Lochgelly Albert

What's in a Name

The Origins of the name Lochgelly Albert

Have you ever wondered how a junior football team in central Fife ended up with a name like Lochgelly Albert? Well there are two popular theories why ALBERT was used.

The 1st theory is that the club was named after Queen Victoria's husband, the Prince Albert. The people who believe this theory point to the fact that the clubs original team colours of Gold & Black are the same as the Royal Livery was at the time of Prince Albert's death. However, the length of time between the Queen Consort's (Prince Albert's) death and the setting up of the club in 1926 as an amateur club, makes this theory unlikely.

The 2nd theory and probably the most respected, is that the club took it's name from a town that was unlucky enough to be on the SOMME front during the Great War of 1914-1918. It is well known that more than a few young men from Lochgelly not only fought, but perished, at the front line of the SOMME. It is reported that most of the soldiers were at some time stationed in a town called ALBERT in northern France and a few not only played football before the war, but after hostilities had ceased set about founding a local team in Lochgelly. This may have been done to try and replace the local senior team Lochgelly United who had disbanded just before the outbreak of the war.

It is possible that the club will organise a trip to Albert to see for ourselves where our brave veterans served.

Lochgelly Albert's first football game within the junior ranks was on the 29th July 1933, away to Kirkford Juniors at Beathview Park, Cowdenbeath and resulted in a 1-0 victory to Lochgelly Albert, the goal was scored in the 88th minute by Pat Finnerty.

Lochgelly Albert's first trophy arrived in the season 1934-35, this was the Fife Cup and the Albert were victorious over Rosslyn Juniors at Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy, the current home of Raith Rovers, the final score being Lochgelly Albert 2 Rosslyn Juniors 0.

The Albert were followed into the junior ranks by another in 1935. This team were called Lochgelly Violet, and their first game on the 29th July 1935 was away to Lochgelly Albert at Gardiner's Park. The outcome of this game was a 2-0 victory for the Albert and was watched by 2,000 local spectators.

The record crowd for Lochgelly Albert was in the season 1947-48 for a Scottish Cup 6th round tie against Bo'ness United. The spectators arrived in droves, so that at the kick-off there were 11,600 fans within Gardiner's Park.

This is still a record for a Fife Junior League Ground!

The Teams that day were:-

Lochgelly Albert
Gourlay, Fotherham, McGown (Capt), Barnes, Downie, Drummond, Whyte, Feeley, Brand, Paterson, Mathewson

Bo'ness United
Mitchell, Keenan, Graham, Wilson, Black, Hogg, Stewart, McKee, Pinkerton, Buckley, Sprodle