Frank Branscombe

Frank Branscombe
Personal information
Full name Francis Archer Branscombe
Date of birth 6 May 1889
Place of birth Dennistoun, Scotland
Date of death 14 April 1942(1942-04-14) (aged 52)[1]
Place of death Maryhill, Scotland
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1]
Position(s) Outside left
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
– Clydebank Juniors[2]
1908–1917 Partick Thistle 182 (37)
1915–1916 Vale of Leven (loan)
1916 Rangers (loan) 7 (5)
– Dunkeld and Birnham
Total 189 (42)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Francis Archer Branscombe (6 May 1889 – 14 April 1942) was a Scottish footballer who played mainly as an outside left.[3] The majority of his career was spent at Partick Thistle where he played from 1908 to 1917, making 214 appearances in all competitions and scoring 50 goals;[4] he appeared in the finals of the Glasgow Cup in 1914[5] and the Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup in 1916,[6] but finished on the losing side in both. He had loan spells with Vale of Leven and Rangers during World War I – in the period of around six weeks he spent at Ibrox, he managed to score in five different Scottish Football League fixtures out of the seven he played in.[7] In 1917 he left Scotland to work in the wartime munitions industry in Woolwich.[2] He later played for amateur side Dunkeld and Birnham, facing Partick Thistle in the 1923–24 Scottish Cup; the Jags won the tie 11–0.[8]

He had a trial for the Scottish League XI in 1910[3] and played in the Glasgow FA's annual challenge match against Sheffield in 1914.[9]

Branscombe was involved in a fatal accident during a match on Christmas Day 1909 when he slipped on an icy surface in a challenge for the ball with James Main of Hibernian, striking the Scotland defender in the stomach with his boot with some force. Main died from his injuries the following day.[10][11] The incident affected the form of 20-year-old Branscombe for some time.[12]

  1. ^ a b Frank Branscombe, The Thistle Archive. Retrieved 25 December 2022
  2. ^ a b Branscombe, Frank 1908-15 & 1916-17, Partick Thistle History Archive
  3. ^ a b John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Players B, Partick Thistle History Archive
  5. ^ Football: Glasgow Cup–Replayed Final, The Glasgow Herald, 14 October 1914
  6. ^ Football | Glasgow Charity Cup Final, Glasgow Herald, 15 May 1916
  7. ^ (Rangers player) Branscombe, Frank, FitbaStats
  8. ^ Dunkeld Outclassed at Firhill, The Dundee Courier, 14 January 1924 (via Partick Thistle History Archive)
  9. ^ Football. Sheffield, 2; Glasgow, 1., The Glasgow Herald, 27 October 1914 (via Partick Thistle History Archive)
  10. ^ "Tragic tale of Hibs' James Main, who died of Christmas Day injury". The Scotsman. 24 December 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  11. ^ "James Main 1886 - 1909". Hibernian Historical Trust. 24 December 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  12. ^ 1910 – Maryhill or Partick Thistle?, Maryhill Burgh Hall, 4 May 2020