Biography
Left half and left winger Andrew Raisbeck was one of the Hull City pioneers when he signed for the club in August 1904. Andrew was the younger brother of Alexander Raisbeck who played for Scotland eight times between 1900 and 1907 – indeed in early August 1904 the Hull Daily Mail excitedly reported the signing of a Scottish international by the newly formed Hull association club, only to surreptitiously correct the error a fortnight later. Andrew played throughout City’s inaugural season, starting the Tigers’ first two senior fixtures in the 1904/05 FA Cup. As well as the Cup ties against Stockton, Raisbeck started 38 of the 44 friendlies played that season, scoring once and featuring mostly in the left half position.
When City were elected to the Second Division in 1905 Raisbeck was retained and started the season in a more advanced outside left position. He scored in his first senior goal for City in a mid-September 1905 draw against Burnley and added further goals over the next three months against Chesterfield Town, Leeds City and Leicester Fosse . At the end of November Raisbeck was restored to the left half position and completed the season as an ever-present (although he did inevitably miss the Denaby FA Cup tie, played on the same day that he stepped out for City in a League match against Manchester United at the Boulevard). Raisbeck began the 1906/07 season in the left half position but in late October he dropped out of the side and spent the rest of the season playing for the Reserves. He drew a close to his footballing days in May 1907.
Andrew Brown Raisbeck was born in Slamannan, a village a few miles south of Falkirk in central Scotland. His father was a coal miner and the family moved around the Scottish coal mining areas when Andrew was a boy, living in Cambuslang on the southern fringes of Glasgow and Dalserf in the upper Clyde Valley. His father died in 1893 and a few years later Andrew himself was working underground and impressing at football for local side Larkhall Thistle. In August 1900 Scottish First Division side Hibernians signed Raisbeck and he made 11 appearances in his first season, scoring three goals – a brace against Rangers and th other against Celtic. However Andrew drifted out of the Hibees side and in August 1901 he transferred to Dundee. A year later he joined Liverpool, which is where his brother Alexander had built a superb reputation as a no-nonsense centre half. Andrew was not able to break into the Liverpool first team for two seasons prior to his move to Hull in 1904.
Having married in Hull in January 1907 (his best man was City forward Peter Howe), Raisbeck and his wife emigrated to Canada in May 1907. He worked as a coal miner and a fireman in Canada, settling initially in Grassy Lake near Medicine Hat in Alberta. Raisbeck signed up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915 and survived World War One, returning to Canada to make his life in the Bow River community on the fringes of Calgary. In the 1950s Raisbeck retired to Victoria in British Columbia, a city looking across the Salish Sea to Seattle in the United States. Andrew died in Victoria in October 1958.
Details
Nationality: Scotland
Date/Place of Birth: 10 April 1881, Slamannan
Hull City First Game: 17 September 1904, Stockton A (FA Cup Preliminary Round), 23 years, 160 days old
Hull City Final Game: 27 October 1906, West Bromwich Albion H (Division Two), 25 years, 200 days old
Clubs
Larkhall Thistle (1899-1900), Hibernians (1900-1901), Dundee (1901-1902), Liverpool (1902-1904), Hull City (1904-1907)
Hull City Record
Career: 54 apps, 6 goals
Andrew Raisbeck| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1904/05 | - | - | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1905/06 | 38 | 5 | 5 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1906/07 | 9 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |