Peter Mauchan (1882 – 5 November 1943) 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 for Spanish club

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

at the turn of the century. He was part of the infamous group of Scottish workers that formed

Escocès FC The Escocès FC, officially founded as Escocés Fútbol Club, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed only during the year 1900, playing a total of ten Exhibition game, friendlies against the likes of FC Barcelona and Català ...

. Peter is often confused with his younger brother, David Mauchan, who is often wrongly credited with being the one who played for Escocès FC and FC Barcelona, which is not possible as David was only born in 1895.

Early life

Peter Mauchan was born in

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 ...

in 1882, as the son of William Mauchan, a football referee, and Elizabeth Stewart. Due to his father's textile profession, the family moved to

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

between 1884 and 1887. His father was one of many workers at lace manufacturers Johnston, Shields & Co in

Newmilns Newmilns is a village in the burgh of Newmilns and Greenholm, in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It has a population of 3,057 people (2001 census) and lies on the A71 road, A71, around seven miles east of Kilmarnock and twenty-five miles southwest of G ...

sent over to work in the company's newly opened factory in Sant Martí de Provençals (known as ''La Escocesa''), a neighborhood in Barcelona, and thus, the family had to move again, this time to Sant Martí.

Escocès FC

Thanks to his father, he became an employee of Johnston, Shields & Co at the end of the 19th century, around the age of 17. At the start of 1900, the 17/8-year-old Peter and his co-workers set up a football team to pass the time, calling it

. In addition to Peter, this team also had the likes of George Girvan, the Black brothers (

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

and

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

) and

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

John Hamilton, all of which, including him, went on to play for

. Both he and his father William, who was not one of the founders, played a pivotal role in the team's results, Peter as a forward, and William as a referee. Because of this, Peter would rarely be tackled by the opposition, as they feared his father's red card, and in fact, his father was the first referee in Spanish football to show one when on 11 February 1900, in a clash against FC Barcelona, he

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

Barça's Englishman Stanley Harris after a foul on his fellow countryman

Willie Gold William Gold was a Scottish footballer. He is best known for being the receiver of the very first red card shown in Spanish football. Gold was also a member of the side that won the very first Spanish club to win an official title, the 1900–01 ...

, who was also sent off after throwing a punch on Harris. Peter played alongside his brother Archibald (aged only 15/6 at the time) in Escocès FC's third match on 25 February against

Català FC Català Futbol Club, and later Català Sport Club, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed from 1899 until its dissolution in the late 1920s. It was one of the most important entities in the amateur beginnings of football in C ...

FC Barcelona

In November 1900, Escocés FC folded and Barcelona took advantage of its dissolution to incorporate several of its most prominent players, such as Mauchan, A. Black, and Girvan, who thus became the first-ever Scottish players to wear the Barça shirt. Mauchan was noted as being both incredibly strong and having great skill with the ball, especially in comparison to the young locals of Barcelona at the time. For this reason, during his time at Barça, he played as a defender on the left wing, and in his first season, he played seven games, scoring twice, including one goal at the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the Copa Macaya in 1901, which came in an 18–0 trashing of Club Tarragona, thus contributing in Barça's biggest victory at the tournament, which ended in a runner-up finish to Hispania AC.

Later life

Peter retired from football shortly after, but due to his immense love for the game and following the influences of his father and John Hamilton before him, he became a referee. His brothers,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and David, founded CE Júpiter in 1909. The club still exists to this day in the lower leagues, being one of the oldest teams in the city. Peter will be the first to return to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

(before 1909). In 1912 he married Mabel Alice Sidney, with whom he had a daughter, Vera Phyllis in 1913. The family lived in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and his daughter was born there. As a commercial professional, he made countless trips in his life. Peter died in Halifax (England) on 5 November 1943.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauchan, Peter 1882 births Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC Barcelona players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Scottish expatriate men's footballers Footballers from Glasgow 1943 deaths Footballers from East Ayrshire