George Croughly Gordon (21 June 1850 – 20 August 1899) was a Scottish amateur

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 ...

who played for the Scottish XI against England in the first representative match played in March 1870. He was a member of the British

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

before settling in Australia where he worked as a telegraph construction contractor.

Family

Gordon was born in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London to Cosmo Gordon and Helen Hensley. His paternal grandfather was born near

Tomintoul Tomintoul (; from gd, Tom an t-Sabhail, meaning "Hillock of the Barn") is a village in the Moray council area of Scotland in the historic county of Banffshire. Within Cairngorms National Park, the village lies close to the banks of the River ...

Banffshire Banffshire ; sco, Coontie o Banffshire; gd, Siorrachd Bhanbh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Moray ...

. He was married to Mary Agnes Wallace and they had two sons: *Roy Stuart Croughly Gordon (c.1893–1960) *John Glenny Croughly Gordon (b. 1899)

Football career

Gordon was a member of the

N.N. Club N.N. Club or N.N. Kilburn—N.N. standing for "No Names" —was an amateur English football club based in the Kilburn district of London. The poor state of the club's original ground led to them being nicknamed the Mudlarks. The club's firs ...

. On 5 March 1870, he was selected as a late replacement for Lord Kilmarnock who had been originally named in the side to face England in the first "international"

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

match between representatives of the two countries. The match had been postponed by two weeks because the

Oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

pitch was frozen; by the time of the rescheduled match, Kilmarnock was required on military duty. The match ended in a 1–1 draw with the goals coming from Robert Crawford for Scotland and a late equalizer from Alfred Baker.

Business career

Gordon was a member of the Civil Service at the time of his appearance for "Scotland". In 1881, he was in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand where he was described as a "merchant" when he subscribed for shares in various mining companies. He later emigrated to Australia where by 1884 he was in partnership with Matthew Moreton and others trading as "Gordon & Moreton", telegraph construction contractors. The firm was contracted to build the second section of the telegraph from Fairview, near

Cooktown, Queensland Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs ...

to Cape York, for a distance of 168 miles, with work lasting from July 1884 to October 1886. He died at the mining town of Cue, Western Australia on 20 August 1899.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, George 1850 births 1899 deaths Footballers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Scotland men's representative footballers (1870–1872) Men's association football players not categorized by position Scottish men's footballers