William Dallas Ochterlony Greig (30 October 1851 – 28 January 1942) was an early

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

who represented the Wanderers, the leading football club in England during the 1870s.

Family and education

Greig was born in

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 ...

, the son of Alexander Ochterlony Greig (1809–1876) and Margaret Lawson (1824–1869). His father was captain of the steamship ''Jardine'', the first steamship to travel from Britain to China in 1835. His parents married in Dundee in 1846 and also had three daughters, Margaret (born 1847 in China), Elizabeth (born 1848) and Charlotte (born 1850). Greig attended

Brighton College Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...

between 1866 and 1868, and also Farningham School.

Football career

Greig, who had also played for Hertfordshire Rangers, was recruited by the Wanderers to take the place of the retiring

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 ...

goalkeeper

Alexander Morten Alexander Morten (some sources say "Alec Morten") (15 November 1831 – 24 February 1900) was a footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He captained the England team in its second official international, played against Scotland on 8 March 1873. ...

. He had impressed the Wanderers with his performance during the club's 16–0 demolition of

Farningham Farningham is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located south-east of Swanley. It has a population of 1,314. History Farningham is believed to be home to Neolithic history – flint and other tools ha ...

in an 1874 FA Cup first round tie, and went on to represent his new team in the same competition in 1875–76. Wanderers won the 1876 cup final, defeating

Old Etonians Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

3–0, making Greig the only goalkeeper in FA Cup history to progress from conceding sixteen goals in a first round tie one year to winning the competition a year later. Greig played 23 times for Wanderers, scoring twice in a rare appearance as an outfield player in 1874, and also turned out for London in two representative matches played against Sheffield.

Later career

Little is known about Greig's professional life or his career after the 1876 FA Cup Final. He is recorded in the 1901 census as living at Coptfold Hall,

Margaretting Margaretting is a village and civil parish in the Chelmsford district, in the county of Essex, England. The population of the village taken at the 2011 Census was 847. The village is located on the B1002 road approximately four miles from Chelmsfo ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

with his widowed sister, Elizabeth O. Jupp and her family. His profession was left blank. Greig died in

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

on 28 January 1942.Death notice, ''The Times'', 31 January 1942, page 1.

Honours

Wanderers *

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 ...

winners:

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greig, William 1851 births Footballers from Dundee 1942 deaths People educated at Brighton College English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Wanderers F.C. players