October is Black History Month, so every day during October I will be posting up an introduction to an historical person of colour with a place in the history of the United Kingdom.

Andrew Watson, born in Demerara in British Guiana in 1856, is widely considered to be the world’s first black person to play association football at international level. He played three matches for Scotland between 1881 and 1882.

Watson was the son of a wealthy Scottish sugar planter and a local British Guianese woman. He came to Britain with his father and older sister, and they inherited a substantial amount when their father died in London in 1869.

Watson was educated at Heath Grammar School Halifax and King’s College School Wimbledon. He studied natural philosophy, mathematics and engineering at the University of Glasgow but left after a year and became a partner in Watson, Miller, and Baird, a wholesale warehouse business in Glasgow. He married twice, the second marriage following the death of his first wife. Watson moved to Liverpool and qualified as a marine engineer.

Watson played for a couple of local sides, and was also the first black administrator in football, while also taking part in athletics competitions.

In 1880, he was selected to represent Glasgow against Sheffield, and was also selected for a tour to Canada in 1880 which was cancelled after the death of the secretary of the Scottish Football Association.

In April 1880, he also signed for Queen’s Park, then Britain’s largest football team – he led the team to several Scottish Cup wins, thus becoming the first black player to win a major competition.

In 1882, he moved to London and became the first black player to play in the English Cup; and in 1883 he was the first foreign player to be invited to join the leading amateur club in England, the Corinthians. He also played for other amateur English clubs.

Watson signed for Bootle in 1887, where he was paid professionally. This means his professional career predated that of Arthur Wharton, who was previously considered to be the first black footballer to play professionally.

Watson went on to win three international caps for Scotland before moving to London in 1882, a decision which effectively ended his international career as the SFA only picked players based in Scotland at this time.

Watson retired to London in around 1910 and died of pneumonia at Kew in 1921. He is buried in Richmond Cemetery.

More about Andrew Watson at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Watson_(footballer,_born_1856)