John White Clelland (6 January 1863 – 7 September 1944) was a Scottish

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

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

or half-back and made one appearance for the Scotland national team.

Career

Clelland played club football mainly for Royal Albert during his career, winning the

Lanarkshire Cup The Lanarkshire Cup was an annual competition open to football teams in the Lanarkshire area. The competition is now defunct. The Lanarkshire FA was dissolved in June 1999 when it was merged with the Ayrshire and Renfrewshire FAs to form the Wes ...

four times; his brothers also played for the club. He also played for

Cowlairs Cowlairs () is an area in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde, between central Springburn to the east and Possilpark to the west. Administratively, in the 21 ...

, and while there was selected for the

Glasgow FA Founded in 1883, the Glasgow Football Association, based in the city of Glasgow, Scotland and affiliated to the national Scottish Football Association, is one of the List of Football Associations by date of foundation, oldest such bodies in footb ...

team (he also played for Lanarkshire). He earned his first and only cap for

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 ...

on 28 March 1891 in the

1890–91 British Home Championship The 1890–91 British Home Championship was an international football tournament between the British Home Nations. Despite strong showings from all four teams, England eventually won the trophy with victories in all three games including, as at t ...

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 ...

. The home match, which was played at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium and the home of Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C., Celtic, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest List of football stadiums in Sco ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, finished as a 2–1 win for Scotland; he remains the only serving Royal Albert player to have been selected for international duty. He also played

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

to a high standard, and was a distance runner with Clydesdale Harriers.

Personal life

Clelland was born on 6 January 1863 in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

to John Clelland, a coal miner, and Margaret Clelland (). Clelland was married to Elizabeth Ann Dodds, and worked as a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

lican. He died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

on 7 September 1944 in

Larkhall Larkhall (, ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, around southeast of Glasgow. It is twinned with Seclin in northern France. Larkhall sits on high ground between the River Clyde to the East and the Avon Water to the West. Larkhall ...

at the age of 81.

Career statistics

International

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clelland, John 1863 births 1944 deaths Footballers from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Men's association football central defenders Men's association football wing halves Royal Albert F.C. players British publicans Deaths from cancer in Scotland