The Thistle Archive

Jimmy was born in Glasgow, the son of William Raeside and Margaret Smith. He played club football for Parkhead (1898-1899), Third Lanark (1899-1906) and Bury (1906-1912).

It was a case of “the one that got away” for Partick Thistle and Jimmy Raeside. The Parkhead #1, by then a junior internationalist, was drafted in to Meadowside for a couple of midweek trial games in April 1899, a 3-0 defeat away to Celtic in the Glasgow League being followed (just 24 hours later) by a 3-2 defeat at home to Derby County, English internationalist Steve Bloomer et al. There was no deal forthcoming for Jimmy, but he had a happy return to Meadowside the following month, keeping goal for Parkhead as they defeated Westmarch XI by 4 goals to 1 to lift the Scottish Junior Cup. 3 months later he was a Third Lanark player! He won the Scottish Football League with Third Lanark in 1903–04 (playing in all 26 fixtures) and the Scottish Cup in 1905, Rangers being defeated in a replay by 3 goals to 1.

Jimmy won a number of representative caps in his time, initially for Junior Scotland and the Glasgow FA. He played in the 'Home Scots v Anglo-Scots' international trial in 1905, and subsequently got the coveted full international cap in March 1906, but Scotland were defeated by Wales at Tynecastle, 2 goals to nil. Jimmy's performance was criticized and he took it to heart. He moved down to Bury in the close season which followed, and there he remained for the rest of his playing career. During his spell in England, Jimmy scored three penalties in league matches! Jimmy had married Margaret Lawrie Beck in 1904 in Scotland. She died in 1908, as did his mother, a real double blow for anyone. He married again a couple of years later, to Florence Williamson in 1910 in Manchester. When he left Bury in 1913, he came back to Glasgow where he worked as a spirit salesman but by the time of his death he was living in the Great Eastern Hotel, a hostel for homeless working men in the east end.

Jimmy is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →