Whitehill Welfare F.C.

History

The earliest records of Whitehill Welfare indicate that a team first appeared in the 1905–06 season under the name Rosewell Rosedale, replacing the defunct Rosedale Rovers, and playing in the Midlothian Juvenile League. The highlight of this team's existence was reaching the Scottish Juvenile Cup Final, and an incident in August 1939 where the police investigated an attack on the Rosewell goalkeeper, accused of letting the side down during a 10–2 defeat.

Although Rosedale continued operating until 1957, it was in 1953 that Whitehill Welfare were formed, the founding fathers being a group of employees from the now defunct Whitehill Colliery. In the early years, Whitehill were the chopping block for the more fancied clubs. Although reaching the Scottish Juvenile Cup semi-final in 1959, they did not really come to the fore until 1964, when they won every trophy in the Mid and East Lothian Section Juvenile League.

By 1979, there were only six Juvenile clubs left in Whitehill's league, and so the Welfare decided it was time to go senior. This resulted in the team joining the East of Scotland Football League in August 1979, a league which they were to top at the end of their first four seasons. Membership of the Scottish Football Association also has the advantage of allowing the club to compete in the Scottish Cup. In this competition, Whitehill Welfare have knocked out Albion Rovers (1986–87), earned replays against three Scottish Football League sides.

The pinnacle of the Whitehill success saw the team, led by player/manager Dave Smith, being unbeaten in over 36 games in local competitions before playing against Celtic in the 1995-96 tournament. The game saw Whitehill Welfare hold Celtic to 0–0 until the 39th minute before ending in a 3–0 defeat. In 1999, Whitehill were stopped short from advancing to the third round of the Scottish Cup, when it lost against Stenhousemuir, 2–0. The 2012–13 season saw the return of Mike Lawson, who guided the team to the SFA South Region Challenge Cup and completed the double by winning a 16th East of Scotland League title before leaving for Spartans under a cloud, taking 13 players along with him.

Whitehill Welfare's most successful manager, Dave Smith, returned and was tasked with building a new team and, after a season of bedding this team in, he led this new team to an unprecedented 17th league title and yet another Scottish Qualifying Cup. The club joined the Lowland Football League in 2013 but were relegated back to the East of Scotland league in 2019 (their place taken by Bonnyrigg Rose, a team based just two miles from Rosewell which had only moved to the senior setup from the Junior ranks a year earlier). Former club captain Andrew Kidd was appointed as manager on 15 November 2020.