William Harper (19 January 1897 – 12 April 1989) was a Scottish

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

who played for, among others, Hibernian,

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, Fall River and

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

. He also represented

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in 11 full internationals.

Early years

Harper was the son of William Harper Sr., a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

, and Christina Brown. Born in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

but largely raised in

Winchburgh Winchburgh is a village in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of West Lothian, Scotland. It is located approximately west of the city centre of Edinburgh, east of Linlithgow and northeast of Broxburn, West Lothian, Broxburn. Demograp ...

West Lothian West Lothian (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, bordering (in a clockwise direction) the City of Edinburgh council area, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Falkirk (council area), Falkirk. The modern counci ...

, he initially followed his father into the blacksmith trade while also playing football for several

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

teams. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he enlisted in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and served with the 5th Brigade of the

Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot guards#United Kingdom, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642 in the Ki ...

on the Western Front. Harper, an all-round sportsman, was brigade

heavyweight boxing Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

champion and captain of the Guards

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

team when they won a brigade championship. Arsenal F.C Player Archive

Club career

Hibernian

Harper made his

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

debut for Hibernian against Airdrie on 1 September 1920. He spent five years at

Easter Road Easter Road is a football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity of , which makes it the fifth-largest ...

, making over 200 appearances. He also played in two consecutive

Scottish Cup Final The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Scottish Cup, is a knockout cup competition in Scottish football. Organised by the Scottish Football Association, it is the third oldest existing football competition in the wo ...

s, in

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

, but finished on the losing side on both occasions. While with Hibs he also won nine of his 11

caps and represented the

Scottish League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

on two occasions.

Arsenal

In November 1925 Harper became one of

manager

Herbert Chapman Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was an English Association football, football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful manage ...

's first signings, joining the club for £4,000, then a record fee for a goalkeeper. He made his Arsenal debut against Bury on 14 November 1925, which Arsenal won 6–1. Harper became Arsenal's first-choice keeper straight away, displacing Jock Robson and young Welshman Dan Lewis. Harper finished 1925–26 and started 1926–27 as Arsenal's first choice keeper, but Chapman blamed Harper for a 4–2 defeat in a

North London derby The North London derby is the meeting of the association football clubs Arsenal F.C., Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur, both of which are based in North London, England. Fans of both clubs consider the other to be their main ...

against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

on 18 December 1926 and ruthlessly dropped him in favour of Dan Lewis. After three years playing in the American Soccer League, Harper rejoined Arsenal. Dan Lewis had by now left the club, and Harper became first choice over Charlie Preedy and Gerard Keizer. In his first season back at Arsenal, Harper won an English First Division winners' medal, as the club won their first ever league title in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

. However, during the 1931–32 season Harper was dropped once again. He made his final senior league appearance for Arsenal away to

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on 31 August 1931. During his two spells with Arsenal, Harper made 63 league appearances and 10 further appearances in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

American Soccer League

In between his two spells with

, Harper played in the American Soccer League. Between 1927 and 1929 he made 79 league appearances for Fall River He also played a further 3 games in the

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...

and 6 in the

Lewis Cup The Lewis Cup was an American soccer trophy established in 1914 as the championship trophy for the amateur Blue Mountain League, which was composed of clubs from the Lehigh Valley region of northeastern Pennsylvania. It was later awarded to the win ...

and helped the 'Marksmen' win the league title during the 1928–29 season. Harper's time in the ASL coincided with both the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and the ''Soccer Wars'', a power struggle between the ASL and the US Football Association. During this era many clubs relocated, merged or folded. Towards the end of the 1928–29 season

Sam Mark Samuel Mark (born Markelevich; September 22, 1896 – August 9, 1980) was an American soccer club owner. During the 1920s and early 1930s he was the owner of Fall River FC, often referred to as the ''Marksmen'', one of the era's most successful ...

, owner of the 'Marksmen', took over the struggling

Boston Soccer Club The Boston Soccer Club was a member of the American Soccer League. They were renamed the Boston Bears for the Fall 1929 ASL season. In 1925, the ASL and the St. Louis Soccer League (SLSL) boycotted the National Challenge Cup, now known as t ...

and Harper then switched from the 'Marksmen' to the Boston team. By the time the Fall 1929 season started they had become the Boston Bears. When the Soccer Wars were resolved, new league rules forbid the ownership of two or more clubs and Mark's decided to sell Boston. However unable to find a buyer, he was forced to dissolve the team after just 4 games of the Spring 1930 season. Harper then joined

New Bedford Whalers New Bedford Whalers was the name of three American soccer teams based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The first Whalers played in the Southern New England Soccer League between 1914 and 1918. The second Whalers played in the American Soccer Leag ...

for the remainder of the season, making 31 league appearances. He also made a further 4 cup appearances, two in the National Challenge Cup and two in the Lewis Cup. During the summer of 1930 Harper rejoined Fall River and played in friendlies against

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

and

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

and was a member of the 'Marksmen' squad that toured

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

Plymouth Argyle

In December 1931 Harper signed for

and went on to make 82 appearances in all competitions between then and 1939.''Soccer at War – 1939 – 45'' (2005): Jack Rollin During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he worked in the dockyards in

Rosyth Rosyth () is a town and Garden City in Fife, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Scotland's first Garden city movement, Garden City, Rosyth is part of the Greater Dunfermline Area and is located 3 miles south of Dunfermline city cen ...

, Scotland. After the war he returned to Argyle where he served as a trainer, groundsman and even laundryman. Such was his contribution to the club that he was awarded a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

against

in October 1972. Plymouth's training ground, Harper's Park, is also named after him.

Scottish international

Between 1923 and 1926 Harper made 11 appearances for

. He won his first nine

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

while playing for Hibernian and his last two while with

. Harper made his international debut on 3 March 1923 in a 1–0 win against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Windsor Park The National Football Stadium at Windsor Park (officially the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park for sponsorship reasons), or the National Football Stadium, also known as Windsor Park is a association football, football stadium in B ...

. He subsequently played in all three games of the

and

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...

British Home Championship The British Home Championship (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Championship) was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams: England, Scotlan ...

s and played in two of the three games in the

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

competition. He made four appearances against

, four against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and three against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. His record with Scotland included eight wins, two draws and just one defeat. With Harper in goal, Scotland also won the British Home Championship in 1923, 1925 and 1926 and finished as runners up in 1924. He made his last international appearance on 17 April 1926 in 1–0 win against

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

. Scotland results
/ref>

Honours

Scotland *

**''Winners''

: 3 **''Runners Up''

: 1 Hibernian *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

: 2 Arsenal * English First Division **''Winners'' 1930–31: 1 *

London Combination The Football Combination was a football competition for the reserve teams of English Football League clubs from Southern England, the Midlands and Wales; other clubs from the Midlands and those from the North playing in the Central League (it is ...

**''Winners'' 1926–27: 1 *Northampton Charity Shield **''Winners'' 1930–31: 1 * Sheriff of London Shield **''Winners'' 1930–31: 1 Fall River F.C. * American Soccer League **''Winners'' 1928–29: 1

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Bill 1897 births 1989 deaths Military personnel from South Lanarkshire Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Footballers from South Lanarkshire Footballers from West Lothian Men's association football goalkeepers Arsenal F.C. players Boston Bears (soccer) players Boston Soccer Club players Fall River F.C. (1922–1931) players Hibernian F.C. players New Bedford Whalers players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players American Soccer League (1921–1933) players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States British Army personnel of World War I Scots Guards soldiers Scottish Football League representative players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States 20th-century Scottish sportsmen