Robert Preston (1895 – May 1945) was a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played in the

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

for Heart of Midlothian and in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for Plymouth Argyle and

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. He played as a

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

Career

Preston signed for Heart of Midlothian from

Bathgate F.C. Bathgate Football Club was a association football, football club based at Mill Park in Bathgate, Scotland. The club was a member of the Scottish Football League from 1921 until 1929. History The club was formed in 1893, as the result of a merg ...

shortly before the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In November 1914 he was among the Hearts players who volunteered to join

Sir George McCrae Colonel Sir George McCrae (28 August 1860 – 27 December 1928) was a Scottish textile merchant and Liberal Party politician. In Scotland he is best remembered for the creation of McCrae's Battalion, also known as the Second Edinburgh Pals Batt ...

's new battalion of the Royal Scots. Military service took him away from Edinburgh for five years, so it was 1919 before he made his debut for Hearts in the

Scottish League First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...

. He remained with the club until the 1922–23 season. Preston then came to England to play for

, then a Southern League club, and moved on to

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...

club Plymouth Argyle in 1923. He made 147 appearances for the club in all competitions. His last game for Argyle came at the end of the 1927–28 season, and he returned to Torquay United, by then a Football League team, for the following season.

Personal life

After retiring from playing, Preston moved to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and became a publican. He died in 1945. His elder brother

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

Census returns - Census - Search results

ScotlandsPeople The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) is the previous name of the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and are the national archives of Scotland, based in Edinburgh. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe. ...

was also a footballer who played for Airdrieonians and was selected for the

Scottish League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

References

1895 births 1945 deaths Date of death missing Footballers from Edinburgh People from Loanhead Footballers from Midlothian Scottish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Scottish Football League players Royal Scots soldiers Southern Football League players English Football League players Bathgate F.C. players Sligo Rovers F.C. managers League of Ireland managers Scottish football managers British Army personnel of World War I McCrae's Battalion Military personnel from Midlothian {{Scotland-footy-defender-1890s-stub