William Ribchester (28 July 1898 – 23 February 1986) was a Scottish footballer who played as an outside right.
The son of a Lancastrian schoolmaster who relocated to Govan, Ribchester began his senior career with Celtic in 1916,(Celtic player) Ribchester, William, FitbaStats making two Scottish Football League appearances as an 18-year-old filling in for the injured Andy McAtee.Celtic FC's series of 62 matches unbeaten in Division One, Alan Brown, RSSSF, 29 October 2001A Game from the Past…and a Moment to Remember, Jim Craig's Football 50, 2016 World War I was already underway, and having already been a member of the Officers' Training CorpsAmateurs' Plucky Display, The Glasgow Herald, 13 November 1916, via The Celtic Wiki he was soon called into active duty, serving as a second lieutenant with the Machine Gun Corps and being wounded at Amiens in August 1918.Ribchester Bill Image 1 Albion Rovers 1920, Vintage Footballers He was able to resume playing football when the conflict ended, though he could not break into the Celtic team and moved on to Albion Rovers, playing in the 1920 Scottish Cup Final, a 3–2 loss to Kilmarnock,Is It Really So Strange? , Shaughan McGuigan, Tell Him He's Pele, 6 March 2014 at the end of his first of three seasons in Coatbridge.
He later played for St Johnstone (initially on loan), being an almost constant presence in the side that won the 1923–24 Scottish Division Two title, though he played little in the following campaign (the club's first at Muirton Park) and was loaned back to the lower tier with Dunfermline Athletic, before ending his career with Armadale. Ribchester was later also a school teacher like his father.
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