McMaster, John – The Celtic Wiki

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Personal

Fullname: John McMaster
aka: Johnny McMaster
Born: 4 January 1893
Died: 27 December 1954
Birthplace: Port Glasgow
Signed: 3 May 1913 (from Clydebank Jrs)
Left: Aug 1916 (RAF); Apr 1918 (Royal Engineers); 1 May 1923 (free); 7 July 1923 (Queen of the South)
Position: Defence, Centre-half
Debut: Celtic 3-2 Rangers, Charity Cup, 10 May 1913
Internationals: none

Biog

The great Johnny McMaster was signed by Celtic in 1913 from Clydebank Juniors.

He made an impressive debut in a tremendous 3-2 victory over Rangers in the Charity Cup final at Parkhead on May 10th 1913. Port Glasgow born Johnny McMaster was a no-nonsense centre-half. His no-frill performances may have made few headlines but while not the most spectacular of player Johnny was certainly among the most dependable.

One of his great contributions to Celtic in that debut season was scoring a valuable debut goal in a 1-0 win over Airdrie in the league. However, he was never a regular scorer.

His Celtic career was interrupted by World War One despite originally being passed up due to a partial deafness. The army took him onto the Motor Transport Section of the Service Corps. To keep spirits up, when a member of the Royal Army Service Corp he was loaned to Fulham and Birmingham among others. Johnny McMaster however loved to play for Celtic and took every possible opportunity to return to Parkhead. He did play for Celtic during the war for season 1914-15 & 1915-16 but then the war effort took over.

When based in Edinburgh during the winter of 1917/18 Johnny McMaster was granted four days leave over the New Year period and he was desperate to turn out for the Bhoys in the Ne’erday game against Rangers. However the army had marked on his leave pass that Johnny was not allowed to travel by train during his short time off (effectively barring him from turning out for Celtic). His pass was endorsed as “not available for travel by train” (a sinister move in Celtic eyes).

Determined not to miss out at this chance to pull on the Hoops, Johnny McMaster took matters into his own hands and walked from Edinburgh to Glasgow along with four mates! A love of this magnitude for his club and city has little if ever been matched by any other.

Such determination as can be seen from his desire to walk all the way to Glasgow to play for Celtic underlines exactly the type of dedicated Celt that Johnny was.

He was selected for the British Army football team in a 1917 fundraising match, and had played in the Glasgow FA’s old annual challenge match against Sheffield in 1914, but received no further representative honours

He would be injured serving in France later that year but made a full recovery and was able to resume his football career, taking his role back from Hugh Brown (who had mostly deputised for him in the time away). His first match back was in Nov 1919 in a 1-1 draw with Ayr Utd, and he became a regular again after a long stint away.

He won the Scottish Cup with the Bhoys in 1914 and helped the first team to the league title in 1914, 1915, 1916 and 1922. A wonderful return, which if not for the war would have been gloriously more.

He only scored six goals in his time, but notably Celtic won all the games he scored in and conceded none. He scored the winners in 1-0 victories over Airdrie in Jan 1914 and Albion Rovers in Aug 1920.

He began to lose his first team place in 1922-23, and only played sporadically that season. The McStay brothers and John McFarlane were the preferred players, so at least he could say that he was displaced by some high quality players.

In total, he made 218 league & Scottish Cup appearances – and scored six goals – before being released in 1923.

After Celtic, he joined Queen of the South and then hung up his playing boots in 1925. He then returned to his trade as an electrician, and worked for the Daily Express newspaper in this role.

Johnny McMaster was a great Celt, and one all should fully admire when we read back his story.

He passed away in 1954.