Thomas Fitchie

Thomas Tindal Fitchie (11 December 1881 – 17 October 1947) was a Scottish amateur football forward.[3][4]

Thomas Fitchie
Personal information
Full name Thomas Tindal Fitchie[1]
Date of birth 11 December 1881
Place of birth Edinburgh, Scotland
Date of death 17 October 1947(1947-10-17) (aged 65)[2]
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
0000–1901 West Norwood
1901–1902 Woolwich Arsenal 3 (3)
1902 Tottenham Hotspur 1 (0)
1903 Woolwich Arsenal 1 (0)
London Caledonians
1904–1905 Woolwich Arsenal 9 (6)
1905 Queen's Park 0 (0)
Fulham
London Caledonians
1905–1906 Woolwich Arsenal 22 (9)
West Norwood
1906–1908 Queen's Park 43 (20)
Norwich City
Brighton & Hove Albion
1908–1909 Woolwich Arsenal 21 (9)
1909–1911 Glossop 41 (9)
1912 Fulham 8 (2)
Pilgrims
National team
1905–1907 Scotland 4 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

A talented forward, nicknamed the "Prince of Dribblers", Fitchie was born in Edinburgh and played football as an amateur (having had too many business commitments to commit to the game professionally).[5] He appears to have travelled a lot, and his career was rather eclectic as a result; he played for a variety of clubs, and the dates of some of his tenures are not known.

Having started out at West Norwood, Fitchie joined Woolwich Arsenal when he was 19, in November 1901. He made his debut against Gainsborough Trinity in a Second Division match on 8 February 1902, and scored twice as Woolwich Arsenal rolled out 5–0 winners.[6] However, being unable to fully commit to the team, he was only in the Woolwich Arsenal side intermittently.[6] As an amateur he was free to play for other team and often guested for other London sides in addition to Arsenal, including Fulham, London Caledonians and even Tottenham Hotspur — although as they were not at this time Arsenal's deadly local rivals, otherwise this would have raised few eyebrows at the time. He played two games for Tottenham scoring one goal.[7]

Fitchie's main club, however, was Woolwich Arsenal and it seems he played mostly for them while he was in London. It wasn't until the 1904–05 season did he have any sort of decent run in the side, though; he scored six goals in 9 league games that season,[8] Arsenal's first in the First Division.

Fitchie's ability was such that he was called up to play for Scotland, against Wales on 6 March 1905, which Scotland lost 3–1.[9] In all he won four caps for his country, scoring one goal — the only goal of the game against Ireland on St Patrick's Day 1906.[9] He was still a regular for Woolwich Arsenal, scoring 9 league goals in 1905–06 and reaching an FA Cup semi-final the same season.[8]

Fitchie left Arsenal in mid-1906 back to his native Scotland, and played for Queen's Park for two years.[2] He also spent some time in Southern England during this period, occasionally appearing for Norwich City and Brighton & Hove Albion.[1] He returned to Woolwich Arsenal in 1908, and he played another full season (1908–09) there; he scored 10 goals (9 in the league, one in the cup) in twenty-one games,[8] making him Arsenal's top scorer; that season they finished sixth in the First Division, which would remain their highest-finishing position until 1925–26. In all, he played 63 times for Arsenal and scored 30 goals.[6]

After leaving Arsenal, Fitchie joined a touring team known as The Pilgrims, a side composed of British players that toured the US in October and November 1909.[2][10][11] After returning to England, Fitchie played for Glossop North End between 1909 and 1911 and Fulham for a second spell in 1912.[1]

Personal life

Fitchie served as a sergeant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the First World War.[4] A lung disorder contracted during his war service lead to his death in October 1947.[4]

Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Woolwich Arsenal 1901–02[8] Second Division 3 3 — — 3 3
Tottenham Hotspur 1901–02[8] Southern League First Division 1 0 — 1 1 2 1
Woolwich Arsenal 1902–03[8] Second Division 1 0 — — 1 0
Woolwich Arsenal 1904–05[8] First Division 9 6 — — 9 6
Queen's Park 1904–05[2] Scottish First Division 0 0 2 0 1[lower-alpha 1] 0 3 0
Woolwich Arsenal 1905–06[8] First Division 22 9 5 2 — 27 11
Queen's Park 1906–07[2] Scottish First Division 21 6 5 6 3[lower-alpha 2] 0 29 12
1907–08[2] 23 14 2 0 1[lower-alpha 2] 0 26 14
Total 44 20 7 6 4 0 55 26
Woolwich Arsenal 1908–09[8] First Division 21 9 2 1 — 23 10
Woolwich Arsenal total 56 27 7 3 — 63 30
Fulham 1912–13[12] Second Division 8 2 — — 8 2
Career total 109 47 14 9 5 1 128 57
  1. Appearance in Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup.
  2. Appearances in Glasgow Cup.

References
  1. Joyce, Michael (16 October 2012). Football League Players' Records 1888–1939 (3rd Revised ed.). Tony Brown. p. 99. ISBN 9781905891610.
  2. "QPFC.com – A Historical Queen's Park FC Website". www.qpfc.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  3. (Smith 2013, p. 85)
  4. "Queen's Park And The Great War: 1914 To 1918" (PDF). p. 5. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  5. "The Queen's Park Men Who Served And Survived As At October 2016" (PDF). p. 5. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  6. "Tom Fitchie". www.arsenal.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  7. Goodwin, Bob (2017). The Spurs Alphabet. Robwin Publising House. p. 154. ISBN 978-0954043421.
  8. "Tom Fitchie". 11v11.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  9. "Thomas Fitchie | Scotland | Scottish FA". www.scottishfa.co.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  10. Great moments in Philly soccer history: Philadelphia Hibernians beat the Pilgrims, 1909, Ed Farnsworth, The Philly Soccer Page, 11 February 2010
  11. Pilgrims, Before The 'D'...Association Football around the world, 1863-1937, 29 August 2017
  12. "Thomas Fitchie". Fulhamweb. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
Sources
  • Smith, Paul (2013). Scotland Who's Who. Pitch Publishing. ISBN 9781909178847.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Harris, Jeff (1995). Hogg, Tony (ed.). Arsenal Who's Who. Independent UK Sports. ISBN 1-899429-03-4.
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