Bobby Hamilton

Bobby Hamilton was a centre forward, formerly of Fulham. He spent one season at Fulham, in 1906-07, where he was the top league goalscorer. He was a well known personality in his native Scotland, where he achieved a fantastic career playing mainly for Rangers, notably for his lethal long-range shooting which got him many a goal. A prolific goalscorer of his day, Bobby secured 11 caps for his country, scoring 15 goals. In Scotland, he was commonly referred to by his first two initials RC.

Before Fulham
Hamilton played for Elgin City and Queen's Park before joining Rangers in June 1897. The main decision to move here other than the standard of football, was to attend the University of Glasgow. Bobby gained honours galore with Rangers, including four League Championship medals and three Scottish Cup medals. He was the club's top goalscorer for nine consecutive seasons. He was top scorer, played every match and captained the team during the 1898–99 season, in which they won every match. His 11 caps for Scotland were mainly all achieved whilst at the Glasgow-based club, which was a good number considering the national sides of the day rarely played more than three or four matches a season. One of the highlights of his career was scoring four goals when Scotland beat Ireland 11-0 in February 1901, in a match he also captained at Parkhead. The following month on 16 March 1901 ,Hamilton became the first Scottish player to score a hat-trick against the English League in a 6-2 victory at Ibrox.

An out-and-out goalscorer, Bobby's record at Rangers was second to none, and including the short spell at the club he had after playing for Fulham, he had a record of 175 appearances and 157 goals.

Fulham (1906-1907)
Hamilton moved south of the border for the only time in his career in the close season of 1906, where he chose Fulham. He only spent a single season at Craven Cottage, in which he was the top scorer in the Southern League with 11 goals. Bobby had therefore helped a great deal in getting the club into the Football League, for they finished top of the league and thus encouraged the League to elect them into the Second Division.

Bobby's calculating methods were not appreciated by the Fulham crowd at first but eventually won them round with his exquisite style and penetrative long-range shooting.

After Fulham
Hamilton decided to return to Rangers in May 1907 and remained there for just over half of the 1907-08 season, until he later appeared for Morton. He then spent a short stint at Hearts before playing for Dundee for a few seasons. He finished off his playing career with his hometown club Elgin City in 1913, and finally Buckie Thistle in 1914.

Bobby had gained a Master of Arts degree from Glasgow University and, upon retiring, began running a successful net-making business and eventually became Lord Provost of his hometown Elgin. He also worked on the Elgin Town council from 1914 to 1937, and was chairman of the Moray & Nairn Education Committee from 1934 to 1937.

He died on 2 May 1948 in Elgin, when he succumbed to stomach cancer.

Fulham Matches
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