Memorabilia of one of Scotland’s first international footballers – dubbed “the David Beckham of his day” – has been valued at more than £30,000 on the Antiques Roadshow. Ancestors of Robert Boyd came together to show off his mementoes which included two international caps and a King Cup medal.
Born in 1867, Boyd was a shale miner who played for the West Lothian team Mossend Swifts. At that time, they were prominent in the east of Scotland.
He was called up to the Scotland team and scored two goals in a 4-3 win over Wales in March 1891. The match was part of the British International Championship and was played in front of 4000 people at Acton Park in the north Wales town of Wrexham.
Boyd had made his debut for Scotland two years earlier in a 7-0 win over Northern Ireland at Ibrox Stadium. His footballing memorabilia was valued by Antiques Roadshow expert Adam Schoon, when the BBC show visited Brodie Castle, near Forres, Moray.
Schoon described Boyd as “the David Beckham of his day” and said the gold medal he won would be worth up to £25,000. He was presented with it in 1887 after Mossend Swifts won the King Cup, a competition for member clubs of the East of Scotland FA.
Velvet caps which he won for playing for Scotland were valued at between £5000 and £8000. On Sunday night’s episode of the long-running show, Schoon said: “The medal is totally unique. I think it’s gold but it isn’t marked. It’s heavy enough to be gold. That’s a rare, rare piece, as are the two dated caps. The caps are beautiful, they are made of velvet and are trimmed with silver braid.
“I think the medal alone at auction would be carrying an estimate of £15,000 to £25,000. The caps would put another £5000 to £8000 on top of that and then you have got the whole archive of photographs. It’s a highly important record of a brilliant footballer.”
The medal was kept in a sweetie jar by a relative of Boyd and his great-great- grandson was given it to play with as a child. Boyd went on to serve in World War I with McCrae’s Battalion, which was largely made up of amateur and professional sportsmen.
He survived the war and died aged 63 in 1930.
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