Robert Norris Parker (27 March 1891 – 1950) 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 le ...

whose position was

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. He played professionally in Scotland with Rangers and

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and in England with Everton and

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during a career interrupted by

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, in which he was seriously injured. He later served as manager of

Fraserburgh Fraserburgh (; sco, The Broch or ; gd, A' Bhruaich) is a town in Aberdeenshire (unitary), Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aber ...

in Scotland and

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in Ireland.

Playing career

Born in

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, Parker started his career with

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team Ashfield, followed by three seasons at Rangers, during which he had a scoring record of a goal every game but was always a backup to the equally prolific Willie Reid; Rangers won the

Scottish Football 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 south ...

title in each of those years, but it is unclear if Parker was awarded any medals, having only featured in 2, 3 and 9 of the fixtures respectively. With the situation unchanged at the beginning of a fourth campaign, he moved to England to play for Everton in 1913 for a fee of £1,500. He finished as the top goalscorer for the ''Toffees'' in the 1913–14 and 1914–15 seasons, the latter of which he was the top goalscorer overall in the First Division while Everton was crowned

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. 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 ...

then interrupted Parker's career and ultimately robbed him of cementing a place amongst Everton's greats as he returned home from the conflict with a bullet lodged in his back. The injury made him a shadow of his former self, and he was later sold to

Coaching career

In retirement, he worked as manager of Irish club

, where he coached them to the Clean Sweep in 1927–28, winning the

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FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

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, and Leinster Senior Cup.

Personal life

Parker was a

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in the

Royal Scots Fusiliers The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Mar ...

and Labour Corps during the First World War.

Honours

Everton *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: 1914–15 Bohemian *

: 1927–28 *

League of Ireland Shield The League of Ireland Shield ( ga, Sciath Sraithe na hÉireann) is a defunct Irish football tournament which was introduced when the League of Ireland started in 1921 and ran uninterrupted until 1972. It was played before the league season began ...

: 1927–28 * Leinster Senior Cup: 1927–28

References

External links

Bobby Parker's Story

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...

, 2008
Player history
Everton FC {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Bobby 1891 births 1950 deaths Date of death missing Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Glasgow Ashfield F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Everton F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players British Army personnel of World War I Royal Scots Fusiliers soldiers Bohemian F.C. managers English Football League players First Division/Premier League top scorers Scottish football managers Scottish Football League players Scotland men's junior international footballers Scottish Junior Football Association players League of Ireland managers Fraserburgh F.C. players Highland Football League players Expatriate association football managers in the Republic of Ireland Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Men's association football forwards Royal Pioneer Corps soldiers Greenock Morton F.C. players Military personnel from Glasgow