Daniel Grey was a Welsh medical practitioner who was prominent in the early days of Welsh football, making two appearances for the Wales national football team

Wales national football team

The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...

 in the 1870s.

Early life

Grey was born in New Mills

New Mills (disambiguation)

New Mills is a town in Derbyshire, England.New Mills may also refer to:*New Mills A.F.C.*New Mills Central railway station*New Mills Newtown railway station*New Mills School Business & Enterprise College...

, Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...

 in Scotland and attended Glasgow University. He obtained his medical qualifications in 1874, when he moved to Ruabon

Ruabon

Ruabon is a village and community in the county borough of Wrexham in Wales.More than 80% of the population of 2,400 were born in Wales with 13.6% speaking Welsh....

, near Wrexham

Wrexham

Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...

, Denbighshire

Denbighshire (historic)

Historic Denbighshire is one of thirteen traditional counties in Wales, a vice-county and a former administrative county, which covers an area in north east Wales...

 to start a medical practice.

Football career

Grey was a keen sportsman and soon became one of the principals of the Druids

Druids F.C.

Ruabon Druids F.C. were a football club based in village of Ruabon near Wrexham. The club was founded in 1869 as Plasmadoc F.C. by David Thomson and his brother, George, of Ruabon...

 club alongside Llewelyn Kenrick

Llewelyn Kenrick

Samuel Llewelyn Kenrick was a Welsh solicitor who became the founder of the Football Association of Wales and organised the first Welsh international football match against Scotland in 1876...

 and the Thomson brothers, George and David

David Thomson (footballer born 1847)

David Thomson was a Welsh amateur footballer who helped found the Druids club and played for Wales in their first international match...

. Grey became a founder member of the Football Association of Wales

Football Association of Wales

The Football Association of Wales is the governing body of association football in Wales. It is a member of FIFA, UEFA and the IFAB.Established in 1876 , it is the third-oldest national association in the world, and is one of the four associations The Football Association of Wales (FAW) is the...

 and attended the Association's inaugural Annual General Meeting

Annual general meeting

An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...

 at Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

 on 24 May 1876.

In 1876, he also took part in trials organized by Kenrick to select Welsh players to represent their country in a match against Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

. The match

Scotland v Wales (1876)

The first international match for the Wales national football team came on 25 March 1876 when they played Scotland at Hamilton Crescent, Partick, the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club, with the Scots claiming an emphatic 4–0 victory...

 was played at Hamilton Crescent

Hamilton Crescent

Hamilton Crescent is a cricket ground located in the Partick area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club.Hamilton Crescent is famous for holding the first ever international football match, played between Scotland and England...

, Partick

Partick

Partick is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch. Partick was a Police burgh from 1852 until 1912 when it was incorporated into the city.-History:...

, the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club on 25 March 1876, with Grey playing on the right wing. The Welsh were well defeated, conceding four goals without reply.

In 1877, Grey, described as "a busy player and tremendous worker", played (and scored) for Druids in the inaugural Welsh Cup

Welsh Cup

The Welsh Cup is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams from Wales.The Football Association of Wales is the organising body of this competition, which has been run every year since its inception in 1877-78...

 tie, contributing £15 to the FAW's fund to purchase a trophy. Druids reached the final on 30 March 1878, losing 1–0 to local rivals Wrexham.

Grey's second international appearance came a week before the Cup Final, on 23 March 1878, in a 6–0 defeat by Scotland at the original Hampden Park.

Later career

Grey had retired from active playing by 1880, but continued to attend Druids and Wrexham matches as a spectator. In his medical capacity, he was often called upon to tend to injured players. In 1889, a Welsh Cup match between Wrexham and Westminster Rovers became particularly violent and Grey was called upon to lecture the players about their behaviour.

Grey continued to live in Ruabon, where he died in February 1900, in his early 50s.