William Ker (1852–1925) was 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 ...

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 in the first ever international football match 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 ...

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 ...

in 1872. Ker also played for Scotland against England the following year. He played for Scottish amateur club Queen's Park. His younger brother,

George Ker George "Geordie" Ker (born in Glasgow) was a Scottish footballer of the 1870s and 1880s. Ker played for ''Queen's Park Juniors'', ''Kerland FC'', and Alexandra Athletic before joining Queen's Park in 1877. Until 1878, Ker had played as a de ...

, was also a Scotland international footballer. He was the son of the renowned physicist Rev John Kerr, discoverer of the

Kerr effect The Kerr effect, also called the quadratic electro-optic (QEO) effect, is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an applied electric field. The Kerr effect is distinct from the Pockels effect in that the induced index chang ...

and revised the spelling of his surname as a young man to Ker. He emigrated to Canada in 1873 and later lived in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

and finally

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where he died.

References

External links

* 1852 births 1925 deaths Scottish footballers Scotland men's international footballers Queen's Park F.C. players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Men's association football fullbacks Footballers from Edinburgh {{Scotland-footy-defender-stub