Three of Annieslands finest W Davie Brown ,Wilson Shaw and Angus Cameron are listed in Scotland's youngest captains
Sadly Brown met a tragic end as described by sports historian Andy Mitchell

At 23 years and 315 days (come match day) Stirling-born Gilchrist played his way up though the age grades for Scotland and was an Elite Development Player with Edinburgh Rugby before becoming a full part of the squad in season 2010/11. He now has 72 caps for Edinburgh Rugby plus six for Scotland.

In an interview with www.scottishrugby.org Gilchrist said:

“It’s a huge honour, one I’m looking forward to. I hope that I can fulfil what it is to be Scotland captain. For me it’s a boyhood dream. Of course there’s massive responsibility, not just to this team, but to the entire country and Scotland fans throughout the world, but I’m really excited by it.”

Grant will lead out a Scotland side against Argentina on Friday in Cordoba (kick-off 4.20pm local, 8.20pm UK, live on Sky Sports) that includes another three Edinburgh players in the starting XV and two on the bench.

Scrum half Grayson Hart will be making his first start in the national jersey while prop Alasdair Dickinson and hooker Ross Ford pack down in the front row. New signing, stand off Tom Heathcote, and winger Dougie Fife start on the bench.

For stats fans, here’s a list of Scotland’s youngest-ever captains, who will have preceded Grant.

KC Fyfe 20yrs 294days (v Wales 1935)

G Cunningham 20yrs 362days (v England 1909)

GPS Macpherson 21yrs 100days (v France 1925)

JMB Scott 21yrs 123days (v Wales 1909)

FJ Moncrieff 21yrs 212days (v England 1871)

WD Brown 21yrs 270days (v England 1874)

RW Shaw 21yrs 318days (v Ireland 1935)

G Cunningham 21yrs 305days (v France 1910)

MC Morrison 21yrs 336days (v Wales 1899)

GH Waddell 21yrs 343days (v England 1959)

S Wilson 22yrs 149days (v England 1965)

DM Bain 22yrs 150days (v Wales 1914)

A Cameron 22yrs 153days (v South Africa 1951)

RCS Dick 22yrs 190days (v Wales 1936)

RW Irvine 22yrs 322days (v England 1876)

JNG Davidson 22yrs 346days (v France 1954)

DY Cassels 23yrs (v England 1882)

C Reid 23yrs 36days (v Ireland 1887)

AR Smith 23yrs 40days (v Ireland 1898)

P Munro 23yrs 137days (v Ireland 1907)

GPJ Townsend 23yrs 197days (v Australia 1996)

GS Gilchrist 23 yrs 315 days (on Friday 20 June)

SCOTLAND’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRAGEDIES
Andy Mitchell has discovered poignant memorials to two of Scotland’s rugby pioneers, who both died tragically young.
The driver of the Glasgow to Hamilton train was making good time, about a mile north of Blantyre, when he saw a figure standing on the track. Frantically sounding his whistle, he cut off the steam but it was too late to stop and the locomotive ploughed into the captain of Scotland’s rugby team, killing him instantly. Newspaper reports did not spare the sensitivities of their readers: ‘It was found that the wheels had passed over the head and part of his body, and the brain was exposed, and he was otherwise mutilated in a shocking manner.’
It was 24 March 1876. The following day, as several thousand spectators assembled at Raeburn Place to watch Edinburgh Academicals take on their Glasgow counterparts in the highlight of the domestic season, the visitors telegraphed to say that, under the circumstances, they would rather not play. It was ‘a decision which commended itself to not a few present,’ according to The Scotsman.
The unfortunate victim was William Davie Brown. Just a year earlier, he had led out Scotland at Raeburn Place in front of a record crowd of 7,000. That scoreless draw, his final game before retirement at the tender age of 22, closed a short but glorious career which included all of the first five rugby internationals against England.
Brown’s family was part of the Glasgow establishment, his father a city merchant, while his eponymous grandfather William Davie was town clerk. Like his elder brother, James Kay Brown, he was educated at Glasgow Academy, and played cricket for the Academicals, but it was as a rugby full-back that he excelled. A natural leader, he won the honour of being the first Glasgow man to captain Scotland, and effusive tributes were paid after his death: ‘His skill in the football field was only equalled by his courteous manner and generally obliging disposition, which won for him the friendship of all with whom he came into contact.’
His family, understandably, put the death down as a terrible accident, although it is hard to escape the suspicion that the young man went to this remote stretch of track near Craigknowe Farm, well away from his parents’ home in Hamilton, with the intention of killing himself. Why he was there will never be known. He was buried at Glasgow Cathedral in the family plot, his name added to a plain stone plaque that covers three generations but gives no hint of his sporting fame or his violent death. It gives little pause for thought to anyone visiting the crumbling cemetery.

This article was originally posted on 18-Jun-2014, 15:25 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 18-Jun-2014, 18:29.