They Wore the Dark Blue for Club and Country – Alec Troup

There is no Dundee game this game due to the international break and so as Scotland were at Wembley for a World Cup qualifier, we continue our series of looking at players who have played for both Dundee and Scotland by featuring appropriately on this Remembrance weekend, the first Dundee player to face England, Alec Troup who fought on the Western Front in the First World War. 

Known to many fans as ‘Wee Troupie’ due to his small stature, Alec was a wonderfully tricky winger whose sparkling play, gentlemanly demeanour, good humour and extremely likeable personality undoubtedly brightened up many a troubled heart during the dark days of the First World War and the years that followed. He became a real hero of the people at Dens Park at a time when such role models were in great demand to rouse the population’s spirits as well as being an extremely talented player.

Alexander Troup was born in Forfar on May 12^th 1895 and joined local side Forfar Athletic in 1914 having previously played for Junior side Forfar North End. When the Station Park side went into abeyance for the War the following year, Angus neighbours Dundee FC were quick to pounce and persuaded the diminutive winger to sign for the Dens Park club, taking Forfar’s closure as a chance to pay no fee despite them asking for one in 1919. 

Troup was persuaded to sign for the Dark Blues by a Dundee director while he was working up a ladder repairing a roof for an undertaker and when he came down to sign a contract, he did so by signing it on top of a new coffin. It was a macabre start to his Dundee career but his Dark Blue debut was anything but. In a scintillating performance on the first day of the 1915/16 season in a 2-0 win over Ayr United in front of 5000 at Dens, Troup set up the first goal for centre-forward Davie Brown before adding a second himself which The Courier described as “an outstandingly brilliant goal.”

It was a great start for ‘Eckie’ whom the Dundee support immediately took to their hearts and The Courier stated in their match report that “Troup was brilliant of course.”

Over the next two seasons Troup played forty-one times for Dundee before he volunteered for military service and was called up to join the Royal Engineers. His last game before leaving for basic training at Largs on the Ayrshire coast was against Hearts at Tynecastle on December 16^th 1917 but he turned out again for The Dee when they played nearby Ayr United in February before being sent to the Western Front.

Troup also turned out for the Somerset Park side as a guest while training at Largs and played alongside Alex Shankly, elder brother of Dundee’s 1962 League winning manager Bob. When he was sent to northern France to fight in the trenches he played in inter-regiment matches for the 13^th Reinforcement Company Royal Engineers and he was lucky enough to escape the ‘war to end all wars’ with his life and return to his native Forfar in the spring of 1919.

Dundee FC, like Forfar, had themselves gone into abeyance after being asked to withdraw from the League to save travelling costs at the end of the season that Troup had ‘joined up’ and when they returned for the 1919/20 season, The Dee were delighted to have Alec back in their ranks.

Dens Park was reopened for the public trial on August 13^th when Troup played for The Reds against The Blues alongside another two Forfarians George Henderson and Dyken Nicoll and in Dundee’s first real game back, away to Motherwell three days later, he took up his familiar position out on the Dundee left-wing.

At Dundee’s first home league game the following week, Troup was amongst the ex-servicemen who were given a special cheer by the Dens Park crowd. Dundee had opened a special enclosure at the match for returning soldiers who were maimed or injured and were now allowed into free games for life. Troup was distressed at the number of men wearing the ‘hospital blue’ uniform in the new enclosure and he vowed he would make the most of his new career, realising how lucky he was to be playing.

For the next four years Troup was Dundee’s star turn and did much to alleviate the post-war gloom. He turned in some brilliant performances despite playing with the handicap of a loose collarbone and often, without apparent cause, the shoulder would come out and the winger had to pull up. On then came the trainer and with one thump the shoulder would be back in place and ‘Wee Troupie’ would carry on as if nothing had happened.

Troup was an original touchline terror and would certainly have made more than the four Scottish international and two Scottish League appearances he managed while at Dens had it not been for Rangers’ ‘Wee Blue Devil’ Alan Morton.

Troup made his debut for Scotland in an exciting British International Championship match against England at Hillsborough, Sheffield in 1920 which the ‘Auld Enemy’ won 5-4 and although Troup was Dundee’s 15^th Scottish internationalist, he was the first to play against the England. Two further caps followed the next season against Wales at Pittodrie and Northern Ireland in Belfast and in 1922 he won a fourth cap against Northern Ireland at Celtic Park and he also won two Scottish League caps against the Irish League in 1921 and 1922

By early January 1923, Dundee were just two points behind league leaders Rangers but astonishingly Troup was allowed to join Everton for £4000. Rumours were abound that Dundee had to sell their best player to help pay for the newly opened grandstand designed by the renowned football architect Archibald Leitch which still stands today but in Troup’s absence Dundee could manage only nine points from the last eleven games as they finished a disappointing seventh.    

At Everton Troup was just as popular with the Goodison support as he had been at Dens and he was credited for being a major contributory factor to Dixie Deans’ sixty goals record for The Toffees.

After seven successful years on Merseyside where Troup picked up a league championship winning medal in 1928, he returned to Dundee and a terrific crowd of 31,000 – 11,000 more than the last home game – turned up to watch his second debut in a Scottish Cup fourth round tie with Hearts.

Despite being past his best, Troup still became a key man for the next three years until he retired from the game at the age of thirty-eight. In the next two seasons, Troup missed just two matches in each campaign despite being in his mid-thirties and in his final year managed another thirty-two appearances.

His last match for Dundee came at Dens on April 22^nd 1933 against Celtic, who had won the Scottish Cup the week before and he played his part in a terrific 3-0 win.

Upon retiring, he worked in his gentleman’s outfitter shop in Castle Street in Forfar which he had opened upon returning from Everton and he remained a popular local hero until he died in his hometown in December 1952.

Troup was only the second man from Forfar to turn out for Scotland, gaining a fifth cap while at Goodison in a 1-0 win over England at Old Trafford and in Douglas Lamming’s Who’s Who of Scottish Football he is described as “a diminutive wingman possessing dazzling ball control, resolution and a mastery of the dipping centre.”

There is no doubt that the Dundee forwards appreciated these ‘dipping centres’ and there is no doubt either that the Dundee support loved his ‘dazzling ball control and resolution.’ Troup has been nominated for the Dundee FC Hall of Fame on three occasions and there is also no doubt also that he will be inducted sooner rather than later.

Honours at Dundee:

Scotland full caps: 4

Scottish League caps: 2

Appearances, Goals:

League: 282, 42 goals

Scottish Cup: 23, 5 goals

Totals: 305, 47 goals