Part 5: And they gave us James McGrory…and Danny Dawson
In the first part of this article, I mentioned how the publication of my Copenhagen Diary on the Celtic Star recently had prompted an old friend, Paddy, to get in touch. He wanted to show me a couple of photographs, containing Celtic autographs of the past, which had been in his possession for years. Paddy was looking for some information, background or context for these items.
Part one of this story covered the autographed sheet from 1937/38, compiled before the transfer of Willie Buchan and retiral of Jimmy McGrory pre-Christmas 1937, with the only question remaining as to how it had come about that the Celtic team, or representatives of the club, were in Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands, around that time. I’ll add my own thoughts on that particular query later.
The next three parts of the series looked at the second item presented by Paddy, an undated sheet containing the signatures of twenty men, some very famous and others unknown to me, however, all clearly associated with Celtic. This photograph had also been handed to the lady whose family owned the Star Hotel in Kingussie, albeit we then established that this very special piece of Celtic memorabilia related to a team several years before the Scottish, and, dare I say it, Empire champions of 1937/38. From 1933/34 actually. The mystery deepens.
Having reviewed the careers of seventeen of the twenty individuals on the second set of autographs, and with a few rambling diversions thrown in for good measure (Yes, I did pick up on your ‘you don’t say’ comment on Friday, Ed!), we will look at the last three names on the sheet in the final chapters.
Danny Dawson was born in that well-known Celtic hotbed of Larkhall in 1912 and signed for the Hoops from the local junior side on 4 June 1932, just before his 20th birthday. He would make his debut for the club in a 3-1 victory over Queen’s Park at Celtic Park on Saturday, 30 September 1933, ten years to the day when a certain James Johnstone would enter this world and thrill us for a generation.
Danny was a right-half and would take his bow in an unfamiliar line-up. Joe Kennaway was recovering from a broken finger, his place taken by John ‘Jock’ Wallace, the Falkirk-born keeper in the second of his only two seasons at Parkhead. At left-half was Willie Hughes, whose long and versatile Celtic career we covered extensively in the previous part of this story, whilst another Willie, Dunn in this case, was at centre-forward. Willie Dunn is the next player we will discuss so I’ll hang fire on him for the moment.
As well as Kennaway, Celtic were without the injured duo of Jimmy McGrory and Charlie Napier, whilst regular wing-half Peter Wilson was playing for the Scottish League against the Irish in Belfast, hence the opportunity for young Dawson. Future Hoops skipper William King Lyon was at centre-half for the Spiders. Danny was later praised in the media for ‘parting with the ball to advantage’, as goals from Hugh O’Donnell, Jimmy McStay and Alec Thomson saw Celts prevail at the expense of the amateurs.
Dawson would then step back into the reserve team, who played in the Scottish Alliance at that time, Peter Wilson back in his normal berth until a bad injury sustained after half-an hour in the 2-2 draw with Rangers at Celtic Park, on New Year’s Day 1934, opened up the door again for his young deputy. Danny would feature in four of the next five matches, starting with a 4-1 home win over Kilmarnock on Saturday, 6 January 1934, the youngster again impressing as a Jimmy McGrory double and further goals from Malcolm MacDonald and Charlie Napier secured the two points for Celtic.
