Published by The Isle of Man Today on May, 17 2016.
When
island-based Liverpool fans gather to watch their team in tomorrow night’s
Europa League final against Spain’s oldest club, it’s likely that none will be
aware of the role played in founding opponents Sevilla FC by a man buried just
a mile or two up the road at Braddan Cemetery.
Liverpool
Football Club supporters are famous for their love of history.
Stories
of matches, players and characters resonate through a club synonymous with
success during its 123-year history.
And
the people who follow its progress each season around the world carry encyclopedic
knowledge of glories past, Jurgen Klopp’s team of today and the history of the
game in general.
But
tomorrow night, when fans gather in pubs and bars in Douglas to watch their
team in action ahead of the Europa League final against Spain’s oldest club, it’s
likely that none will be aware of the role played in founding opponents Sevilla
FC by a successful Scottish engineer and businessman buried just a mile or two
up the road in a modest grave at Braddan Cemetery.
Gilbert
Reid Pollock was born on August 24, 1865, in Neilston, a village near Glasgow.
After
completing his studies he began gaining a reputation as an accomplished young
engineer and, after achieving enough professional experience, moved to Seville
towards the end of the 1880s.
Spain’s
prominent southern fluvial port was booming during this period, with manufacturing
and shipping firms owned and managed by British workers playing their part in
the prosperity, and Pollock was employed at the Portilla White foundry, the most
important iron works in the city at the time. A strong commercial relationship with
the United Kingdom led to a large British enclave forming and, once in the
Andalusian capital, Pollock established connections not only with these people
– many of them workers and directors of the shipping company MacAndrews, the
Seville Water Works and the Portilla White foundry – but also with many locals.
According
to a report published in The Dundee Courier and Argus on March 17, 1890, a
group of young men, both British and Spanish, with Pollock among them, met in
January 25 that year in one of the city’s cafes to celebrate Burns Night.
Emulating
the formation of the English Football Association in the Freemasons’ Tavern in
Great Queen Street, London, in 1863, these men decided to form Spain’s first
club solely devoted to football.
The
first president of the newly-formed Sevilla Football Club was Elgin man Edward Farquharson
Johnston, British vice-consul in Seville and co-owner of MacAndrews shipping
company, while Glaswegian Hugh MacColl, technical manager at the Portilla
White foundry, was designated first captain and Isaias White Jr, who was born
in Seville and the only son of one of the owners of the foundry, was chosen as the
club’s first secretary.
The
members soon set about arranging the club’s first fixture and, knowing about
the existence of a recreation club in Huelva, to the east of Seville, secretary
White sent a letter challenging them to play a football match, ‘under
Association Rules’.
The
two teams went head-to-head in a match which is now regarded as the first to be
played on Spanish soil on March 8, 1890.
The
aforementioned article published by The Dundee Courier and Argus in March 17,
1890, described in full detail the founding of the club and the first match,
which was played over two halves of 35 minutes in a ‘steady downpour’ in front
of ‘twelve dozen spectators’. Sevilla FC won 2-0 through goals by Ritson and
‘Clown Yugles’, a player so-called due to his appearance on the pitch in ‘night
dress’.
The
article revealed the celebrations that followed involved the sides sharing ‘a sumptuous
dinner, part Spanish, part French, with a slight inkling of British fare thrown
in’.
What
happened next has led to Pollock’s name being seared into Spanish football history
as, following the success of the first match, the clubs decided to play a
return fixture three weeks later, this time in Huelva.
In
front of a crowd of between 400 and 500, Pollock scored after 25 minutes to give
Sevilla FC a 1-0 lead and will forever be credited with scoring the first ever
away goal on Spanish soil.
However,
the historic strike wasn’t to be the winner as, with Huelva’s side fortified by
‘some athletes from the British colony of Rio-Tinto’ according to The Dundee Courier
and Argus on April 7, 1890, the hosts fought back to win 2-1.
Looking
back on events from a 21st century perspective, it’s clear Pollock
was at the centre of a moment of huge sporting significance. But with football
at that time being simply a pastime used to foster teamwork among a
hard-working community, the engineer pressed ahead with what turned out to be a
remarkable career.
In
1895, Sevilla’s first captain Hugh MacColl returned to the UK after seven years
abroad and settled in Sunderland. Alongside business partner John T. Jameson,
he reopened the engine works at Wreath Quay, on the north side of the River
Wear, near Wearmouth Bridge.
The
partners adapted the premises for the business of marine engine and boiler builders
and repairers, but Jameson died suddenly, aged 35, in July 1896, leaving a widow
and four young children.
Pollock,
who was working in Manchester by this time, moved north to join his former
Portilla White colleague and Sevilla FC teammate, and they went on to establish
the hugely successful MacColl and Pollock firm at Wreath Quay.
M&P
traded for more than 30 years, employing 500 men at its peak. The last engine
was built in 1930, with the firm dealing only with repairs until it closed in
1935.
During
the company’s early years, both men were prominent members of the prestigious
Wearside Golf Club, but never lost their passion for football, a sport which
they promoted among their workers at Wreath Quay, where engineers, platers and
boilermakers formed different teams to compete against each other or against teams
belonging to other Wearside firms.
M&P’s
engine works were very close to the Sunderland AFC stadium at a time when the
club was competing at the top of the First Division, today’s Premier League,
and which had secured league titles in 1892, 1893 and 1895.
SAFC
enjoyed close links to some of the owners of the most important engineering companies
on the Wear, who provided not only a job for many of the club’s players but
also financial support for the club. It was somewhat inevitable then, when in
1908 Sevilla FC decided to acquire red and white football shirts, that the
Spanish club should turn to
Sunderland for help.
John Wood, one
of the British members of the club and captain of the SS Cordova, a steam ship
based in Sunderland, was put in charge of bringing football shirts back to
Seville, and former members MacColl and Pollock were happy to oblige with
providing the kit.
Sevilla
FC’s players have proudly worn the red and white colours ever since, and stripes
were incorporated into the crest in 1921. This season has seen the club return
to the stripes once more.
MacColl
died in 1915, but Pollock continued managing the company until it closed in
1935, before retiring to the Isle of Man.
It
remains unclear when he married Annie Blackwell, but according to an obituary published
in the Sunderland Echo on May 27, 1954, the couple shared a son and three
daughters.
Widowed
some years earlier, Pollock was living at the Fort Anne Hotel in Douglas when
he died in 1954, aged 88, and was buried in Braddan Cemetery, where his grave can
still be seen today.
His
legacy in founding Sevilla FC and scoring the first away goal in Spanish football
remain an important part of the club’s rich history, with historians and
enthusiasts ensuring the founders’ lives and achievements are recorded for
future generations.
And
with their rich sense of history and identity, Liverpool FC supporters should certainly
be able to offer a nod of appreciation to the part Pollock played in the
nascent game when the teams face each in tomorrow night’s final in Swiss
capital Basel.
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