Robert Main Christie (15 November 1865 – 15 May 1918) was a Scottish amateur footballer who played as an outside forward, most notably for Queen's Park. He later became president of the SFA and represented Scotland at curling.

Club career

An outside forward 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 and two Glasgow Merchants Charity Cups. 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, in a 1–0 defeat to England 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.

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 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 and enlisted in the Highland Light Infantry after the outbreak of the First World War 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. 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, France, on 11 May 1918. He lived on for four days before dying in a Red Cross 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 (1): 1885–86 * Glasgow Merchants 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)