James Duncan Bowie

You don’t see many these days, but English professional football used to be full of canny little ball-playing Scottish inside- forwards. One such was Jimmy Bowie, who prompted Watford’s attack for three-and-a-half years, both creating and scoring a substantial share of the goals, and the hat-trick he scored at Shrewsbury on 22 August 1953 was, and still is, the only one for a beaten Watford side in a league match. His signing with Frank Mitchell and others prompted a surge of expectation and big gates, but the euphoria was short-lived. As a Chelsea player in wartime Bowie appeared in the 1944 South Cup final at Wembley, which Charlton Athletic won 3-1, and later left Brentford in part-exchange for Jimmy Hill. Later still he ran public houses in Northwood, Trowbridge and Great Wakering, near Southend.

West Herts / Watford Career