James Hill Galt (11 August 1885 – 17 November 1935) 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 ...

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 ...

for Rangers and Everton.

Club career

Galt played with Rangers for eight years between 1906 and 1914. He made 240 appearances and scored six goals for the club. During his time at Ibrox he won three

Scottish league championships 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 ...

, two

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rules ...

s and three

Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup The Glasgow Merchants' Charity Cup was a knockout football tournament open to teams from in and around Glasgow and later on in the tournament's history, teams from outwith Glasgow. Invitations were made and sent out by the Glasgow Charity Cup ...

s, as well as the

Edinburgh Exhibition Cup The Edinburgh Exhibition Cup was an invitational football tournament held at the Exhibition Sports Grounds, Saughton, Edinburgh in August 1908, as part of the Scottish National Exhibition event being held there during that summer.Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

for

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

in 1914 and joined Everton. He made 36 appearances for the ''Toffees'' and scored four goals. Despite captaining them to the First Division title, he left after only one season when World War I took hold and official football was suspended in England, returning to Scotland to play for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

and

Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish ...

. He guested for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

during the war.

International career

Galt won his two

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

caps in May 1908. He scored on his second appearance, against

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 ...

on 14 May. Galt also played and scored in one unofficial wartime international, against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 13 May 1916.

Military service

During 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 ...

he served with Army Service Corps and latterly the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

as a

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

. He was wounded in action, suffering severe shell-shock, which meant that he did not resume his football career to any great extent after the war ended.

Personal life (military service)

Galt was also an accomplished

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er: he battled for the 'Scottish Professional Footballers Golf Championship' with Jimmy Lawson of

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

who later switched sports to turn professional in the United States.The Hawthorns Series
(page 10), Robert Bradley and Douglas Gorman, Scottish Sport History, October 1914 After retiring from football, Galt ran a series of billiard halls with ex-Rangers teammate Jimmy Gordon.

References

;Sources *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Galt, James 1885 births 1935 deaths Rangers F.C. players Everton F.C. players Scottish footballers Association football wing halves Scotland international footballers Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers British Army personnel of World War I Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players English Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Third Lanark A.C. players Scotland wartime international footballers People from Saltcoats Footballers from North Ayrshire Royal Army Service Corps officers Ardrossan Winton Rovers F.C. players Ardeer Thistle F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Alloa Athletic F.C. players Fulham F.C. wartime guest players People with post-traumatic stress disorder