100 years of sport at New Anniesland will be celebrated this year .
with a Dinner in the Pavilion on 27th August
Guest speakers will include Colin Mair of West of Scotland fame at both rugby and cricket and now Rector of the High School of Glasgow

Curious footnote from Ed
Whilst researching info re the above stumbled on the fact that the first President of the Glasgow Academical Club H.E. Crum-Ewing was also a founder of the much lamented Third Lanark F.C

The first Scotland v England football international at Hamilton
Crescent, Glasgow in 1872 inspired the regiment to start a football
team of their own, subsequently becoming one of the original members
of the Scottish Football Association.

A meeting was duly advised by the intimation of a public notice on the
12th December 1872 by members of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers
and the meeting was convened in the Regimental Orderly room in East
Howard Street, Glasgow.

Private Broadfoot explained that the meeting was called for the
purpose of organising, if possible, a Football Club in connection with
the Third Regiment. He further reported that Lieutenant-Colonel H E
Crum-Ewing, the majority of the Officers and twenty-five other members
of the Regiment had signified their willingness to support such a
club.

Sergeant Wilson then moved: "That we, the Members now assembled should
form ourselves into a club, to be called the 3rd Lanark Rifle
Volunteers Football Club."

This famous Scottish Football Club was formed on 12th December 1872 in the Orderly Room of the 3rd Regiment of Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers at East Howard Street, Glasgow shortly after the first ever England v Scotland international football match. Sport was popular in Volunteer units, the predecessors of the Territorial Force formed later in 1904, and the club, whose membership was originally restricted to the regiment, was supported by all ranks.

3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers were formed as part of the Rifle Volunteer movement in September 1859 and was mainly made up of men from Messrs Cogan’s Spinning Factory, the Etna Foundry and various temperance organisations on the south side of Glasgow. After 1881 they became a Volunteer battalion of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) and were later numbered the 7th Battalion. During the First World War the 7th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) fought in Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine and on the Western Front.

3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers Football Club was one of the founder members of the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish League. They emerged from the 1888/89 season as Scottish Cup holders and in 1903 the Club became a limited company and registered as Third Lanark Athletic Club. In the years that followed they also won the First Division Championship, the Glasgow Cup, the Charity Cup and the Inner City League.

They continued to have some success between the wars and again in the 1950s when they once more won promotion to the First Division. In 1960 they went full time but after the loss of three key players to English clubs Third Lanark were the subject of a takeover. The manager resigned, the new stand was never finished, support dwindled and the team was relegated. On the 28th of April 1967 Third Lanark played their last game and the liquidators were called in. Thus ended the history of a football club that had perpetuated the name of the Rifle Volunteers well into the second half of the 20th century

This article was originally posted on 19-Mar-2005, 21:33 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 27-Mar-2005, 00:15.