Herbert Muirhead

Col. Herbert Hugh Muirhead (10 December 1850 – 4 March 1904) was a British soldier, who played for the Royal Engineers in the 1872 FA Cup Final.

Family

Muirhead was born at 3 Oriental Place, Brighton, the son of James Patrick Muirhead (1813–1898) and his wife Katharine Elizabeth née Boulton (1819–1890). His father was the biographer of James Watt, the engineer, and his mother was the granddaughter of Watt's partner, Matthew Boulton.

Muirhead's eldest brother was Lionel Boulton Campbell Lockhart Muirhead, who composed hymns, and whose son, Anthony, was MP for Wells in Somerset from 1929 to 1939.

Muirhead never married. the Engineers met Wanderers, the top amateur club of the day, in the first FA Cup Final, played at Kennington Oval on 16 March 1872, which the Engineers lost 1–0, to a goal from Morton Betts. In the final, Muirhead was involved in the only attack by the Engineers which succeeded in breaking through the Wanderers defence when, according to the match report in The Field, "a fine run by Lieut. Muirhead brought the ball within a few yards of the centre of the posts".

Military career Muirhead graduated from RMA Woolwich and joined the Royal Engineers as a lieutenant on 2 August 1871. Fellow graduates on the same day were two of his fellow FA Cup finalists, Alfred Goodwyn and Edmond Cotter, as well as Richard Ruck, who played in the 1875 FA Cup Final. Muirhead was promoted to captain twelve years later.

Muirhead received further promotions, to major on 17 December 1889 and to lieutenant-colonel on 4 April 1897, becoming a full colonel on 4 April 1901.

Between October 1871 and September 1873, Muirhead was based at Chatham, before spending two years in Ireland. In January 1876, Muirhead was posted to Bermuda until November 1878 before a transfer to Gibraltar, returning to England at the end of May 1881, where he was based at Aldershot.

Between August 1893 and September 1898, he was posted to Esquimalt on Canada's Pacific coast, where he was involved in West coast defence works. He spent the last five years in the Royal Engineers at Pembroke Dock in South Wales.