Walter Bruce (Scottish footballer)

Walter Bruce
Personal information
Date of birth 29 November 1873[1]
Place of birth Bonhill, Scotland
Date of death 1 February 1941(1941-02-01) (aged 67)[2]
Place of death Glasgow, Scotland
Position(s) Centre half
Youth career
Bonhill Rovers
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1891–1895 Vale of Leven
1895–1898 Renton 33 (1)
1898–1906 St Mirren 116 (10)
Total 149 (11)
International career
1902–1903 Scottish League XI 2 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Walter Bruce (29 November 1873 – 1 February 1941) was a Scottish footballer who played for Vale of Leven, Renton and St Mirren as a centre half.[3][4] His elder brother Daniel was also a footballer who won the English FA Cup with Notts County in 1894 and later played for St Mirren, possibly being involved in Walter's move there in 1898[3] after Renton resigned from the Scottish Football League earlier that season.

He never took part in a major final, reaching the semi-final stage of the Scottish Cup once with Renton (in 1896) and three times with St Mirren (1898, 1900, 1901).[4][5] He did win the Dumbartonshire Cup with Renton in 1896[6] and played in the 1903 Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup final which St Mirren lost 5–2 to Celtic.[7] From the next season, he lost his regular place in the Buddies side to Robert Robertson.[4] He made 140 appearances for the Paisley team in the two major competitions and scored 13 goals.[8]

Bruce was selected for the Scottish Football League XI in 1902 and 1903, facing the Irish League XI on both occasions.[3][9][10]

He continued to live in his birthplace of Bonhill and worked in the Singer Corporation sewing machine factory in Clydebank until his death in 1941.[3]

  1. ^ Statutory registers - Births - Search results, ScotlandsPeople
  2. ^ Statutory registers - Deaths - Search results, ScotlandsPeople
  3. ^ a b c d Senior Football Players from the Vale of Leven in the 20th Century | Bruce, Walter (Half back, best known as a Centre Half: Vale of Leven, St Mirren; senior career c 1893 – 1908)., The Vale of Leven
  4. ^ a b c John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine.
  5. ^ Famous Players. | Walter Bruce, St Mirren F.C. The Scottish Referee, 21 August 1905. Scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  6. ^ The Association Game. | Renton v. Dumbarton–Dumbartonshire Cup Final, The Glasgow Herald, 16 March 1896
  7. ^ Football. | Charity Cup Final., The Glasgow Herald, 25 May 1903
  8. ^ Player profiles B, StMirren.info
  9. ^ (SFL player) Walter Bruce), London Hearts Supporters Club
  10. ^ Scottish League Internationalists, StMirren.info