Tony
A really good article.

Tony... marvellous stuff. Keep em coming on...

Brilliant , a great read.

Fantastic piece Tony, love these posts - as Bob says, keep em coming.

By the way, I read somewhere recently (probably in Back Pass) that our very first Football league fixture (1888) kicked off an hour late - I think coz the opposition turned up late.

Oh and we had the biggest crowd of the day with 10,000.

"If you know your history"...........Nice one, Tony!

Cracking read and for some reason I was minded of "The Monacled Mutineer!"..........Someone should make a movie of Bootle F.C (1879)
What a character Job Wilding was.

I read up a bit on Bootle FC and was surprised to see they applied to be founders of the Football League in 1888 and whereas Everton were accepted, Bootle were turned down!

A year later they were founder members of the Football Alliance but were dissolved in 1893 becoming the first team ever to resign from the Football League! Which makes me wonder that, if history had dealt us a different hand, there would be no RS and our rivals would be Bootle!!

Thank you all for your kind comments and Danny, you are near to the truth with your remarks concerning Bootle FC who were, at their outset, a much wealthier club than Everton. The reason was that, in their ranks, were all the ex-public school men of Liverpool who preferred playing football under the rules of the FA as opposed to those of Rugby School. However, in 1882, they chose to break away from Bootle and form their own club which they called Liverpool Ramblers.

I have, until recently, been doing research to help this club write their long over due history which was published some weeks ago. The author, Jo Russell, informed me that their combined wealth, in today's money, was about £700 million, so had they stayed and helped to develop Bootle FC a certain other team, who were formed after the demise of Bootle, might never have come into being.

Tony, I very much appreciate you posting this article. My father spotted this earlier today.
The T.Veitch (captain), in the middle of the back row with fantastic mustache is my Great Great Great Uncle (my father's, father's, father's, father's brother). He also played a few games for Everton which through the lineage we have always supported. My father grew up in Liverpool but moved away after school and has lived in Australia since 1972.

Back in '04 when I went to watch us take on Bolton at Goodison, I stopped by the main library and managed to dig out an old match report which mentioned both Tom Veitch and William Veitch back 1886 playing for Bootle, and a match report mentioning Tom playing for Everton.
Appreciate the effort in posting this up here.

Nick, your distant relative Tam Vietch, joined Bootle from Dumbarton and made two guest appearances for Everton the first of which was, 29-08-1885 against Bolton Wanderers. The second, against Preston NE , was played on 28-4-1887.He played many games for Bootle most of them as club captain, before ending his playing career with Heywood Central. He later settled in Bootle, at 110 Gloucester Rd with his wife and obtained employment on the Liverpool Docks. An honest and temperate man he later became a lay preacher at his local Methodist chapel.

Tony, many,many thanks for your article and the wonderful photo of Bootle FC, and thanks for responding so quickly to my son Nick's post.

I grew up in Liverpool in the 1960s and early 70s before emigrating to Australia, and my dad took me to many games in the Alex Young, Brian Labone, Alan Ball, Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall, Jimmy Gabriel, Derek Temple and Alex Parker era — what a time that was. My dad told me a long time ago (before he died) that our ancestors had played for Everton and that was why we supported them. However, it is only since I started trying to document my family history that the details are starting to fall into place.

Thomas Veitch (my great grandfather's brother), who played for both Everton and Bootle, came down from Dumbarton, Scotland around 1885 with his younger brother William (my great grandfather). The two boys were orphaned when only 5 or 6 years old and were brought up in Dumbarton by an uncle and aunt who never married.

I have a copy of a match program that has Thomas Veitch (as captain of Bootle) at full back playing against Everton. The interesting thing is my great grandfather (William Veitch) was the other full back for Bootle. Without wanting to load you up, do you have access to anything that might shed any light on William's football career — or where I might go looking for it. I suspect that the records for Bootle FC will be hard to trace.

Thanks again for your great efforts in supporting Everton FC.

Tony, that was a great read. It actually confirms some of the notes my father managed to dig up regarding Tom during this period (my father's into genealogy). William, Tom's younger brother is our direct relative and we have a program showing the two brothers playing for Bootle against Everton. I'm still unsure why Tom only made 'guest' appearances during this time at Everton, but it has certainly caught my interest.

Thank you!

Nick, I have checked the Dumbarton records and a Vietch, fore name not given, plays twice for the clubs first eleven namely v Kings Park, 30-9-1882 and Jamestown 21-10-1882. The brothers were first seen on Merseyside 2-1-1885 playing for the Dumbarton second eleven against Bootle, the game ended in 1-1 draw. Tam and Willie joined Bootle next season but it was Tam who became the clubs most faithfully servant. His full back partner, eventually, became Andrew Watson who is know acknowledged to be the worlds first black footballer. Both men were in the Bootle side when, against the Old Carthusians, they became the first Merseyside football team to play an FA Cup tie in London. The game took place at the Oval cricket ground.

Tom Veitch is my great grandfather, his son (also Tom) had one child, a daughter, my mother who moved to Australia with her family in 1965. It is so nice to see that we have distant cousins here.

G’day Anne Burton, it looks like we are distant cousins. We probably share the same great great grandparents - Robert Veitch and Agnes Ewing who married in Dumbarton, Scotland on 23rd June 1862. They had two sons - your great grandfather Thomas and my great grandfather William (the footballing brothers).

I have been researching my family history and have found out that the footballing brother were orphaned very early when their parents died young. Their father (Robert Veitch) was a shipwright and died in Calcutta on 27th May 1866. Their mother (Agnes Ewing) died soon after on 21st April 1870. The brothers were brought up their aunt and uncle (Peter and Mary Ewing).

I have our joint Veitch family history going back about five generations further to the late 1600s.

If you are interested I can send you what I have. By the way cousin, I also live in Australia (Brisbane). My email address is veitchmj@gmail.com.