Published: Wednesday, 23rd January, 2008 12:30
Wanderers to open clubhouse for Uni tie
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READY TO OPEN: Wanderers’ clubhouse.
Pic by: Douglas Hendry
GREENOCK Wanderers will be both celebrating and commemorating at the weekend as they move back home to Fort Matilda after the completion of their £1.2 million clubhouse.
This also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the saddest day in the club’s long and distinguished history — the death of Callum John McIntyre, who died from injuries sustained playing for the club on 25 January 1908, aged just 27.
McIntyre was a prop forward and had been selected to play for Wanderers in their match against Clydesdale at their former home ground at Westbourne Park, which was situated where the Battery Park is now.
Wanderers past president, Dr John Forster, author of The First Hundred Years, a definitive history of Greenock Wanderers from 1873-1973, researched the incident and recorded the event in his book:
Heavy rain and a fierce wind almost caused the game to be cancelled, but the arrival of the Clydesdale team coincided with a brief improvement in the weather and it was decided not to further upset the fixture card.
As the match kicked-off at 3pm the weather worsened and a tough match with rough scrummaging and repeated infringements had been going 15 minutes when McIntyre met with an accidental injury in the midst of a maul of players.
He was conveyed to the old Greenock Royal Infirmary where injuries to the spinal column were diagnosed and he passed away three days later in the early hours of Tuesday 28 January, 1908.
Dr Forster said: “In those days scrummages went on for sometimes five and six minutes, with much heavier players pushing against smaller ones.
“This type of incident would not occur today. It was a tragic accident and medical science has moved on significantly since those pre-war years.”
Callum McIntyre was a native of Kinloch in Skye and came to the area to live with his grandmother Mrs Campbell in 78 Holmscroft Street, Greenock, so he could be educated at Greenock Academy.
On leaving school he became a draughtsman in Scott’s Shipbuilders and was a regular forward in the Wanderers 1st XV and a member of the club’s management committee from 1906 until his death.
He also rowed for the Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club and was, according to newspaper reports at the time, ‘A man of much promise’.
The Telegraph carried a notice on 29 January instructing all Wanderers members to attend the funeral, w arranged for 30 January, 1908.
Wanderers President Donnie Cunningham, right, said: “To celebrate our return to Fort Matilda and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Callum McIntyre’s death, the players will wear new strips and black armbands for Saturday’s game against Edinburgh University.
“There will also be a minute’s silence before the match and a piper will play a highland lament, owing to Callum’s Hebridean background.
“A memorial plaque will also be unveiled at a later time within the new clubhouse.”
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