James Lawrence (16 February 1879 – 21 November 1934) was a Scottish

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 ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. A

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, he played for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

between 1904 and 1922.

Career

Playing career

Born in

Partick Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and ...

, Lawrence's first club was Partick Athletic, from where he moved to Glasgow Perthshire. Although still connected to Glasgow Perthshire, he played three matches in 1904 for

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

side Hibernian when their regular custodian Harry Rennie was unavailable. He played with Newcastle for eighteen years after joining the

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as published i ...

club in 1904 and still holds the record for making the most appearances for them - 432 league appearances, 496 matches in total. With Newcastle he won the

English Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

in 1905, 1907 and 1909, and the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in 1910, also playing on the losing side in the finals of 1905, 1906, 1908 and 1911. In 1911 he also represented the Scottish national team on one occasion, a 1–1 draw with

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 ...

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a football stadium in the Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area 2 miles (3 km) north of Liverpool ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in the

British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

Management

Lawrence showed an aptitude for administration when acting as chairman of

The Players' Union The Association Football Players' and Trainers' Union (AFPTU), commonly known as the Players' Union, in the United Kingdom was the original association that became the Professional Footballers' Association. Their stated aims were freedom of movem ...

in his later days at Newcastle, and after his playing retirement he moved into management. His first appointment was with then

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

side

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

(1922–23) before joining Preston North End. He stayed with the ''Lilywhites'' until 1925, when he relocated to Germany to manage

Karlsruher FV Karlsruher FV is a German association football club that plays in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. Established on 17 November 1891, KFV was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) in 1900 and is the oldest ...

. With this club he won the regional championship of Württemberg/Baden in 1926 and of Baden in 1928, 1929, 1931 and 1932 which qualified the club to participate in the matches for the

German football championship German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. Lawrence later returned to Scotland and in 1933 was elected chairman of

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of L ...

. He died while in office a year later.

Personal life

He was thought to have been born in 1885, and used this year in his registration documents with Newcastle United, but sports historian Andy Mitchell found that he was in fact born six years earlier (along with a twin sister); this discovery makes him Newcastle United's oldest ever player.

Honours

Player

Newcastle United *

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

championship: 1904–05, 1906–07, 1908–09 *

winner: 1910 **Runner-up:

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

, 1906, 1908,

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

Manager

Karlsruher FV * Baden regional championship: 1926, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932Germany - Championships 1902-1945
RSSSF

References

External links

Toon 1892: Player Profile - Jimmy Lawrence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Jimmy 1879 births 1934 deaths Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Footballers from Glasgow People from Partick Association football goalkeepers Newcastle United F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Scottish football managers Scottish expatriate football managers Gateshead A.F.C. managers Preston North End F.C. managers Chairmen and investors of football clubs in Scotland English Football League managers Scottish twins Twin sportspeople English Football League players Stranraer F.C. Glasgow Perthshire F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scotland junior international footballers Karlsruher FV managers FA Cup Final players 20th-century Scottish businesspeople Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate football managers in Germany