The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872

Rangers are one of the most famous teams in world football, but what became of the teenagers who formed the club?
  In the spring of 1872 four young men gathered in a park in the west end of Glasgow and decided to establish a side that would do justice to the new craze of association football. William McBeath and Peter Campbell were just 15 years old, Moses McNeil was 16 and his brother Peter was the oldest at 17. Soon they were joined by Tom Vallance, another 16-year-old, who quickly became skipper of the fledgling club.
  None of those gallant pioneers was a native of Glasgow and yet within five years they were Scottish Cup finalists, were set up in their spiritual home on the south side of the burgeoning industrial city and attracting a working-class audience they have never lost.
  Rangers may have scaled great heights since those early days but, sadly, the personal lives of almost all the founding fathers were touched by terrible tragedy.
  Journalist Gary Ralston has used fresh research and hitherto unseen documents, records and transcripts to sympathetically recount the heartbreaking stories behind the men who created a great club. He reveals the tales of death through insanity, a drowning that denied a birthright as a steamship entrepreneur and the sad passing of a pioneer who lies buried in a pauper’s grave on the fringes of an English cemetery, cast as a certified imbecile, tried as a fraudster and left to live out his life in the poorhouse.
  This fascinating insight into the earliest years of Rangers – the first in-depth analysis for almost a century – outlines the weight of evidence that suggests the club was formed in 1872, not 1873 as many fans believe.
  It also tells of happier times, the links with royalty and football aristocracy and the club’s relationship with the city in which it was born in the tumultuous Victorian era. It recalls the memorable matches and political intrigues and examines the personalities who have helped to shape one of the most successful clubs in the game. It also traces the only two known surviving grandchildren of the founders in the 21st century and reveals how they knew nothing about their grandfather’s most famous achievement.
  Rangers 1872: The Gallant Pioneers tells one of football’s most romantic tales – and also one of its saddest.

Gary Ralston works at the Daily Record in Glasgow as a sports reporter. He has covered the Beijing Olympics, World Cup Final, Champions League Final, Six Nations and Super Bowl.
  A journalist for 20 years, he has reported extensively on Scottish football at home and abroad at club and international level for papers including the Daily Express and The Sun.
  He began his full-time career at the Rangers News, the official club publication. He lives in Stirling with his wife Laura, son Lewis and daughter Jennifer.

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by The Breedon Books Publishing Company Limited, 3 The Parker Centre, Derby, DE21 4SZ.
2nd edition published in Great Britain in 2010 by The Derby Books Publishing Company Limited, 3 The Parker Centre, Derby, DE21 4SZ.

Kindle Edition published 2010.
© Gary Ralston, 2010
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the copyright holders, nor be otherwise circulated in any form or binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the -subsequent publisher.
ISBN 978-1-85983-881-5

Dedication
For Laura, Lewis and Jennifer – and the descendants of William McBeath, wherever they may be.

Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgements
The Gallant Pioneers
The Birth of the Blues
Moses McNeil
Valiant, Virtuous – and Vale of Leven
Peter McNeil
Sweet Charity
Peter Campbell
The End of the Innocence
William McBeath
The FA Cup – From First to Last
Tom Vallance
Happily We Walk Along the Copland Road
A New Era
Our Light Blues’ Legacy
Appendix

References
Bibliography
An Anthology of Early Rangers’ Writing

Foreword

I’ve had my share of pastime, and I’ve done my share of toil,
And life is short – the longest life a span;
I care not now to tarry for the corn or for the oil,
Or for wine that maketh glad the heart of man.
For good undone, and gifts misspent, and resolutions vain,
’Tis somewhat late to trouble. This I know –
I should live the same life over, if I had to live again;
And the chances are I go where most men go.
The Sick Stockrider
by Adam Lindsay Gordon, 1833–1870.

The above verse by the Australian poet was read by Tom Vallance on the evening of Wednesday 13 April 1898 at his restaurant, The Metropolitan, in Hutchison Street, Glasgow. The occasion was the 21st anniversary of the 1877 Scottish Cup Final between Rangers and Vale of Leven and 30 former players and friends of both clubs accepted the invite from the first great captain of the Light Blues to attend.
  He told his guests:
‘The same spirit that characterised football in the old days has gone. It has been reduced to a purely mercenary matter.’

* * * * *

‘Our very success, gained you will agree by skill, will draw more people than ever to see it. And that will benefit many more clubs than Rangers. Let the others come after us. We welcome the chase. It is healthy for us. We will never hide from it. Never fear, inevitably we shall have our years of failure, and when they arrive, we must reveal tolerance and sanity. No matter the days of anxiety that come our way, we shall emerge stronger because of the trials to be overcome. That has been the philosophy of the Rangers since the days of the gallant pioneers.’
Bill Struth

Acknowledgements

This book has been in the planning, research and writing stages for almost three years, and it has not only been the impetus to tell a great story that has maintained enthusiasm, but also the support of countless individuals. It goes without saying that this is not an end, but hopefully a beginning for others to research and write still further on the early years of Rangers, especially as archives open up and records become even more easily accessible.
Firstly, my thanks go to Rangers historian David Mason, who offered wise counsel from the outset and whose own research efforts, particularly in relation to Tom Vallance and the whereabouts of William McBeath, were much appreciated. Rangers’ early history is a passion we both share and while there were times when we competed for the same ball, we always shared the same goal.
The staff at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden, particularly curator Richard McBrearty, Kenny Strang and Tommy Malcolm, also deserve enormous credit. Kenny and Tommy, in particular, have been a rich source of anecdotes, historical data, quotes and photographs. In another life Kenny taught me how to drive and his patience now is as impressive as it was back then. I particularly appreciated his willingness to take a three-point turn out of bed on a Saturday morning to open up the Hampden vaults for another of my queries and quibbles in his personal time. Robert McElroy, author of the excellent Rangers Historian, has provided kind advice, not to mention generous access to his own archives. Colleagues in the Scottish press have provided a sympathetic ear and encouraging support; these include Stephen Halliday, Gary Keown, Rodger Baillie, Jim Traynor, Iain Scott, David Leggat, Drew Allan, Mark McGivern and Alan Pattullo. Thanks also to Alan Hamilton and Donald Leary at Record pictures and Kevin Mansi and Andy Lines on news.
The people of the Gareloch have freely given of their time and knowledge, especially Alistair McIntyre, Richard Reeve, Robert McIntyre, Mike Davis at Helensburgh Library and the staff of the Helensburgh Advertiser. At Hearts, thanks go to Bill Robertson and David Speed, while at Hibs thanks to Tom Wright. Acknowledgements also go to Brian McAusland at Clydesdale Harriers, Jack Murray, Andy Mitchell, David Thompson of the Scottish Football League, Jane McNeil, Derek and Bev Perry, Alistair Tough, Gordon Urquhart, William Wernham, David Williamson at the Scottish Whisky Association, Stuart Hendry at Glengoyne and Kathleen Brown, Ken Dunn and the Callander Heritage Society, John Howard at Canwick Road Cemetery in Lincoln, Gordon Wilson of Glasgow Accies and Mike Stanger at Clydesdale Cricket Club. There is also a passionate community of Rangers historians out there and enormous thanks to Iain McColl, Gordon Bell, Gordon McGilvray, Stevie Tyrie, John McKnight, Gordon Semple, Suzi Murray and Alergy for the generous and unselfish way they were prepared to freely offer up their own findings, photographs and research efforts. Thanks to Susan Rees, Val Hedges, Brian Clements, Peter Higginbotham, Stanley Matthews, Graham Hopner, Andrew Roberts, Geoff Everitt, Lorraine MacKenzie, Andy Kyle, Glyn Barrett, Gordon Stewart, Elma Lindsay, Peter Gilmour and Paul Rowland at The Indiaman magazine and the online community at Rootschat. Wray Vamplew, Adrian Harvey, Matthew Taylor and Tony Collins kindly gave of their own knowledge, as did John Gildea at Clyde Rowing Club, John Bowie and Owen McGhee at Clydesdale and George Parsonage of the Glasgow Humane Society.
The staff at libraries and archives throughout the UK often went above and beyond – Harry Singh and his co-workers at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, not to mention the Ibrox and Elder Park branches, the National Library in Edinburgh, Caird Library at Greenwich, the British Library, the National Archive at Kew, the libraries at Perth, Stirling, Lincoln, Liverpool, Bristol, Dumbarton, the Ewart Library in Dumfries, as well as the RFU museum at Twickenham.
Love to Davie and Marion Ralston, Dad and Mum, and sister Laura, particularly for their babysitting skills. Finally, to Laura, the best wife in the world and the one whose love and understanding made it all possible. I am all yours again darling (at least until the next one…)

The Gallant Pioneers

The magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum opened its doors in the summer of 2006 after a three-year refurbishment at a cost of £28 million. The beautifully restored Victorian landmark boasts 8,000 works of art and – as many Rangers fans were quick to point out – one work of fiction. In a section of the ground floor devoted to Glasgow Stories, space was given over to an exhibition of Symbols That Divide, which included flags, banners and colours, many of them associated with the city’s two great clubs, Rangers and Celtic. To the annoyance of many fans of the Light Blues, the script associated with their favourites (since changed following a string of complaints) started: ‘Rangers began as a Protestant club…’ In an article in The Times to mark the 130th anniversary of the very first Scottish Cup tie played by Rangers in 1874, a 2–0 victory over Oxford at Queen’s Park Recreation Ground on the south side of Glasgow, it was noted: ‘It was only thanks to large lashings of luck that Rangers were able to evolve from the primeval soup of Scottish football’s prehistoric era.’1 In March 2007, as the debate on sectarianism raged back and forth in the pages of the Scottish press, one tabloid columnist took Rangers to task and in a fit of indignation declared it: ‘a club which has had its entire history to drive bigotry from the terraces.’2
  As an institution that has been part of the social fabric of Scotland for the best part of 137 years it is inevitable that Rangers – in particular its early years – have attracted myth, mischief-making and mis-perception on a scale to match their triumphs over the decades. This success includes a trophy haul unsurpassed in world football: 52 Championships, 33 Scottish Cups and 25 League Cups, not to mention the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1972, appearances in the Final in 1961 and 1967 and a run to the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester in 2008. At a time when Rangers and its supporters are being more closely scrutinised than ever before, including some potent self-analysis, history has a vital role to play in reminding every fan (not just of Rangers) of the club’s humble origins and how the Light Blues were moulded by its earliest personalities. Their fates, failures and fledgling successes may even, in turn, help redefine the future of a club they could never have dared dream would grow to become one of the biggest in the world. The early years of Rangers have been chronicled in the past, particularly by writers such as John Allan, who wrote the jubilee history in 1923 (and therein lies a story). However, much of what has been recorded on the early years has been fictionalised and regurgitated as truth to create a fog of fable as thick as any haar that rolls across the floodlit pitch at Ibrox from the Clyde during a midweek game.
  So, no, Rangers were not established as a sporting front for the teachings of Knox, Calvin and Luther, even if the upbringing of the club’s gallant pioneers was undeniably Protestant and the ethos of the club remains indelibly so, while still embracing fans from across the religious and social spectrum of 21st-century Scotland and beyond. If there was any criticism aimed at the club’s membership list in the 1870s it was in relation to the clannish nature of its Gareloch influence, with many of the club’s early members associated with a shared upbringing on the Clyde peninsula. Questions on the importance of religion as a defining factor of the club in its formative years are as relevant as asking a survivor from the Titanic how they had otherwise enjoyed their voyage. To pin the Protestant ying to the Catholic yang of Celtic – the Parkhead club were formed in 1887 to help provide succour to the members of that religious community in the east end of Glasgow – is lazy historical shorthand. It seeks to place the debate on the Old Firm and both clubs’ formations, rivalries, politics and problems into snug, pre-assembled pigeonholes, including a shared ideological birth based on religious motivation, albeit from different tenets of the Christian faith. However, the formation of Rangers does not fit. The inspiration of Peter and Moses McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath as they walked through the Glasgow park in early 1872 near the spot that would later house the museum that stood and misrepresented their motives, was pure and simple. They sought nothing more than to add prowess in association football to a range of sporting interests that already included ‘manly’ pastimes such as shinty, rowing and athletics.
  Likewise, the formation of their club and its progress throughout that decade and beyond owed absolutely nothing to good fortune and everything to solid friendships (or Gareloch clannishness), sound organisation and a firm structure. For example, within 18 months of their humble beginnings at Flesher’s Haugh on Glasgow Green, Britain’s oldest public park, they had already persuaded the Marquis of Lorne, future 9th Duke of Argyll, Governor of Canada and son-in-law to Queen Victoria, to become their first patron. Finally, Rangers has not had their whole history to address and resolve affairs nowadays associated with sectarianism. Such emotive issues did not arise until at least 40 years after the earliest players, most of them still dressed in their street clothes, kicked the club’s first, battered piece of leather around a patch of open ground, driven on by the altruistic ideal of sport for sport’s sake and the dream of scoring a game-winning goal against their debut opponents, Callander (it never came and the match finished goalless). Wider debates on sectarianism are tangled in a labyrinth of landmine topics ranging from Irish nationalism, militant republicanism and the nature of Scottish, Irish and British identity at the turn of the 20th century.