Biography
Robert Perrett Don was born in the Possilpark district of Glasgow to a father who was a butcher. He came to footballing prominence in the early 1930s with junior sides Glasgow Ashfield and Glasgow Perthshire, joining the latter in June 1934. His form was sufficient attract the attention of Hull City’s extensive Scottish scouting network and he joined the growing number of Scotsmen in manager Jack Hill’s squad and he signed for the Tigers in May 1935. In his first season Don started eight games at right half, filling in for absent team-mates without ever playing in more than two successive fixtures.
City were relegated to Division Three North at the end of Don’s first season at Anlaby Road and Jack Hill was replaced by a new first team manager, the experienced David Menzies. Robert started the 1936/37 season as first choice right half but when Menzies tragically died in service in October 1936, Don drifted out of the side as the club’s Directors took over selection duties. When Ernest Blackburn was appointed City manager in January 1937 he turned to Don only once, a February 1937 3-6 thumping at Gateshead. Robert left the Tigers at the end of the season and had his registration cancelled in December 1937.
Robert returned to Scotland and had a season back in junior football with Ayrshire side Galston and Galloway side Stranraer. In July 1938 Don joined Division Three North side Hartlepools United on an initial one month trial, he did well enough to earn a further month and start the first four Division Three North fixtures of the season – but all four of those matches ended in defeat and Don was not retained when his trial ended in mid-September 1938.
A week later in September 1938 Robert joined North Eastern League side South Shields, a phoenix club that took over the name of another club called South Shields that had moved up the Tyne Valley a few years previously and rebranded as Gateshead FC. Robert lodged in a house adjacent to South Shields’ Horsley Hill Lane ground and was a regular in the first team during the 1938/39 season before World War Two ended his playing days. He joined the Armed Forces in June 1940, his subsequent life was undocumented but eventually took him to Penzance in Cornwall where he died in the later months of 1982.
Details
Nationality: Scotland
Date/Place of Birth: 22 March 1914, Glasgow
Hull City First Game: 26 October 1935, Blackpool A (Division Two), 21 years, 218 days old
Hull City Final Game: 13 February 1937, Gateshead A (Division Three North), 22 years, 328 days old
Clubs
Ashfield Juniors, Glasgow Perthshire (1934-1935), Hull City (1935-1937), Galston (1937), Stranraer (1937-1938), Hartlepools United (1938), South Shields (1938-1939)
Hull City Record
Career: 21 apps, 0 goals
Robert Don| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1935/36 | 8 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1936/37 | 13 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |