James Munro King (16 April 1906 – March 1985) was a Scottish international

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 spent the majority of his career with

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

Career

Early years

King was born in

Craigneuk Craigneuk is a suburb of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The original village of Craigneuk was located in the area where Meadowhead Road meets the A721 at Craigneuk Street. It was originally part of Dalziel parish, along with the other ru ...

Wishaw Wishaw (; ; ) is a large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the edge of the River Clyde, Clyde Valley, south-east of Glasgow city centre. The town is part of the Motherwell and Wishaw (UK Parliament constituency), Motherwell and Wishaw c ...

on 16 April 1906. He was introduced to Juvenile football with Carfin Harp by Robbie Donnelly (a lad from the same neighbourhood who was later a

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

and

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

player). While King was with them in 1928, they won every competition which the club participated except the Scottish Juvenile Cup. He could play equally well in either of the two extreme wing positions. He also played for Carluke Rovers, and was chosen to play for the Lanarkshire Junior League versus the Forfar District League.

Hamilton Academical

Originally a provisional signing for

by manager Willie McAndrew, he completed full signing forms on 3 June 1929. He was chosen to represent the Scottish Alliance League to meet a Scottish Junior Select at Firhill on 18 April 1931. Initially operating on the left, the advantage of his two-footedness was put to use to accommodate Bobby Reid who took over the number 11 jersey with King crossing over to the right side. He played in the 1935 Scottish Cup Final for Hamilton 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 ...

. Improved terms were offered to him: £4 per week, an increase of £1. By 1937, Bobby Reid was on the left wing and King had moved to the right; that was his role when a crowd of 28,690 turned up at Douglas Park on a Wednesday afternoon on 3 March to witness a Scottish Cup tie with Heart of Midlothian. At 5'8" and 10sts 2 lb, he was an able marksman as well with over 80 goals in his 262 League appearances for Hamilton. He was a tremendous servant to the ''Accies'' and remained with them until 1939, when Jimmy McStay took him to

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...

to assist in their efforts to stay in the top League. With only five games played, war broke out (those appearances were declared void) and at the age of 33, his career at the top level was at an end.

International

He earned a

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 ...

place against the

Irish League XI The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland. The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 ...

in 1933. This was eclipsed by his two full

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 ...

caps, both 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 ...

, in 1932 and 1933; the result of the latter match was a home defeat, and King was one of five in the home team who were not selected for international duty again.

Personal life

One of his sons,

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John (given name), John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly ...

, played for Hamilton during the 1960s at centre forward.Hamilton Academical : 1946/47 - 2013/14
Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Transfer Database Another, Eddie, was signed by Hibernian while an inside left with Wishaw Juniors, while Jimmy Jr turned out as junior with Douglasdale Juniors, Bellshill Athletic and Royal Albert. King died in March 1985 at the age of 79, after a long illness. His son Jimmy was present at a 'Hall of Fame' Dinner in February 2002 when his father was named as one of the four best ever Hamilton Academical players. Appropriately, he was known to the ''Accies'' support as "King James".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:King, James 1906 births 1985 deaths Men's association football outside forwards Hamilton Academical F.C. players Alloa Athletic F.C. players Scotland men's international footballers Scottish men's footballers Scottish Football League players Carluke Rovers F.C. players Scottish Football League representative players Footballers from Wishaw Scottish Junior Football Association players 20th-century Scottish sportsmen