1st Highland Light Infantry F.C.

2nd Highland Light Infantry F.C. Former association football club July 2025 1st Highland Light Infantry 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry F.C. the Jocks,Folkestone v Highland Light Infantry Folkestone Express 27 January 1892 8 the Highlanders 1881? 1959? Secretary varied per stationing _redhalf2 FF2400 008000 008000 000000 The 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry F.C., usually referred to as the 1st Highland Light Infantry or 1st H.L.I., was an association football club formed out of the infantry regiment of the same name. History thumb|left|1891–92 FA Cup 2nd qualifying round, Millwall Athletic 3–4 1st Highland Light Infantry, Dover Express, 30 October 1891 thumb|1897–98 1st Highland Light Infantry FC, with trophies won while stationed in Malta The club appears to have been active soon after the foundation of the battalion in 1881,Athletics Glasgow Daily Mail 26 June 1882 6 and in 1885, when stationed in Belfast, considered entering the Irish Cup.Irish Football Association Morning Post 14 September 1885 7 Especially in its early days, the side was referred to as the 71st Highlanders,Kent Senior Challenge Cup Isle of Thanet Gazette 19 March 1892 2 the 1st Battalion having formed out of the 71st Regiment.71st (Glasgow Highland Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/071-786.htm Land Forces of Britain, the Empire, and Commonwealth https://web.archive.org/web/20070103215344/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/071-786.htm 4 July 2025 3 January 2007 In 1891, the club reached the final of the Chatham and Rochester Charity Cup.Sports and pastimes Medway News 2 May 1891 3 Before the 1891–92 season, the club joined the Football Association, and entered the FA Cup qualifying rounds.New clubs Daily News 29 August 1891 6 It continued to enter the competition until 1894–95, three times reaching the third qualifying round, at which stage there were 40 clubs left in the competition.1st Highland Light Infantry https://wildstat.com/p/151/club/ENG_1st_Highland_Light_Infantry_FC Wildstat 4 July 2025 The club's most notable scalp was Millwall Athletic in the second qualifying round in 1891–92, coming from 2–0 down to level the score 2–2 after 90 minutes, and winning 4–3 in the then-permitted extra-time period, all four goals being scored by Coventry.Highland Light Infantry v Millwall Athletic Dover Express 30 October 1891 8 The FA threw out a Millwall protest against the referee ordering an Athletic player from the pitch for wearing illegal boots.TJottings by a football wanderer Medway News 31 October 1891 6The Association Cup Leicester Chronicle 31 October 1891 6 The XI's greatest honour came later in the 1891–92 season, when it won the Kent Senior Cup for the only time, hammering Gravesend 11–0 in the final, at Chatham, left-winger Caldwell scoring 5 of the goals; the reserve XI had also won the Junior Cup earlier in the season, a record only previously achieved by Royal Arsenal.Highland Light Infantry win the Kent Cup Dover Express 18 March 1892 8 The club also beat St Bernards, then a leading Scottish side, at Aldershot in a friendly in November 1892.Highland Light Infantry v St Bernards Yorkshire Herald 8 November 1892 8 The club entered the FA Amateur Cup in 1894–95 and 1899–1900, albeit it never seems to have played a tie, twice winning through rounds walkover and then in turn scratching,Hawthorn Fred FA Amateur Cup Complete Results 2009 Soccerdata Hockley 10, 12 the last time due to the battalion being posted to South Africa.Battle of Magersfontein https://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/battle-of-magersfontein/ British Battles 4 July 2025 In 1893–94 and 1894–95, the club reached the semi-final of the Army Football Association Cup, and it won the Aldershot Divisional FA Cup on its first instalment in 1894–95.Army Football Association https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4472177952866987&set=a.115551488529677 Facebook 4 July 2025 After the regiment was posted to Malta in 1896, the football side won the Governor's Cup three times, Soldiers' Club Cup, and Island Cup, all by 1900.The late Lieutenant Haldane Aberdeen Journal 28 May 1900 7 The battalion largely served abroad until the end of the First World War and only appeared once more in senior football. This was in the 1949–50 season, when it took part in the Highland Football League, but the Highlanders finished bottom, with only 3 wins in 30 games.McColl Brian Highland League results http://sfha.org.uk/highlandleagueresults.htm Scottish Football Historical Archive 4 July 2025 The following season the battalion was sent to Colchester and afterwards seems only to have played Army footballSports fixtures Aldershot News 16 March 1951 9 until the battalion's merger with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers.http://british-army-units1945on.co.uk/infantry/royal-highland-fusiliers.html Royal Highland Fusiliers British Army units 1945 on 25 May 2014 Colours The club wore halved shirts, probably in the regimental colours of scarlet and green, with white shorts.Famous regimental football teams at the front Pearson's War Pictures 12 May 1900 1 16 442 Ground The club's ground depended on where the battalion was based. In 1890–91Coming events Dover Express 4 September 1891 5 and 1891–92 it was based at the Shaft Barracks in Dover, but, due to lack of on-barracks facilities, had to use any available ground,Army Challenge Cup Folkestone Express 26 March 1892 6 such as the Dover Cricket GroundFootball Folkestone Express 13 December 1890 7 or Crabble Meadows, for competitive fixtures.Highland Light Infantry v Royal Engineers Dover Express 19 February 1892 8 Before the 1892–93 season the battalion moved to Stanhope Lines in AldershotAlcock Charles Football Annual 1892 Cricket Press London 140 and in 1895, despite hopes of moving to Colchester, the 1st was sent to Malta, preventing it from taking part in English football.The Army Belfast News-Letter 16 November 1894 3 The club played its last season in senior football, in 1949–50, at Fort George near Inverness.To-morrow's matches Inverness Courier 3 March 1950 3 Notable figures The club's secretary in the 1890s was Captain the Hon. Henry Anson, third son of Thomas Anson, 2nd Earl of Lichfield.Former Dover officer's suicide Dover Express 4 March 1904 2 References Category:Defunct football clubs in England Category:Defunct football clubs in Scotland Category:Association football in the British Army Category:Military football clubs in Scotland Category:Military football clubs in England Category:Sports clubs and teams in Malta Category:Association football clubs established in 1881 Category:Association football clubs disestablished in 1959 Category:Football clubs in Inverness Category:Former Highland Football League teams