Sam Latter

Sam Latter
Personal information
Full name Samuel Latter
Date of birth 4 January 1904[1]
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Date of death 6 June 2010(2010-06-06) (aged 106)
Place of death Edinburgh, Scotland[2]
Position(s) Left back[3]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
– Kilsyth Rangers[3]
1928–1931 Third Lanark 55 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Samuel Latter (4 January 1904 – 6 June 2010) was a Scottish footballer who played as a left back in the Scottish Football League for Third Lanark.[3] His spell as a player was brief, but decades later he was featured in national media after becoming Scotland's oldest man,[1] a title he held for ten months until his death aged 106.[2]

Life

The son of a Jewish tailor who emigrated from the Russian Empire, he was raised in the Gorbals area of Glasgow.[1][4][5] After joining Third Lanark from Kilsyth Rangers in 1928, the "giant defender"[5] was a member of the squad which was relegated from Scottish Division One in 1928–29 but also a regular as they went back up as winners of Division Two in 1930–31, and joined the club tour of Denmark that summer.[5]

Latter married an Edinburgh woman and relocated to the Scottish capital in 1931[1] (they joined the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation from its inception), and having lost his place in the first team at Third Lanark to James Warden, he soon decided to retire from football and pursue other career options.[5] He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II and latterly trained fighter pilots, ran a confectionery store on Lothian Road and operated a tyre business in Lauriston, while living in Liberton. His wife Flora predeceased him in 1990, and in 2001 he moved into 'Strachan House', a care home in Blackhall.[1]

Latter was the oldest living man in Scotland between August 2009 and his death in June 2010,[2] and for a few weeks was the oldest living Jew in Britain.[6] In a list of oldest documented sportspeople, he is the oldest worldwide to have been a footballer (as of April 2024 – the list is not necessarily definitive).

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Football star Sam in new position as our oldest man, The Scotsman, 5 January 2010
  2. ^ a b c Scotland's oldest man, footballer Sam Latter, dies at 106, The Scotsman, 17 June 2010
  3. ^ a b c [A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players], John Litster / Scottish Football Historian magazine, October 2012
  4. ^ My playing days nearly went up in smoke, Evening Times, 4 January 2010
  5. ^ a b c d Samuel Latter, The Jewish Chronicle, 23 July 2010, via PressReader
  6. ^ UK's oldest Jewish man, 106, dies, The Jewish Chronicle, 17 June 2010