How FA Cup final hat-trick hero finally got a headstone

Jimmy Logan (centre bottom row) netted a hat-trick for Notts County in the 1894 FA Cup final

James 'Jimmy' Logan was on top of the world. The Notts County forward had netted a hat-trick in the 1894 FA Cup final to help the Magpies clinch their first major trophy with a 4-1 win over Bolton Wanderers.

Logan had played the game of his life, the hotshot being lauded by the press for his lightning-quick pace and clinical finishing that put the Lancashire opposition to the sword.

In doing so, the Scotland international became only the second man to score an FA Cup treble - after Blackburn Rovers' William Townley in 1890 and matched only once more by Blackpool striker Stan Mortensen in 1953 – and took the headlines in the newspapers the following day.

The Birmingham Gazette called it 'Logan's final'.

Yet less than two years after his history-making exploits, Logan was dead, aged just 25.

Buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Loughborough Cemetery, more than 300 miles away from his family home in Ayr, his body would lie there anonymously for another 120 years until some Notts County fans launched a campaign to "put right the wrong".

Tragedy struck after coming off sick bed to score

Having started his career at Ayr, Logan turned out for clubs including Sunderland, Newcastle and Aston Villa in a colourful career.

But it was at Notts County where he reached his zenith, scoring regularly before his cup final heroics at Goodison Park.

"It was as if his entire career peaked on that day, that's how it looks to me," says author Dave Fells, who wrote the book Jimmy Logan: The Life and Career of a Notts County Legend.

"He scored goals wherever he went, but he was in and out, and he'd fall out with people. But on that day, it all just came together for him.

"When I read up on the Bolton players, they all seemed like big, strong boys and were not averse to chucking their weight around. It was hot and Logan and [Harry] Daft on the wing were very fleet footed and the other guys were suffering in the heat."

Logan left the East Midlands after the cup success, but was tempted back when Loughborough came calling in 1896. It was during that 10-match spell for the Second Division strugglers when tragedy struck.

Loughborough were playing a double-header against Crewe Alexandra and Newton Heath, but arrived in Manchester for the second of the two matches to discover the kit was not there with them – forcing them to play in the street clothes they had travelled in.

The match was played in torrential rain, so the players were forced to go home in the same drenched clothes, with Logan developing a heavy cold.

He got off his sick bed to score in a 4-1 victory over Crewe to round off the season, but then relapsed and suffered with pneumonia, which eventually killed him.

Fells, though, suggests there was more than simply the illness at play.

"Going back to previous reports, sometimes when it said there was a fast-paced game, it was said that Jimmy couldn't maintain his form or keep up, which suggested sometimes that he wasn't fit enough," he adds.

"I sent all the information I had to Professor Clyde Williams at Loughborough University, who specialises in sports science, and he said there were clearly a number of weaknesses in Jimmy's cardiovascular system."

Logan was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave at Loughborough Cemetery

Campaign for a headstone

Less than two years after being feted by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Logan was buried in an unmarked paupers' grave at Loughborough Cemetery in a low-key service, sharing the plot with a local man he had never met and who died 17 years earlier.

Among the attendees was Logan's father, a successful seafarer who owned several properties. The two had fallen out several years earlier due to Jimmy’s insistence on becoming a footballer rather than using his qualification as a trained confectioner.

Logan's body lay without a headstone for well over a century, until Notts County fans Andy Black and Jimmy Willan launched their campaign in 2014.

"It turned out a few people had tried to do something about it in the past, but because it was a paupers' grave, they couldn't have a headstone for just one person because there were other people in the plot," says Black, who has been involved in several football heritage projects linked to Nottingham.

Over the next two years, Black and the council worked together to pinpoint where Logan was buried and agreed for a suitable headstone to be placed to commemorate him.

"The council gave me a rough plan of the cemetery and I found an old newspaper that said he was buried in Compartment 114 and the number of the plot," Black adds.

"I'd go down there and talk to him while I was trying to work it out, 'Come on James, we've got to find out where you are'.

"Then one sunny day after the grass had been cut, I noticed a clump where there was a headstone for a 16-year-old girl that shouldn't have been there – she'd also been buried in Compartment 114, so I was able to measure to the point from there."

The find was enough to confirm Logan's burial site, allowing for a headstone to be placed at a ceremony in 2016, finally marking Logan's resting place 122 years after the striker flew highest.

Andy Black and Jimmy Willan launched a campaign for a headstone in 2014