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 as a
left 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 ...
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
Rangers
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
in 1916; his employment in a
reserved occupation
A reserved occupation (also known as essential services) is an occupation considered important enough to a country that those serving in such occupations are exempt or forbidden from military service.
In a total war, such as the Second World War, w ...
as an engineer at the yards spared him from being called up to active service with the armed forces during
World War I
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 ...
. He played in 24
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 ...
matches in his first season at Ibrox, then in 12 in his second ( 1917–18) as the club finished as champions.(Rangers player) McKenna, Harold J. FitbaStats McKenna was then loaned to St Mirren for two years, during which he won the
1919 Victory Cup The Victory Cup was a one-off Scottish football competition held in 1919 to celebrate the end of World War I. It is an unofficial competition in statistical terms, taking place at the end of the 1918–19 season just before official competitions su ...
with the Paisley side. Returning to Rangers he found himself down the queue for selection, and though the ''Gers'' won the league again in 1920–21, he made only four appearances and is unlikely to have received a medal.
In October 1921 he moved on to Third Lanark, playing regularly for three seasons including in a
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Tommy McInally: Celtic's Bad Bhoy David Potter; Black & White Publishing, 2009; He transferred to England with Brighton & Hove Albion (then members of the
Football League 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 on ...
) in November 1924, returning to Scotland nine months later with second-tier
Alloa Athletic
Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa
Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; educated Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; gd, Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a ...