The Chile Six

The arrival of football in Chile is quite simply down to four men , all Scots. And its implementation on and off-field was due to one more, a Diasporan, and his two brothers and a further Diasporan, as a player and then a pioneering official.

Of the four three were born in the Central Belt, in Stirlingshire, Ayrshire, and The Borders. And, whilst the birthplace of the fourth had been Drainie, the parish of his mother's home-town, Lossiemouth, he grew up and learned his football in and around Glasgow in Port Glasgow. That is before they all by one means of another found themselves in Valparaiso, at the time before the devasting earthquake of 1906, both Chile's major port and most vibrant and international city, with an early British population large enough for the foundation already in 1857 of the Scottish Mackay and Sutherland School. It was only post-quake that Santiago, the political capital took over the lead-role with football there taking off, slowly at first, from 1897.

However, by then the Chilean Football Association had already been was formed, in a cafe in "Paradise Valley" in 1894. Peter Ewing, aged fifty-two, was its Honorary President. He had been born in St. Ninians by Stirling before the family had moved to Glasgow, his father a Currier, he a Merchant. President was David Scott, thirty-two years old, born in Earlston by Melrose but brought up in Tyninghame, his father a coachman and he a journalist. Secretary was Andrew Gemmell, born on the Moray Firth, aged twenty-six and a Teacher/Lecturer at the time, as his Ayrshire-born father had been before him. And Treasurer was Robert Reid, fifty, another newspaperman, born in Ardrossan and the only one to return to Scotland. He would die in Glasgow in 1919.

And of the two others, both Juan, both in Santiago, both Diasporans so Chilean-born, one had his origins in Bo'ness and the other in the south-west Fife. The first was John Ramsay, player and administrator, one of four footballing brothers, another of whom, Joe, also would be a significant figure in the game. John and Joe's parents, Alexander Ramsay, an engine-minder/machinist and Jessie Frew, had grown up as neighbours in the former West Lothian town before taking themselves first to the the mining area of north Chile and then the country's capital. And the other was John Livingstone, whose father, also John, had been born in Inverkeithing, where his his parents in turn had married, his father from Dunfermline, his mother North Queensferry. John Livingstone Jnr. would not only make his mark first as a player and then referee but also be the father of Sergio Livingstone, El Sapo, Chile's first great goalkeeper and captain of his country, including at the 1950 World Cup, including against England.

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Plinths & Plaques

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Peter Ewing

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Goosedubbs, Glasgow

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Earlston

Tyninghame

David Scott

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Andrew Gemmell

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Lossiemouth

14, West End Park St., Glasgow

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Barr Lane, Ardrossan

Robert Reid

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John Ramsay and the Ramsay Brothers

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Kirk Wynd, Bo'ness

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North Queensferry

Juan Livingston(e)

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