Jack Forrest (footballer, born 1878)
Scottish footballer (1878-?)
John Forrest (born 1878) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Bradford City and Stoke as a forward.
Career
Forrest was born in Lanarkshire and played for Carluke Milton Rovers and Motherwell before being signed by Stoke in 1902 after being highly recommended by the club's Scotland-based scouts. He began his Stoke career brilliantly, scoring twice on his debut in a 3–0 win over Staffordshire rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers, and scored his third against Liverpool two matches later. However, after the first month at the club he began to feel homesick and was allowed to return to Scotland. He played once in November and then in April before the board had enough of Forrest and told him to leave.
In May 1903 he joined the newly formed league club Bradford City taking his place in the club's first line-up against Grimsby Town on 1 September 1903. He spent a little over two seasons at Bradford, scoring 18 goals in 53 league games and being the club's top goalscorer in 1904–05. He also scored six goals from just five FA Cup games including four in a 9–0 win over Sunderland West End on 10 December 1905.
In January 1906 he left to join Hamilton Academical, where his 18-month spell included scoring a brace to eliminate local rivals and former employers Motherwell from the Scottish Cup on his debut, and later some minor silverware with a Lanarkshire Cup win. He then moved on to Ayr followed by Vale of Leven.
“Jack Forrest (footballer, born 1878)” enters the record as scottish footballer (1878-?). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jack, Forrest and footballer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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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 Apr 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6112548. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1902, 1903 and 1904.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jack Forrest (footballer, born 1878)” 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.