The club were recently contacted by Ian McConnel, (originally from Glasgow, now living in Tranent), who told us:
"I was recently loaned an autograph book belonging to a 90 year old gentleman (Mr Bobby Johnstone) of my acquaintance. The book covers the seasons 1937-38 to 1938-39.
It was given to him by his Grandfather who knew Tommy Walker, the Hearts player & Scottish Internationalist. Mr Walker was kind enough to take it to every game he played in those seasons and get the opposition to sign it for the young Bobby.
The book has over 30 teams within its pages, ranging from Scotland international teams to Junior teams.
Included within the book is a page dedicated to the Queens team which played Hearts in season 1938-39. There are 12 signatures including Jackie Oakes, Willie Harkness & Jacky Law. I think this is the team which beat Hearts at Tynecastle 2-1 on 11/3/39. As this was a historic season for Queens (at one point being top of the League) I thought you might be interested in these autographs.”
This was indeed a historic season for QoS; they finished the league season as Scotland’s 6th best team. To run through the names mentioned in Ian’s email and the signatories in the image:
1. Goalkeeper, Fifer and ex-miner, James Mathieson, had 3 seasons at Raith Rovers in the 1920s. He was a team mate there of one of the best of the best players in Scottish & English football history; Arsenal all time great, Alex James. Mathieson made over 500 career league appearances. He is reported to have the distinction of being the only player to win three English 2nd tier league titles when being an ever-present in all 3 of those league campaigns. The 1st two were with Middlesbrough. The 3rd was with Brentford with whom he also finished in a club record 5th place in the top tier in 1935-36. He joined Queen of the South in 1938 before like a few of the players mentioned in this article, World War II curtailed his career.
2. John Muir for reasons unknown isn’t a signatory in the attached image. QoS Historian, Iain McCartney, and the match stats on londonhearts.com, both state that Muir played that day in the number 2 jersey rather than usual right-back, Willie Savage. Muir was in the twilight of his career at the time, aged 35. As well as QoS he had spent time on the books with Dumbarton, Falkirk, Bristol Rovers and Arbroath.
3. Jimmy Anderson was from England’s North East. The left-back was part of the George McLachlan managed squad that toured Europe and North Africa in 1936, beating teams such as Stade Reims and Racing Santander. Anderson also had spells for Darlington, Wigan, Brentford and Carlisle.
4. Pat Fitzsimmons hailed from Cumbria. The half-back joined QoS in 1938 and as well as playing, coached the younger teams. Like Jackie Law Sr from this Hearts game, he was later given a QoS testimonial v English opposition.
5. Centre-back Phil Watson joined Blackpool from Hamilton before earning a full Scotland cap in a 2-2 home draw on 29 November 1933. The Austrian “Wunderteam” he faced had two years previously been the first continental team to beat Scotland. For fans of what has become known as the Unofficial Football World Championship, that May 1931, 5-0 win in Vienna gave the the unofficial championship to the Austrians at that point. Watson for his part was an experienced player over 30 when he joined QoS in 1938. World War II curtailed his career.
6. Half-back Danny Dawson joined QoS in Summer 1938 from Celtic. A 100%, whole-hearted type of player, his 6 seasons at Parkhead had been impacted by serious knee injuries. The Celtic Wiki states he was reported in June 1945 in the Winnipeg Tribune as having signed for a team in Canada.
7. Queens Legend, Jackie Oakes was a great servant to QoS. He is one of the quickest players in the history of Scottish football. As well as playing professional football, he was also a competitive sprinter. He was part of the QoS teams to finish 6th in the Scottish top flight in 1939 and 1956, and part of the team that led the Scottish League at New Year 1954. He is currently 4th in the club all time appearances chart (457 games) and 12th in the goals charts with 81 strikes; a very handy return for a winger. He is best known for playing on the left rather than his appearance in this game on the right. He scored the 90th minute winner in this game v Hearts. This put QoS 3rd in the top tier at this point with 5 games to play. Teams in the immediately chasing pack though had a game in hand.
8. William Smith was another Fifer. The inside-forward played for Doncaster Rovers and Hartlepools United (as they were known before dropping the ‘s’ from the club name in 1968), before joining QoS. He also played at half-back during his career.
9, George Hay was a mobile, two-footed goalscorer mostly with now defunct Third Lanark. He is reported as having scored a club record 46 goals in 1934/35, taking Thirds to the 2nd tier title that season. He joined QoS in 1937 scoring 27 league goals before WWII. In the game v Hearts of the autographs in the article, Hay scored a 55th minute equaliser after Hearts’ Jimmy Briscoe scored a 44th minute opener.
10. Jackie Law Sr. is part of one of the great dynasties of Queen of the South F.C. He joined QoS from Airdrieonians in 1936 soon becoming Captain. He stayed with QoS ‘til 1949 with QoS in the top flight throughout, aside from war time interruption. His sons, Jackie Jr. and Lex, both played over 100 games for QoS (over 300 in the case of Lex). Jackie Sr. scored 71 goals in 228 QoS appearances. In one of the greatest tragedies to occur at Palmerston, Jackie Sr. died on the pitch aged 48 when coaching the youth team.
11. Tommy Lang won the FA Cup Final in 1932 (when Arsenal lynchpin, Alex James, injured himself in a pre-match press photo call), during Lang's 8 years with Newcastle United. He also played for Huddersfield Town, Manchester United and Swansea before joining QoS in 1938. Lang ended the 1938-39 season of the autographs in this article as joint QoS top scorer with 16 goals. At the end of WW2 he joined Ipswich Town.
Willie Harkness needs no introduction to Queen’s fans of a certain age. Harkness joined the club in 1937 and debuted for the 1st team in 1938. He joined the board in 1959 becoming Chairman in 1967. His Chairmanship ended in 1994 leading to the Norman Blount era. Harkness attended the 1978 World Cup in Argentina and 1982 World Cup in Spain as SFA President. Despite being a signatory in the attached autographs, the sources mentioned above re John Muir both state Harkness (a forward in his playing days), did not play in this game v Hearts.
Trainer, Neil Gibson, joined QoS in 1938. Jackie Oakes succeeded Gibson when Oakes retired from playing in 1960.
Tommy Walker is the arguably the most important character in Hearts’ history. Walker was a dangerous forward, in his case scoring regularly for Hearts and then post-war Chelsea. He scored 9 goals from 21 full Scotland caps. He made his greatest mark though as Hearts manager in the 1950s and 60s, winning 2 Scottish titles, 1 Scottish Cup and 4 League Cups. His Hearts side were runners-up in 5 other senior competitions including losing the 1964-65 league title, when Kilmarnock in the last game decider pulled off the required 2-0 win at Tynecastle. Walker's team’s 1957/58 league season set still standing records of scoring 132 goals with a goal difference of +103. This was from only 34 league games. Walker missed the 11 March 1939 Hearts v Queen of the South game.
Bobby Johnstone in Tranent who owns the autograph book is not the Bobby Johnstone who was part of Hibs’ ‘Famous Five’ attack of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Selkirk born Johnstone of Hibs was a key player in the latter 2 of the 3 league titles won by Hibs in that period. When at Man City he became the 1st player at any club to score in successive Wembley FA Cup Finals. He won 1 and lost 1 of those finals. He scored 8 goals in 17 full Scotland internationals. Bobby Johnstone of the book mentioned in the above text originates from the Tynecastle area of Edinburgh before he relocated to Tranent. Unsurprisingly given he is from the Tynecastle area and with the connections his family have with Tommy Walker, this Bobby Johnstone is a Hearts fan. His friend Ian who contacted us is a Rangers fan.
Thank you Ian and Bobby.