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Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902)

association football player (1902-1976)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 14, 2025
Entity authorityQ29032930
Source-derived summary

David James Edgar (5 February 1902 – 1976) was a Scottish footballer who played as an outside left. He scored 20 goals from 121 appearances in the Scottish Football League playing for East Fife, Heart of Midlothian and Airdrieonians, and was a member of the East Fife team that reached the 1927 Scottish Cup Final. After moving to England, he scored 20 goals from 92 appearances in the Football League playing for Aldershot and Darlington in the 1930s.

Life and career

Early life and career

Edgar was born in Edinburgh and had lived in the Merchiston district. He played football for the Boys' Brigade team based at Dalry church, from where he and Peter Barrett followed Bobby Russell to Penicuik Juniors. In early 1922, Edgar performed well in junior international trial matches. He had a trial with Division One club Celtic before moving into the senior ranks in mid-February with East Fife of Division Two. He was joined soon afterwards by his former colleagues, manager David McLean believing that "the best value could not be got from the winger until they had the generalship of Barrett and the resourceful feeding of Russell" to complete the left side of his team.

Senior football

The trio soon established themselves in the team; in a 1927 retrospective, the Courier recalled how "in the course of the [1922–23] season the tremendous benefit of signing the other two was demonstrated over and over again". Early in that season, a Courier match report highlighted the danger stemming from Edgar's crosses despite his being marked by the best of the opponents' defenders.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902)” as association football player (1902-1976). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1902, 1976, 1927, 1922—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1902-02-05. The account is most persuasive where Dave, Edgar and footballer can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as association football player (1902-1976). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q29032930. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1902, 1976, 1927 and 1922.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902) primary sources, Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902) archive and Dave research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Dave Edgar (footballer, born 1902)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.