Part V – Earlsferry Thistle
Researched and compiled by Graham Johnston
After the conclusion of the litigation between Earlsferry Town Council and the Malcolm family of Grange estate in 1832 or thereabouts the extent of the golfing tract of Earlsferry was at least fairly firmly established. What else was established was that the Ferry men who lived in Earlsferry and had for generations knocked a golf ball about this piece of land were entitled to continue to play on it seemingly by virtue of their residence in Earlsferry and of course it was free of charge – being owned by the town council for the residents. They generally looked after it themselves cutting the grass round the greens and maintaining it as best they could. As the game developed and ceased to be a purely gentrified sport we guess that there were Elie people who looked on enviously at the Ferrymen with their own free golf course. The gentry would play on it too but we suspect that the Town Council would hardly try to tussle with them and exact a green fee for the privilege of playing on the Earlsferry course. We do know that at least once per year the Dumbarnie/Hercules club would hold a competition on the Earlsferry course and it no doubt gave many of the Ferrymen the chance to earn a shilling or two caddying.
We do not know much about the Earlsferry and Elie Golf Club established in 1858 but we think there was a cosy relationship between the club and the council so much so that the council donated the Burgh Medal for competition amongst the members of that club. The membership was likely to be Elie people rather than the real Ferrymen and no doubt the middle class such as they were in Earlsferry would join this club. The arrival of the Railway line in 1863 made a huge difference to the parochial ferrymen and their golf course. Now golfers from Edinburgh and Glasgow could get to Elie relatively easily. They could spend summer holidays here and they could play golf. The Earlsferry and Elie golf club attracted many members from the cities and it seems as though the ferry men felt marginalised. No longer was this their exclusive golfing patch.
When the Captain of the Earlsferry and Elie golf club W.R.Ketchen (see part 3) resigned in 1870 many of the ferrymen must have realised that their future as players on the golfing tract was likely to be limited by the establishment of the Golf House Club in 1875/7. When the Melon Park was leased by Ketchen and his associates it must have been clear to the Ferrymen that this new club was likely to dominate the golfing scene in the years to come and that the committee and founders of this new club were most unlikely to welcome into membership the tradesmen, joiners, golf club makers, masons and professional golfers of Earlsferry. The Earlsferry and Elie golf club although enjoying the tacit if not direct endorsement of the Town council was becoming increasingly confined to visitors – whose profile was close to those who had formed the Golf House Club.
It is our hypothesis that the ferrymen decided to form themselves into a separate club from the GHC through self preservation. This they called Earlsferry Thistle Golf Club established in 1875. The guess work here relates to an article in the newspapers of 1899 in these terms.
“the famous Earlsferry Thistle golf club….less ‘tony’ that its neighbours. The expression ‘tony’ is defined as meaning according to Merriam Webster “marked by an aristocratic or high-toned manner or style” and whilst not exclusively seems to suggest an American/Canadian etymology. It does however very accurately sum up what we guess happened in the case of the Thistle. The ferryman realising the strength of a golf club joined this fledgling club and very soon its prowess became legendary. Most of the ferrymen golfers who had honed their skills on the golfing tract now joined the Thistle. Many of these as can be seen from the section on the golf professionals were enjoying a career in golf at least until they emigrated to spread the word across the Atlantic mainly.
If the new members of the Thistle were resident in Earlsferry they had a right to play over the golfing tract free of charge. We have seen that William Baird of Elie Estate had entered into a lease with some members of the Earlsferry and Elie Golf club of the area known as Melon Park and although the actual lease is extremely difficult to read it seems that it was leased “for golfing purposes” and any club then in existence would have the right to play over that part of the course known as Melon Park. We are speculating here again but we suspect that the Thistle established in 1875 was so established to form a golf club which was entitled to play over the Melon Park. So we have this anomalous position that you can play golf on the golfing tract free of charge if you are resident in Earlsferry. But that per se might not have been enough to enable you to play on the Melon Park but if you were a member of a golf club you could play on the Melon Park. It therefore makes sense that the trades men of Earlsferry would have formed themselves into a club to enable them to play on the extended course which included the Melon Park. It was exactly this complicated anomaly which gave rise to mighty toing and froing between the Town Council and Golf House club in future years when trying to recognised the right of free golf over the golfing tract. (see above under GHC). The Thistle members therefore would be able by virtue of Baird’s stipulation to play over the Melon Park part of the course and also the golfing tract if they were resident in Earlsferry.
According to the newspaper report of 1925 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Thistle the original members who founded the club were Andrew Anderson, Robert Peebles, Andrew Tulloch and John Ward.
It is an interesting collection of people.
Andrew Anderson was born in Earlsferry in 1850 he was a fisherman originally but the only evidence of his golfing ability was that in the 1901 census he was designed as a golf greenkeeper and he was living in the police station at Williamsburgh. This must have been the original police station because the current one was not built until 1937. He was living in this house with his wife Flora and 8 children of whom more later. He is according to the newspaper article the only surviving founder member and he was a greenkeeper at the Recreation Park in 1901. He was the father of at least four professional golfers. James Mackay Anderson born in 1882, William Mackay Anderson born 1883, Andrew Mackay Anderson born 1885, and George Mackay Anderson born 1896. For more details about the careers of his children see the article on golf club professionals on this site.
Robert Peebles was also born in 1850 and he also was a fisherman at least we think so because there were three Robert Peebles in the area. One in Colinsburgh which we have discounted – he was a china merchant and seems unlikely to be a golfer. The second was born in 1848 and lived in Earlsferry but we have discounted him because his mother was a widow in 1871. The Robert Peebles we are concerned with lost his life at sea in 1886 thus we conclude that it was this Robert Peebles who founded the Thistle. The 1925 article indicated that only Andrew Anderson was still alive. Like Anderson his son Robert became a professional golfer see article in golf professionals section. His other son was connected to the golf trade in America although not a golf professional as such.
Andrew Tulloch was much older than his other two Ferrymen. Andrew was 55 in 1871. He was unmarried and was a sailor. He was still on the Thistle committee in 1884.
The fourth founder member was John Ward according to the newspaper article and it states that he was from Elie but we cannot find anyone of that name in Elie at that time or even later.
We wonder whether it was meant to be John Warrender who was a contemporary of Peebles and Anderson and also a fisherman although judging by the number of newspaper reports featuring his name he had a tendency to over indulge and get into fights. Not that this would have prevented him from founding a golf club!
All the very good golfers professional or otherwise who played on the golfing tract in the main joined the Thistle which meant that that club could field the strongest team of any club and so they ruled the roost for a number of years. Various prizes were donated to the club and some of the more unusual ones too. E.g.