A Team of Scotland v Canada

Scottish FA secretary William Dick was in the process of arranging a  tour to Canada when he died in 1880. This was the year in which David Forsyth had been instrumental in founding the The Western Football Association of Ontario, the force behind Canadian representative football in the Victorian era. 


Eight years later The Western Association toured the British Isles and on the evening of 18.09.88 'Canada' met a 'Team of Scotland' at The Glasgow Exhibition Grounds (Kelvingrove Park).

A Team of Scotland		Canada
Gillespie (Queens Park)	GK	Garrett (Toronto Varsity)
Gow (Rangers)	B	Killer (Berlin Rangers)
Forbes (Vale of Leven)	B	Brubacher (Berlin Rangers)
Stewarts (Queens Park)	HB	Gordon (Toronto Varsity)
Auld (Third LRV)	HB	Mustard (Toronto Varsity)
Muir (Rangers)	HB	Pirie (Queen’s University, Dundas F.C)
Hamilton (Queens Park)	OR	Bowman (Berlin Rangers)
Berry (Queens Park)	IR	Gibson (Berlin Rangers)
Campbell (Renton)	CF	Gibson (Berlin Rangers)
McCall (Renton)	IL	Thomson (Toronto Varsity)
McPherson (Cowlairs)	OL	Webster (Galt)

McCall and Berry scored 2 goals each as Scotland ran out 4-0 winners. The press singled out Garrett in the Canadian goal for particular praise. 

Walter Bowman

From the earliest times, football in England featured players who were born overseas. This was due to the social status of the young men playing the game and the fact that the United Kingdom was at the centre of such a vast empire. 

William Parry Crake of the Wanderers (1872 Cup final) was born in India , as were Henry Renny-Tailyour and Alfred Goodwyn of The Royal Engineers.

Another early example was Arthur  Savage of Crystal Palace, who played in goal in the 5th international against Scotland on 4th March 1876 and was born in Sydney, Australia. 

As football entered the professional age the officer classes were less prominent, and the leading players were increasingly drawn from the English and Scots working classes. Because English and Scottish football was stratospherically superior to that of other nations at the time the notion of foreign players coming to play in the UK was unimaginable. 

It would appear that the first non- British/ Irish player to play professionally in England was Walter Bowman. Bowman  played for Accrington and later Ardwick/ Manchester City  in the Football League, making his debut  in 1892. He began as a forward but later played at centre half. 

 Bowman was from Ontario and  first came to  the UK in 1888 with the Canadian touring team. He had earlier played in a representative 'Canada v USA' match. In 1891 Bowman returned as a member of a joint Ontario/ New Jersey squad. On a 4 month tour the visitors played 58 fixtures. Bowman played in no less than 54 of those matches, scoring 11 goals. 

In 8 seasons in English top class football Bowman made 54 first team appearances, scoring 6 goals. 

Accrington (1891-92) appearances 5, goals 3.
Ardwick (1892-95) appearances 35, goals 1.
Manchester City (1895-99) appearances 14, goals 0.

Canada Tour of the British Isles 1888

The above is a 50 cent coin minted in 1998 celebrating Canada's first overseas football tour.
In 1888 the Ontario based Western Football Association ( founded in 1880, this was the body behind Canada's earliest representative sides) sent a team to the British Isles.

Ireland
01.09.88	County Antrim	2	6	Canada
03.09.88	Distillery	2	3	Canada
04.09.88	Clarence	2	3	Canada
05.09.88	Belfast  YMCA	1	1	Canada
Scotland
08.09.88	Glasgow Rangers	1	1	Canada
11.09.88	Queen’s Park	3	1	Canada
13.09.88	Ayr United	4	0	Canada
15.09.88	Heart of Midlothian	0	3	Canada
18.09.88	Scotland XI	4	0	Canada
England
22.09.88	Sunderland	0	3	Canada
26.09.88	Middlesbrough	2	3	Canada
29.09.88	Lincoln City	1	3	Canada
01.10.88	Sheffield FC	1	1	Canada
04.10.88	Notts County	2	0	Canada
06.10.88	Newton Heath	0	2	Canada
08.10.88	Blackburn Rovers	4	1	Canada
13.10.88	Swifts (London)	2	2	Canada
15.10.88	Northampton	2	3	Canada
17.10.88	Oxford University	1	1	Canada
20.10.88	Old Carthusians	1	0	Canada
22.10.88	Aston Villa	4	2	Canada
27.10.88	West Bromwich Albion	1	0	Canada
31.10.88	Swifts (London)	1	0	Canada

P	W	D	L	F	A
23	9	5	9	39	41

The players:
The players were largely from the professional and academic class. The tour required them to take a 2 month break from employment and also to be in a position to pay $200 per man towards the cost of the tour. 

	Club	Position	Played*		Goals**
Alexander Garrett	Toronto Varsity	goalkeeper	23
Carl Kranz	Berlin Rangers	full back	18	3
Solomon Brubacher,	Berlin Rangers	full back	21
Fred Killer	Berlin Rangers	full back	19
Dr. Harry Pirie	Queen’s University, Dundas F.C	half back	20	1
Dr. William Burnet	Galt F.C.	half back	1
T.W. Murray	Galt F.C	half back	4
Dr. Wilfrid P. Mustard	Toronto Varsity	half back	6
Dr Edward P. Gordon	Toronto Varsity	half back	14
Harry Bewell	Norwood High School.	half back	2
David Forsyth	Berlin Rangers	forward	8	2
Walter Bowman	Berlin Rangers	forward	22	3
Alex Gibson	Berlin Rangers	forward	19	3
Dr Walter P. Thomson	Toronto Varsity	forward	21	10
E.H. Webster	Galt F.C	forward	21	3
Harry P Bingham	Berlin Rangers.	forward	4	1
Tom Gibson	Berlin Rangers	forward	21	4

*The lines ups for some of the games are not known in full.

** The scorers in 3 games (7 goals) are unrecorded.  There was also an own goal.

Noteworthy participants included Walter Bowman, who later became the first overseas professional to play in the Football League, and the leader of the party, David Forsyth.
David Forsyth was born in Scotland, but moved to Canada as a baby. He is often referred to as the Father of Canadian (Soccer) Football. He was a mathematician and high school principal  responsible for the foundation of  Berlin Rangers. He was also involved in the foundation of  The Western Football Association of Ontario.
Despite the strong influence of Scotsmen on football throughout the British Empire, Forsyth was the only member of the touring party who was not actually born in Canada. 

Berlin is now known as Kitchener.