As mentioned earlier today on The Celtic Star, around three years ago I met with David Potter and Matt Corr to discuss future Celtic books we’d like to publish over the next few years.
After much discussion it was agreed that Matt would fulfil a personal ambition by writing the history of Celtic in the 1930s while David would jump ahead half a century and do exactly the same thing for the 1980s.
As we always do, we work closely together and David immediately started to assist Matt by writing a large number of articles about Celtic player in the 1930s for Matt’s benefit and to assist with his research.
Celtic in the Thirties, Volumes One and Two
These articles were appreciated by Matt and will have been referenced in his new books one on 5 November 2024, Celtic in the Thirties, Volumes One and Two. And as we build up to the books arriving we will publish an article by David Potter each day, starting this evening as we look at ALEC THOMSON life and times especially as a Celtic player of some note. These articles have never been published before and are especially poignant for those of us who knew him well.
Preparing this article this evening there was a dry-your-eyes moment right at the end. David Potter’s Celtic in the Eighties book was finished by David before his passing in July 2023 and will be published by Celtic Star Books in 2025. The standard of both the 1930s and 1980s books are incredibly high.
You can pre-order Celtic in the Thirties – Volumes One and Two directly from Celtic Star Books now.
Celtic in the Thirties – ALEC THOMSON by David Potter…
Name: Alec Thomson
Born: June 14 1902
Died: November 12 1975
Appearances: 451
Goals: 98
Scottish League medals: 1925/26
Scottish Cup medals: 1924/25, 1926/27, 1930/31, 1932/33
Glasgow Cup medals: 1926/27, 1927/28, 1928/29, 1930/31
Glasgow Charity Cup medals: 1923/24, 1925/26
Scotland Caps: Three
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![Glasgow Cup medal 1929/30]()
- Alec Thomson’s Glasgow Cup medal
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![Glasgow Cup medal 1929/30]()
- Alec Thomson’s Glasgow Cup medal
Alec Thomson is one of the most under-rated Celts of them all
Alec Thomson is one of the most under-rated Celts of them all, but those who saw him will aver firmly that he was one of the best. McGrory was of course something special. But who made McGrory? Who was the “fetch and carry man”? Who was the silky passer? Who was the forager in chief? “Why, that was Alec Thomson!” answered Willie Maley when he was asked these questions.
McGrory himself said that Alec was “not a strong player, but he used to lay on beautiful passes for me”.
McGrory was fortunate in that he had loads of such people in his career – Jean McFarlane, Peter Wilson, Peter Scarff, Frank O’Donnell, Johnny Crum, Willie Buchan (and that is without mentioning Patsy Gallacher and Tommy McInally who were superstars in their own right) but none of these men did more for McGrory than the slightly built, frail looking and unassuming bhoy from Buckhaven with the ordinary name of Alec Thomson.
Alec worked down the pits working in slavish conditions
Born in 1902, “Eckie Tamson”, as he was known in Fife, was, fortunately for him, just too young for the First World War but he would have left school at an early age and worked down the pits working in slavish conditions for the detested Wemyss family of East Fife.
He started playing for Glencraig Celtic, then Wellesley Juniors before he was invited to join Glasgow Celtic in October 1922. His strong point was his passing ability. In this respect he was perhaps considered to be a potential successor to Jimmy McMenemy, but that was a big “ask” for the shy young man with the Fife accent, the jet black hair and the consumptive, gaunt, looking features which characterised those who worked in the mines of Fife.
He made his debut in November 1922
He made his debut in November 1922, but that was not a great Celtic team to be part of, and he lost two of his first three games. It was the following year before he became a regular at inside left – but when the occasion demanded, he was equally at home at inside right, and it was the inside right position that he made his own.
Success, of course, has to be worked for, but Alec was not afraid of hard work. He was in awe of Patsy Gallacher (wasn’t everyone?) but he soon became a respected member of the side with the personality to encourage, quietly and gently, others not least his contemporaries Peter Wilson and Jimmy McGrory with whom he soon established solid friendships.
He earned the nickname “Mr. Eveready”
The 1925 Scottish Cup semi-final and the final (5-0 v Rangers and 2-1 v Dundee) have of course been immortalised by “King James and Patsy” but he would be a fool who would neglect the contribution of the others in that side, not least the tireless Thomson who had already earned for himself the nickname “Mr. Eveready” after the electric batteries of that name. It was his first Scottish Cup medal.
It was the following season 1925/26 that was his best, as the immortal forward line of Connolly, Thomson, McGrory, McInally and McLean swept all before them to win the Scottish League and (more importantly perhaps) earn a mention in the same breath as Bennett, McMenemy, Quinn, Somers and Hamilton of two decades previously.
Celtic played fast breathtaking football
They played fast breathtaking football with the two inside forwards – Thomson and McInally, totally different kinds of players and totally different personalities as well – complementing each other and provided the ammunition for McGrory. The League was won, the Cup was narrowly lost that year, and Thomson won his first Scottish cap as Scotland beat England 1-0 at Old Trafford.
It tells you all you need to know about Scotland selectors that “Eckie” was not chosen again until years later when he was well past his best.
A second Scottish Cup medal
1927 was less successful but he did win his second Scottish Cup medal, this time against many of his old friends from Buckhaven and Methil who were playing for East Fife, and having now made good friends with another Thomson from Fife (indeed from the same junior football team in Wellesley) the outstanding young goalkeeper John. Indeed by 1931 when the club were back among the honours, yet another Thomson, Bertie was with them as well.
The intervening years between 1927 and 1931 had not been easy for all sorts of reasons, not least the economic depression. But there were still good players around, and Thomson won a few Glasgow Cups and also a game in 1928 for the Scottish League against the English League in which he was described as the “brainiest player” on the field, in spite of the fact that Scotland lost.
1931 was a superb year for the club until 5 September
1931 was a superb year for the club with that epic Scottish Cup win over Motherwell and a tour of America. 5 September changed all that, though, and Alec was as devastated by his friend and namesake’s tragic death as anyone.
But, there are times when a sympathetic listener is often required in the dressing room when others seemed to be losing the place while even Maley himself gave every sign of not being able to cope. Alec swallowed hard and fought back to win another two Scottish caps and his fourth Scottish Cup medal in 1933. The Fife coal field had taught him quite a lot about adversity.
A move to Dunfermline Athletic
He played for the club until the end of the 1933/34 season and finished his career with Dunfermline Athletic. He was one of the best passers of the ball that Celtic have had. He was not particularly fast but he worked hard. His slight figure encouraged opponents to think that he could be bullied off the ball. Not so! He had a great deal more strength than it appeared.
A quiet, modest man who loved the club
He also had the ability to dribble, his slight figure drifting past opponents at speed without his feet appearing even to be on the ground! He was not known as a goal scorer, yet he managed to score 98 goals for the club in the eleven years that he played for Celtic. But he was basically a quiet, modest man who loved the club he played for.
After his retirement from the game in 1937, he moved through from Fife to the West and died in November 1975 at, of all places, Larkhall!
One presumes that he was a miner there, but little is known of the rest of his life. He was always a quiet man, and one imagines that he would have passed in the street many people who were totally unaware that they had just nodded to “McGrory’s fetch and carry man”.
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- Alec Thomson
Celtic v Motherwell, 15 November 1975
A couple of days after his death on 15 November 1975, a minute’s silence was held for him at Celtic Park before a game with Motherwell on a raw, damp, typically November day. Celtic were not going through a purple spell. It was the year that Jock Stein was in hospital recovering from his car accident, and the League Cup final had recently been lost to Rangers as Celtic struggled to cope without the now retired Billy McNeill and the badly injured Jock Stein.
A younger supporter was heard to ask politely of an older one who this Alec Thomson fellow was. It was a reasonable question, for Alec was far from being a name on everyone’s lips, but the young man’s question was answered gruffly “Alec Thomson – McGrory’s fetch and carry man – and McGrory woudnae hae been half the man he wis withoot him! And we could dae wi him noo!”
And there were tears in the old man’s eyes as he said it!
And possibly there would have been more tears at the end, for Motherwell won 2-0!
David Potter
