistle Archive

The son of Robert Marshall (stillman) and Jessie Marshall (née Hynd) who were married in 1874 in Bo'ness.

Centre forward Jim Marshall joined Thistle in early November 1911, from Bo'ness. He played principally as a centre forward during his Jags’ career, but the versatile player played all along the Thistle front line during his time at Firhill. He was also an amateur sprinter whilst he was a footballer and, in 1913, he ran for Winchburgh under the name of Mitchell. Jim made 14 competitive appearances during the 1911-12 season, in a strong Thistle side that finished 4th in an 18 strong SFL 1st Division. Jim scored the 1st of his 56 goals in his 2nd outing in a Thistle 1st team against Hearts at a frost bound Firhill on 11 November 1911. The 8,000 crowd saw “a capital game” according to a press report, and it ended 2-2. Jim was a regular scorer thereafter. Jim played in Alex Raisbeck’s testimonial, when an International XI beat Thistle 7-5 at Firhill on Tuesday 6 January 1914. The match was played on a frosty pitch, and Jim scored 4 goals after Neil Harris got Thistle’s 1st. A healthy crowd of 10,000 were in attendance for the Tuesday afternoon fixture. Willie Allan, a Jags’ player at that time played for the International XI, and rather unusually for the period Thistle’s Alf Gittins replaced Bobby McNeil of Hamilton as a substitute for the International XI. Jim played the final match in his 1st Thistle spell on 28 April 1914 against Queen’s Park.

Jim transferred to Bradford City in June 1914. War interfered with his Bradford City career, with English League football being suspended for the duration. He played as a guest player for Ayr United in 1916-17, and returned to Thistle as a guest player in the 1917-18 season, playing his opening 2nd period fixture against Morton in a 3-3 draw in the Scottish Football League at Firhill on 18 August 1917, more than 3 years after he had left for Bradford. He scored 2 goals that day – back to where he had left off! Jim pulled on Thistle colours on around 100 occasions, scoring 56 goals. The player returned to Bradford post war. Jim moved to Oldham Athletic in September 1920, as 1st team appearances at Bradford were sporadic. He left the Bantams in 1923 having made 84 appearances for the club, then played in Wales with Bangor City. He had short periods with Southport and Rotherham County, then played for Lincoln City. He ended his playing career at Queen of the South and Stranraer, having moved to Dumfries-shire for the 1925-26 season.

An interesting snippet appeared in the Dundee Courier (18/8/1930): "Marshall the former Partick Thistle forward has accepted a post as a trainer-coach to a club in Norway. Jimmy should fit the bill all right."

When World War Two broke out Jim lived in the Netherlands. His father-in-law was Bob Glendenning, a former Bolton Wanderers footballer and long-standing coach of the Netherlands international football team. The Dutch trusted that as a neutral country the combatants would respect their neutrality, as this is what happened in World War One. On 10th May 1940, however, German troops invaded the country. Jim, his wife and Bob joined other ex-pats including other footballers and the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company (including the famous Margo Fonteyn) in seeking an early exit. The commandeered steam ship SS Dotterel was sent to IJmuiden, a North Sea port downriver from Amsterdam, and around 700 escapees made their way there, with the war going on around them. Once at sea an escort of two Royal Navy destroyers accompanied the ship back to the UK. The book "Escape From Holland" by Chris Hunt sets out this story. Sadly the SS Dotterel was initially disabled by an E-boat and later sunk in 1941.

In his personal life, Jim married twice, latterly to Margaret Glendinning. He passed away from a coronary heart disease at the Victoria Infirmary in July 1958 and had been living in East Kilbride 'til then, a retired Aircraft Factory storekeeper.

1917 - GLASGOW CUP

1918 - GLASGOW CHARITY CUP