Footscray Thistle Images

This mini-trove of Footscray Thistle material comes from the Footscray Historical Society (many thanks!). The photos span the period 1919-1932 and they contain some useful notes from those who donated them. Some confusion exists about the name of the team in various notes. I have used the descriptions and nomenclature from the FHS (which is well worth a visit) and I have kept them the order in which they were sent to me. Some will notice that 'the large trophy' is in fact the Dockerty Cup!

PIc 9110 F.T.S.C. [Footscray Thistle Soccer Club] 1932

Group of boys and men with 10 in soccer uniform with thistle on jersey. The man seated in front row second from the right was Walter Gilbert, a manager at the Parkinson Stove Co (Australia ) Ltd.

Pic 9111 F.T.S.C. [Footscray Thistle Soccer Club] 1930s

Group of men with 10 in soccer uniform with thistle on jersey and a large trophy. The man seated in front row on the right was Walter Gilbert, a manager at the Parkinson Stove Co (Australia ) Ltd.

Pic 9112 [Footscray Thistle Soccer Club] 1930s

Group of men with 10 in soccer uniform with thistle on jersey

Pic 9114 Management at Parkinson Stoves 1930C

Nine members of the management at Parkinson Stove Ltd. in Footscray.

(From John Dell: My Grandfather, Walter Gilbert moved to Australia in the 1920s to help set up the Parkin Stove Company Factory. While there he helped run the Footscray Harriers Football team. - These are photos from the family collection - The striking girl on horseback is not a known family member - the photo is labelled "Pauline - Footscray". My grandfather is the bald man in the light suit second from the right in the front seated row in the "Footscray Harriers" image and on the left of the "Parkin Stove Management" photo. He had served at Gallipolli as a private in the Warwickshire Regiment and had then fought the Turks again in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) where he was captured in the attempt to relieve the British and Indian Division surrounded at Kut. - He endured years of captivity by the Turks (statistically you had a much higher chance of surviving as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War Two than as a Prisoner of the Turks in World War One!)).

I hope the images are of interest, and might find a place in your archive, if they are not there already. Note: The images supplied labelled Harriers were actually of the Footscray Thistle Soccer Club.)

Parkinson Stove was at Sunshine Road Footscray West in 1957.

Pic 9158 1919

Group of 26 men, some in soccer uniform and some in suits.
A large trophy cup is in the foreground.

[The owner of this post card sized image, noted that her mother was told that the club was formed before World War 1 and that the players were all Scottish lads most of whom signed up together to fight in WW1.]

Pic 4002 [1927]

Two team photos, one players shaking hands 
FDSC 1927, Footscray District Soccer Club

Val Finlayson contacted me to let me know the her dad, George Macaulay and his brother Jack are in the above two teams shots. She replied to my fb post in Lost Footscray, saying that in "1927 photo my father, George Macaulay is 3rd from the left, middle row. His brother Jack is first in the middle row."

On a further post originated by Val in Lost Footscray she put up these two images with her comments below them: 

Thistles soccer team, my father, George Macaulay is in the middle of the top row. Year?

My father’s soccer medallions - left to right, 1927 Dockerty cup, 1928 Northern Section winners, 1930 Dockerty cup, 1932 Dockerty cup, no inscription.

This is a sobering reminder of the collapse of Footscray Thistle. Vandals attack the clubhouse while 17 of their members are away fighting in WW2. The piece is from the Footscray Adverstiser cJuly 1940

Thistle team lists 1 June 1928

Footscray. — Parker, A. Lyons, McGregor, Ballantine, Calderwood, R. Lyons, Templeton, Bellingall, W. Wilson, Orr, Robb. Reserves: W. McKelvie, G. McAuley. Reserve team— Pateman. A. McLean, Beveridge (new man) Jim Wilson, Morton, Fulton, S. McKelvie, John Wilson. A. Robb. Wilkinson, Rhind. Reserves: Craig, Mills. Simmonds, Mackerras.