Background
Thomas Chalmers was born in Glasgow, the son of a merchant draper.
Thomas Chalmers was born in Glasgow, the son of a merchant draper.
Thomas Chalmers died in Glasgow in 1926. One of the earliest Scottish players, he is sometimes considered the first great Scottish rugby fullback. He played in the first six international test matches, all of them against England, between 1871 and 1876, including Scotland"s very first match.
He was a solid tackler, good kicker and handy dribbler (a tactic of the time).
He played club rugby for the Glasgow Academicals, which was the strongest club in Scotland at the time. He played in the world"s first inter-district provincial match on 23 November 1872.
Chalmers represented Glasgow District in their match against Edinburgh District on that date. In October 1872, Chalmers took part in a trial match for the Scotland team for the first association football international match against England and was named in the list of 17 possible players.
He also represented Scotland at cricket.
He was an excellent batsman and a good medium paced bowler. On one occasion playing for West of Scotland against Australia in 1878 he scored 38 against the bowling of Fred Spofforth, Garrett and others
Chalmers was praised as "a capital goalkeeper, albeit the rules were new to him." In the event, the entire Scottish team was made up of members of the Queen"s Park club