Robert Main Christie (15 November 1865 – 15 May 1918) 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 as an

outside 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 ...

, most notably for Queen's Park. He later became president of the SFA and represented Scotland at

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

Club career

and

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 ...

, Christie began his career with Dunblane and Edinburgh University and won the 1882–83 East of Scotland Shield with the latter club. He joined Queen's Park in September 1883 and in a short, but eventful career with the Spiders, he scored in the

1884 FA Cup Final The 1884 FA Cup Final was a football match between Blackburn Rovers and Queen's Park contested on 29 March 1884 at the Kennington Oval. It was the showpiece match of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challeng ...

(becoming the only Scot to score for a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

club in an FA Cup Final and until Norman Whiteside 99 years later, the youngest goalscorer in an FA Cup Final) and won the 1885–86

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,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. A serious knee injury forced Christie into an early retirement at age 21 and after a one-off comeback appearance in October 1888, he finished his Queen's Park career with 28 appearances and 15 goals. He made a short comeback with Dunblane and ended his career by helping the club to win the 1889–89 Perthshire Cup.

International career

Christie won one cap for

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 ...

, in a 1–0 defeat to

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 15 March 1884.

Administrative career

At the age of 21, Christie was elected to represent

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

at the SFA and after his retirement from football, Christie remained with Dunblane as the club's secretary. He became president of the SFA in 1903. Christie also administered Dunblane's first

golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Wood (golf), Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; iron (golf), irons, the most versatile class ...

Personal life

Christie was married with five children. His younger brother

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

would also become an international footballer and until 2014, his great grandson Ranald Gilbert was general manager of Ross County. Christie attended Edinburgh University and after his retirement from football, he became a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

in Dunblane. Christie served as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the Black Watch during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

and enlisted in the Highland Light Infantry after the outbreak of 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 ...

in 1914. He was later attached to 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 saw action on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

and in

Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

. Christie was

seconded In deliberative bodies a second to a proposed motion is an indication that there is at least one person besides the mover that is interested in seeing the motion come before the meeting. It does not necessarily indicate that the seconder favors th ...

to the Labour Corps and was an acting

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

when his company was shelled with

mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...

while cable-laying near

Foncquevillers Foncquevillers () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography A farming village situated south of Arras, at the junction of the D3, D6 and the D28 roads. Population World War I Foncquevil ...

, France, on 11 May 1918. He lived on for four days before dying in a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

hospital in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

. Christie was buried in Rouen's St. Sever Cemetery.

Honours

Queen's Park *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1885–86 *

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 ...

(2): 1883–84, 1884–85 Edinburgh University * East of Scotland Shield (1): 1882–83 Dunblane * Perthshire Cup (1): 1888–89

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Robert Main 1865 births 1918 deaths Scottish military personnel Sportspeople from Dunblane Queen's Park F.C. players Scottish male curlers Scotland men's international footballers Scottish men's footballers Royal Pioneer Corps officers British military personnel killed in World War I Black Watch officers Highland Light Infantry officers Royal Scots Fusiliers officers Men's association football outside forwards Men's association football wing halves Edinburgh University A.F.C. players Scottish engineers Scottish architects Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Footballers from Stirling (council area)