Andrew Watson

Club career

After first playing for Maxwell in 1876, Watson signed for local side Parkgrove, where he was additionally their match secretary, making him the first black administrator in football. At Parkgrove he played alongside another black player, Robert Walker. Watson also took part in athletics competitions, winning the high jump on several occasions.

On 14 February 1880, Watson was selected to represent Glasgow against Sheffield at Bramall Lane, an annual fixture played between 1874 and 1960; Glasgow won 1–0. He was also selected for a tour to Canada in the summer of 1880 which was cancelled after the death of William Dick, secretary of the Scottish Football Association. In April 1880, Watson also signed for Queen's Park – then Britain's largest football team – and became their secretary in November 1881. He led the team to two consecutive Scottish Cup wins in 1881 and 1882, thus becoming the first black player to win a major competition. Watson's entry in the Scottish Football Association Annual of 1880–81 reads as follows:

Watson, Andrew: One of the very best backs we have; since joining Queen's Park has made rapid strides to the front as a player; has great speed and tackles splendidly; powerful and sure kick; well worthy of a place in any representative team. In 1882, Watson moved to London and became the first black player to play in the English Cup when he turned out for Swifts. In 1883, he was the first foreign player to be invited to join the leading…

Watson was the son of a wealthy Scottish sugar planter Peter Miller Watson (1805–1869) (the son of James Watson, of Crantit, Orkney, Scotland) and a local British Guianese woman named Hannah Rose. He came to Britain with his father, and his older sister Annetta, and they inherited a substantial amount when their father died in London in 1869. He was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax, West Yorkshire and then from 1871 at King's College School, in Wimbledon, London, where records show he excelled at sports including football. He later studied natural philosophy, mathematics and engineering at the University of Glasgow when he was 19, where his love of football blossomed. He played in the full-back position, on either the right or the left flank.

Watson left Glasgow University after one year, and in 1877, became a partner in Watson, Miller, and Baird, a wholesale warehouse business in Glasgow. In November 1877, he married Jessie Nimmo Armour (1860–1882), the daughter of John Armour, a cabinet-maker. Their son Rupert Andrew was born in 1878, and a daughter Agnes Maude in 1880. Watson moved to London with his family in the summer of 1882 for work reasons. His wife died in the autumn of 1882 and their two children returned to Glasgow to live with their grandparents. He returned to Glasgow and married for a second time, to Eliza Kate Tyler (1861–1949) in February 1887. She was the daughter of Joseph Tyler, East India merchant. Later that year, he moved to Liverpool, where he worked on ships and sat exams to qualify as a marine engineer. Watson and Eliza had two children, a son Henry Tyler in 1888 and a daughter Phyllis Kate in 1891. Through his father, he was related to William Ewart Gladstone, who served four terms as British Prime Minister during the late 19th century, and likely also related to the 21st-century English poet Malik Al Nasir through his mother.

Watson retired to London in around 1910 and died of pneumonia at 88 Forest Road, Kew, in 1921. He is buried in Richmond Cemetery. In 1926, the sportswriter "Tityrus" (the pseudonym of J. A. H. Catton, editor of the Athletic News) named Andrew Watson as left-back in his all-time Scotland team. A mural of Watson was painted on the side of a cafe in Shawlands, south Glasgow in 2020, and he also features prominently in the First Hampden Mural at Hampden Bowling Club. In 2025, a plaque honouring Watson was revealed outside of The Crossley Heath School, the amalgamation of Heath Grammar School, his former high school, and Crossley and Porter School. This plaque was unveiled by Viv Anderson, who was the first black player for the England national football team.