Robert Walker (10 January 1879 – 28 August 1930) was a Scottish professional

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 lea ...

who played as a forward for Heart of Midlothian and the Scotland national team.

Club career

Walker joined Hearts from Dalry Primrose in 1896, making his debut in a "trial" match vs

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

. He played in a few games that clinched Hearts' second League Championship in 1897. Walker was the first Hearts player to score over 100 league goals, and he scored their 1000th SFL goal. Other notable achievements are his 33 goals against Hibernian, which is the record tally in the

Edinburgh Derby The Edinburgh derby is an informal title given to any association football, football match played between Football in Scotland, Scottish clubs Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and Hibernian F.C., Hibernian (Hibs), the two o ...

if local competitions are included. He scored two

hat-tricks A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against Hearts' main rivals, the first at the age of 19 years and 9 months in a 5–1 victory at Easter Road on 28 October 1898. He repeated the feat on 18 September 1905, again at Easter Road, in a 3–0 win. The 1901

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

4–3. With the score poised at 3–3 ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' reported: ''"the Edinburgh team soon showed that they were not going to relinquish the grasp of the cup which their play entitled them to, and Walker once more proved himself the grandest forward on the field. Taking the ball some thirty yards right through the opposition, he shot straight and true. M'Arthur saved, but sent the "leather" to

Bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

, who tipped it over to

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. By the last named it was again sent towards the Celtic custodian who muddled his attempt to avert, and again the Hearts were one to the good."'' After this match Charlie Thomson dubbed him "The Best Player in Europe" and his style of football, involving brilliant footwork and sublime passing was known as "Walkerism". He also played in Hearts Scottish Cup win of 1906. During Hearts' first overseas tour to Norway in May 1912, King Haakon of Norway attended one of the games specifically to see Walker play. Walker became a Hearts director in 1920. He died at the age of 51 in August 1930. Huge crowds lined the funeral route and thousands stood round his graveside. His obituary in ''The Scotsman'' stated ''"The Hearts never had a more brilliant forward than Walker. He was amazingly clever in manipulating the ball, and , it was on skill alone that he relied, for he was never favoured with physique. With the ball at his feet he could turn on his course elusively, and in such little space, that he could often put a whole defence out of position with his deft movement."'' The Football Encyclopaedia from 1934, edited by Frank Johnston, referred to him simply as ''"Bobby Walker, the greatest natural footballer who ever played."''

International career

Walker was the most capped Scottish footballer for Heart of Midlothian with 29 caps until the record was broken in 2006 by

Steven Pressley Steven John Pressley (born 11 October 1973) is a Scottish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who played as a centre back. He is currently the head coach of club Dundee F.C., Dun ...

. He held the Scotland national team caps record at various points from 1905 to 1931. If caps are "weighted" to measure the number of games that were possible to play in a season, he is third in the all time Scottish caps list. His Scotland career of 13 Years, 1 Month and 3 days places him no 11 in the all-time list. He shares the record of 11 Scottish caps versus

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 ...

, along with

Alan Morton Alan Lauder Morton (24 April 1893 – 12 December 1971) was a Scottish footballer who played as an outside left for Queen's Park, Rangers and Scotland. Playing career Club Morton was born in the Jordanhill district of Glasgow. He grew up in ...

of Queens Park and Rangers. The record would have been 12 as he played in the '' Ibrox disaster'' match of 5 April 1902 which has subsequently been declared unofficial. In addition he won 14

Scottish Football 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 ...

caps, which places him 7th in the all-time list.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

Personal life

His brother Alex Walker also played for Hearts. He was the uncle of St Mirren and Scotland defender George Walker, whose sisters also married footballers.Double footie marriage in Paisley
Daily Record, 30 March 2013 Bobby Walker is buried in North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh.

References

External links

Profile
at londonhearts.com

at londonhearts.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Bobby 1879 births 1930 deaths Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees Men's association football forwards Scottish Junior Football Association players Scotland men's junior international footballers