Marshall, Harry

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Marshall, Harry - The Celtic Wiki

Fullname: Henry James Hall Marshall
aka: Harry Marshall, Beef Marshall, The Portobello Boatman, Henry Marshall, Hank Marshall
Born: 24 November 1872
Died: 16 September 1936
Birthplace: Portobello, City of Edinburgh
Signed: 1899 (2x loan); 13 June 1899; 29 July 1901
Left: 20 Aug 1903 (to Clyde)
Position: Centre-half
Internationals
: Scotland / Scottish League
International Caps: 2 / 4
International Goals: 1 / 0

Biog

Henry (‘Harry’) Marshall was a formidable centre half who spent several spells with the Bhoys in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In his first spell in football he was so badly injured at Blackburn that he gave up the sport to go back to hiring out boats (hence the nickname ‘The Portobello Boatman’).

He was on loan to Celtic two times in 1899 before fully transferring in June that same year to the club.

His debut came in a 3-0 home Scottish Cup win over St Bernard’s on 4th February 1899 when on loan from Hearts and during that spell at the club he helped Celtic to lift the trophy in April, defeating Rangers 2-0 in the final.

Two reports reported glowing on Marshall stating that

“…[Rangers’] Hamilton was too closely watched by Marshall to be of any service, and this had the effect of completely upsetting the Rangers’ forwards who were a very disjointed set.” (Dundee Evening Telegraph)

“It was at half-back, however, that the Celtic team were strongest, Battles being the most prominent in the line, while Marshall fairly outclassed [Rangers’] Hamilton, and it was rarely that the Rangers’ centre had a look in.” (Dundee Courier)

An interesting speech after that 1899 Scottish Cup final saw Celtic chairman John H McLaughlin say in a fullsome mood:

“Sectarianism is a dead letter in Scottish football… We cull players from all quarters, regardless of sect.”

One wit in the crowd shouted back “Or cost!“. A dig at Celtic’s spending (Harry Marshall’s loan had cost £300, a lot in those days). The line was to sadly prove very wide of the mark.

A year later in season 1899-00, Harry Marshall skippered the Celtic side to Scottish Cup glory once more in a 4-3 victory over Queen’s Park in torrential weather, a key game which heralded the end for Queen’s Park as a premier team in Scotland. It was a major landmark for the advance to professionalism for the game. This season was his best for Celtic, scoring three times and Celtic were undefeated in all the games he played for the first team, but notably he was away for much of the first half of the season on loan.

He almost made it a hat-trick of Scottish Cup titles but Celtic lost the 1902 Scottish Cup final to Hibernian 1-0.

In the league though, Celtic kept falling behind although came close in 1901-02, losing the title by 2pts to Rangers. Harry Marshall had scored in the Ne’er Days game v Rangers which Rangers won 4-2, a contentious game with Celtic lodging a formal protest with the SFA on the grounds of the referee, Mr. Nisbet’s incompetency, and full time not being played. The SFA dismissed the protest but deleted Mr. Nisbet’s name from the referee’s list for his “repeatedly refusing to answer a question arising out of the match“.

His last season (1902-03) saw a poor Celtic slip to 5th in the league, well behind the rejuvenated & reincarnated Hibernian who comfortably won the title, getting revenge for the Scottish Cup final defeat. Harry Marshall only played six league games in that season but Celtic won only two of those matches, so the writing was on the wall.

In total the Portobello-born defender made 46 league & Scottish Cup appearances for the Bhoys and scored 5 goals. He departed Parkhead in August 1903 when he joined Clyde and a year later was reinstated as an amateur. He wrapped up his playing career with Broxburn Athletic, retiring in 1906.

His talent was rewarded on the international front, winning two caps for Scotland, once in a 6-0 victory over Wales in 1899 (scoring a goal too) and then captaining his country in a 3-0 win over Ireland in 1900.

After football, he was working on the new Musselburgh tramway in 1932. He went on to run the Spylaw Tea Room in Colinton with his wife.

He passed away in 1936 from lung cancer.

Playing Career

APPEARANCES
LEAGUE SCOTTISH CUP LEAGUE CUP EUROPE TOTAL
1899-1903 29 17 n/a n/a 46
Goals: 5 0 5

Honours with Celtic

Scottish Cup

Pictures

Articles

Harry MarshallHenry Marshall

https://spartacus-educational.com/BLACKBmarshall.htm

By John Simkin (john@spartacus-educational.com)
September 1997 (updated August 2014).

Henry (Harry) James Marshall was born in Portobello, Scotland on 24 November, 1872. He was a boatman who also played football for Portobello Thistle and St Bernard’s before joining Heart of Midlothian in the Scottish League.

A hard-tackling wing-half, Marshall earned the nickname of “Beef”. In 1892 Marshall joined Blackburn Rovers. Two other Scottish players, George Anderson and Johnny Murray joined at the same time. That year Blackburn Rovers finished in 9th place in the league. 28,000 spectators watched Blackburn Rovers beat Sunderland, 3-0 in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Unfortunately Blackburn lost 2-1 in the semi-final to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The following season Tom Mitchell, the secretary of Blackburn Rovers went back to Scotland to improve his squad. Adam Ogilvie was signed as the new goalkeeper. He joined fellow Scotsmen, Harry Marshall, Johnny Murray, George Anderson, Johnny Forbes, George Dewar, Coombe Hall, Tom Brandon and Harry Campbell in the side.

Blackburn’s defence was now completely made up of Scotsmen. However, the club did have three talented Englishmen in the forward line: Harry Chippendale, Jimmy Whitehead and Jamie Haydock. In fact, Chippendale and Whitehead both obtained their first international caps in March 1894 in a game against Ireland. That year Blackburn finished in 4th place in the First Division of the Football League.

In September 1894 Marshall suffered an injury that appeared to have ended his career. During his time at Blackburn Rovers he had played 51 games. He returned to Scotland where he worked as a boatman.

Marshall eventually made a full recovery and in 1896 he rejoined Hearts. In his first season he helped his club win the First Division of the Scottish League. In 1899 Marshall moved to Celtic and on 18th March won his first international cap playing for Scotland against Wales. The following year he captained his country against Ireland. He was also a member of the Celtic side that won the Scottish Cup in 1900.

In 1903 Marshall joined Clyde in the Second Division of the Scottish League. He also played for non-league Broxburn Athletic before retiring in 1906.

Harry Marshall died on 16 September, 1936.