A.F. Kinnaird, later Lord Kinnaird,( 16 February 1847- 30 January 1923) was one of the most brilliant of the first generation of public-school footballers. He remains one of the most famous amateurs:  playing in long white trousers and quartered cap and sporting a superb flowing red beard, he was a great crowd pleaser: at the 1882 cup final he stood on his head in front of the stands.   As one of the most brilliant of the first generation of public-school footballers, he made his début for Scotland in 1873 and captained Wanderers to victory over Oxford University in the second FA cup final, scoring ‘a very well-obtained goal’ after ‘a splendid run, outpacing the opposite backs’. His record of FA cup final appearances will probably never be equalled: he played in a total of eleven finals (if two replayed matches are included) and captained the Old Etonians five times and the Wanderers twice. Kinnaird was a notable exponent of ‘hacking’ – the deliberate kicking of an opponent’s shins – which he, and many early amateur players, considered crucial to the ‘manly’ character of football.    His mother once told the FA secretary C W Alcock, of her fear that Arthur would one day return with a broken leg.  ‘If he does, it won’t be his own’, Alcock replied. In 1890 Kinnaird became president of the FA, in succession to Sir Francis Marindin.   For Kinnaird, apart from being sheer fun, football had great moral and physical benefits: ‘I believe that all right-minded people have good reason to thank God for the great progress of this popular national game’, he said late in life.  The day after his death the Westminster Gazette, 31 January 1923, paid tribute to Kinnaird for his role in assisting the growth of football from an unorganised pastime into ‘something to which the British Saturday has become sacred’.  It declared: ‘His vigour and the robustness of his method caused much discomfort to opponents with whom he came in contact, and he would have fared badly at the hands of a modern professional referee; but he was a good sportsman, even though he was a violent one.’