The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872 (26 page)

Left: The clubhouse at Ranfurly Castle Golf Club in Bridge of Weir. Right: The memorial board to the fallen of World War One at Ranfurly Castle Golf Club in Bridge of Weir acknowledges the ultimate sacrifice made by John Fraser McNeil, son of founding father Peter.

We move on now from the Mitchell Library: Heather is accompanied by daughter Val and her husband Paul and their 14-year-old son, Michael, the Hedges family all up from Worcestershire for a break with their mother and grandmother and keen to know more about their great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather and his personal history, including Rangers, about which they knew nothing. Michael is a keen Spurs fan, but there is no escaping the McNeil genetic line. Val, who was born in Paisley, explains, ‘Michael and his brother David, who’s 17, have always supported Rangers as their Scottish team – they even had the club kit. It’s amazing to think we have a family connection with the club and didn’t even know it.’ A whistlestop tour of Glasgow’s West End takes in Bentinck Street, the former West End Park (now Kelvingrove) and we even pass by Peter’s last home in Gibson Street, which sits above a restaurant where diners prove optimism is still a strong Glaswegian trait by dining al fresco on a Scottish summer afternoon that would be charitably described as bracing by inhabitants of almost any other city in western Europe.
  Despite the passage of time and the lack of knowledge about Peter’s day-to-day life, far less his sporting achievements, the afternoon is still tinged with sadness for Heather as she reflects on the burden her grandmother and mother must have carried throughout their lives and about which they spoke nothing to subsequent generations. She explained, ‘My mother didn’t inform us about any details of her father’s death. The only explanation I can think of is she must have been very distressed and upset about the whole thing and not wanted to talk about it. Of course, we knew about Fraser and also my grandmother’s second marriage – my mother was 13 when grandmother remarried. I never even asked my mother how she got on with her stepfather and in what ways, if any, the marriage affected her at that time in her life. I’m interested now, of course – back then we were so wrapped up in what was going on in our own, busy lives. Peter was never, ever discussed and maybe, in many ways, it was a result of the “shame” they felt at his mental decline. That’s the only conclusion Doreen and I can reach, it’s the only explanation that makes sense. Mother lived until the age of 93 and was always very guilty, when asked about her father and other events of her family past, of saying, “Och, I can’t remember.” We were absolutely never aware of a football connection in the family, though maybe that was because there were no boys, only Doreen and me. The favourite sport in our family was tennis – mother became quite a star at her club in Pollokshields and also played with my father when he came back on leave from his job in the east.’

Happy families…Peter McNeil’s life may have ended tragically, but his descendants have lived long and prospered under the guidance of Heather and Doreen.

Gertrude Grace and husband-to-be William (better known by his nickname ‘Chappie’) met, Heather recalls, in around 1922 at a dance in the Glenburn Hydro Hotel in Rothesay. Chappie, who was originally from Kirkcaldy and born in 1893, was the son of a shipping captain. The family moved to the west of Scotland when Chappie was a young man and he began his career in a junior position at a Glasgow merchant. By coincidence, the Chapmans regularly holidayed at Garelochhead, the village so associated with the McNeils and Peter Campbell. William, who lived to the age of 83, became a general manager with Steel Brothers, East India merchant traders in commodities such as rice and teak, and the nature of his employment ensured a long courtship with Gertrude Grace. They may have met in 1922, but William worked a pattern of three years on and six months off, so it was not until 1925 and after many letters sent back and forth that they could finally declare their love officially through marriage. Heather and Doreen, three years her junior, were born in Burma and also lived the early part of their lives in Bangkok before moving to boarding school at Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex. They returned to Scotland in 1940 and Heather became a home economics teacher until she married and Doreen a speech therapist.
  Heather recalled, ‘Mother never once said to us, “Let’s go and have a look at where I used to live,” even though we moved back to the west of Scotland in 1940. I vaguely remember the death of my grandmother Janet, Peter’s wife, in April 1932. I was only five and mother must have been upset at losing her own mother, but she couldn’t make it home because their two leave periods at that time were in 1931 and 1934. When Moses died in 1938 I don’t even think mother knew anything about it. By that time, father was still out east and mother was with us at Westcliff-on-Sea. As far as I know, we were never in touch with any other members of the McNeil family and, to be honest, didn’t even know they existed. It’s amazing to think both sides of the family had a connection with Garelochhead and we didn’t even know about one another. My father’s mother ended her days at Whistlefield, which is a stone’s throw from Garelochhead, and I still have pictures from a holiday there in 1934. It’s incredible to think my great-uncle Moses was still alive then and living only a few miles along the road in Rosneath.’
  By now, we are at Craigton Cemetery after a call ahead to cemetery foreman Alex, which soon had the Light Blues legions mobilised again to cut a path through the grass which has grown high and wild through the summer. We stand quietly at the McNeil plots, the only sound carrying in the air coming from the distant buzz of strimmers and the throb of petrol-driven lawn mowers, with even the school playground silenced by the arrival a few weeks earlier of the summer holidays. After a few moments, Heather studies the McNeil stone to the left and tries to relate, with the help of Val, to the names of great-aunts and uncles and first cousins she did not even know existed until now.
  The vantage point that offered an uninterrupted view towards the Main Stand at Ibrox a couple of months earlier now offers only restricted views through trees and shrubbery that have taken the opportunity to grow wilder in the warmer weather, even if the mercury has been battling to escape the thermometer’s relegation zone in its bid to record a Scottish summer. However, within 10 minutes we are on Edmiston Drive itself and are soon being ushered into the main entrance of the very club this family helped to form. It is often remarked that a visit to the Main Stand at Ibrox, designed by renowned football architect Archibald Leitch, himself a Rangers fan, and opened in 1929, is akin to stepping inside a stately home. The interior of the listed building elicits gasps of admiration from Heather and her family, obviously on their first visit to the stadium, and confirms that the pride which all Rangers supporters take in its mahogany and marble splendour is not misplaced. Inside the fabled walls of the Blue Room, where for decades kings, queens and Prime Ministers as well as football aristocracy have gathered, defining moments from the club’s history have been delicately painted around the edges of the ceiling and particularly poignant is the scene depicting a group of young rowers, among them Peter, hauling their boats from the waters of the Clyde near Flesher’s Haugh in the spring of 1872. Compliments follow as we head along the corridor and into the Trophy Room, the Ibrox equivalent of the Jewel House at the Tower of London, where the club’s glittering prizes symbolise as much to supporters as the priceless gems of the monarchy to the most ardent royalist. It is no huge shock that the greatest focus of attention is not fixed on memorabilia from Real Madrid, Manchester United or AC Milan, but instead the oldest trophy on display – a small, silver goblet presented to Moses in 1876 for winning the half-mile race at the Gareloch annual sports. Across the corridor half an hour later, in the Members’ Suite, there are huge grins when Peter’s name and his title of honorary match secretary are pointed out in a framed members’ card, the early equivalent of a season ticket, which dates back to 1876.
  Finally, we climb the stairs and take the comfortable, padded seats in the directors’ box and gaze out on the pitch below. Heather says, ‘It’s the lack of knowledge about mental health in those days that’s so disturbing. Peter was most probably suffering from an illness that afflicts so many people these days. He probably wouldn’t have died had he been alive today. He would have been diagnosed earlier and treated…people live so much longer these days. He was only in his mid-forties when he passed away…I was glad to see his decline and eventual death came over a very short period of time. It all happened so quickly in the end, only a few months, and that’s at least a crumb of comfort.’

A Legacy of Legends…Heather with daughter Val, son-in-law Paul and grandson Michael underneath the Bill Struth portrait in the Ibrox Trophy Room.

Doreen, who lives in London, was unable to make the trip but shares another pleasant connection with the club, this time indirectly. Her husband Michael is the nephew of former Arsenal player and manager Tom Whittaker, who was coach under the great Herbert Chapman in the 1920s and 30s before taking over at the club after World War Two. The Gunners and Bill Struth’s Rangers battled for supremacy in a series of annual challenge matches throughout the 1930s at Ibrox and Highbury that determined, arguably, the best club side in the world at the time – and Rangers lost only once in six head-to-heads.
  Meanwhile, as Heather looks out on the Ibrox pitch this July afternoon the groundstaff are putting the finishing touches to a playing surface as flawless as a new slate wiped clean ahead of every new campaign. The pitch is being lined in brilliant white against the verdant shimmer from blades of grass that appear to have been individually manicured rather than collectively cut. Hope hangs heavy for the future, but so too, in this corner of the directors’ box, lingers pride in the past. Heather says, ‘I’m sure Peter would be very pleased with the way his family has turned out. It’s such a pity we didn’t know more about the McNeils before now, but I’m very proud of my grandfather’s achievements, even though his life ended so sadly. Rangers Football Club is quite a legacy to leave behind.’

References

Chapter 1 – The Gallant Pioneers
1. The Times, 9 October 2004.
2. Bill Leckie, The Sun, 19 March 2007.
3. The Only Game, Roddy Forsyth, page 19.
Chapter 2 – The Birth of the Blues
1. Daily Record, 10 April 1953, page 7.
2. 100 Years of Scottish Sport by Rodger Baillie, page 20.
3. Among Friends by Alastair Dunnett, page 27.
4. Rangers Supporters’ Association Annual 1954, page 47.
5. Daily Record and Mail, 22 April 1935.
6. Helensburgh and Garelochhead Times, 4 January 1882.
7. Evening Times, 10 April 1923.
8. Scottish Football Annual 1878–79.
9. ‘Association Football and the Men Who Made It’, by Alfred Gibson and William Pickford, volume four The Game in Scotland, by Robert Livingstone.
10. Scottish Athletic Journal, 23 August 1887.
11. 25 Years Football by Old International.
12. The Story of the Rangers by John Allan (Desert Island Books edition), page 11.
13. Sport and Patronage: Evidence from 19th Century Argyllshire by Lorna Jackson, Edinburgh University.
14. The Story of the Rangers by John Allan, page 10.
15. ibid, page 10.
16. Daily Record and Mail, 22 April 1935, page 20.
Chapter 3 – Moses McNeil
1. The Queen’s Park Football Club by Richard Robinson, 1920, page 258.
2. North British Daily Mail, 7 February 1876.
3. Evening Times, 10 April 1923.
4. Daily Record, 18 April 1938.
Chapter 4 – Valiant, Virtuous – and Vale of Leven
1. The Old Vale and its Memories by James Ferguson and James Graham Temple, page 175.
2. ibid, pages 180–81.
3. Scottish Football Annual 1877–78 edition, page 76.
4. The Queen’s Park Football Club by Richard Robinson, 1924, page 423.
5. Scottish Athletic Journal, 27 September 1887.
6. 50 Years of Reminiscences of Scottish Cricket by D.D. Bone.
7. The Story of the Rangers by John Allan, pages 20–21.
8. 25 Years Football by Old International, pages 28–33.
9. North British Daily Mail, 19 March 1877.
10. Glasgow News, 9 April 1877.
11. Scottish Football Annual 1877–78, page 76.
12. Glasgow News, 13 April 1877.
Chapter 5 – Peter McNeil
1. The Rangers FC by True Blue, Scottish Football Annual 1881–82.
2. Scottish Athletic Journal, 27 April 1883.
3. Minutes from SFA AGM on 25 April 1883.
4. Scottish Athletic Journal, 23 February 1883.
5. ibid, 16 March 1883.
6. ibid, 18 February 1885.
7. ibid, 25 May 1883.
8. Evening Times/Glasgow Herald, 1 April 1901.
9. Information from Parish of Govan Combination, Application for Relief (Assistant Inspector’s Report), Mitchell Library.
10. Hawkhead Health Records for Peter McNeil, from NHS Archives.
11. Scottish Referee, 5 April 1901.
Chapter 6 – Sweet Charity
1. Glasgow News, 21 April 1879.
2. North British Daily Mail, 22 April 1879.
3. Glasgow News, 21 April 1879.
4. ibid, 30 April 1879.
5. ibid, 1 May 1879.
6. ibid, 2 May 1879.
7. ibid, 2 May 1879.
8. ibid, 3 May 1879.
9. Glasgow Evening Citizen, 21 May 1879.
Chapter 7 – Peter Campbell
1. Accessed at Caird Library, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
2. ‘The Folklores and Genealogies of Uppermost Nithsdale’, courtesy of Dumfries Library.
3. Dumbarton Herald, 18 May 1871.
4. Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches by D.D. Bone, page 39.
5. Accessed at Caird Library, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
6. Football: A Weekly Record of the Game, 7 March 1883.
7. A History of our Firm. Published privately by Rankin, Gilmour and Co., from a collection at Caird Library, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Chapter 8 – The End of the Innocence
1. Glasgow News, 9 June 1879.
2. Scottish Athletic Journal, 11 May 1883.
3. ibid, 27 April 1883.
4. ibid, 16 November 1883.
5. ‘Glasgow and West of Scotland Family Historical Society’ newsletter, October 2004, pages 19–24.
6. Scottish Athletic Journal, 24 August 1883.
7. ibid, 14 September 1883.
8. ibid, 31 August 1883.
9. ibid, 6 October 1885.
10. ibid, 31 December 1884.
11. ibid, 24 November 1884.
12. ibid, 29 September 1885.
13. ibid, 6 October 1885.
14. ibid, 9 November 1883.
15. SFA committee minutes, April 1884.
16. Scottish Athletic Journal, 11 April 1884.
17. ibid, 6 October 1885.
18. The Glory and the Dream – the History of Celtic 1887–1987 by Tom Campbell and Pat Woods, page 29.
19. ibid, page 32.
20. Quote taken from Scottish Football League – The First 100 Years by Bob Crampsey, page 15.
21. Scottish Athletic Journal, 27 May 1885.
22. ibid, 8 June 1886.
Chapter 9 – William McBeath
1. Scottish Athletic Journal, 25 April 1884.
2. Callander Through the Ages by Alastair Thompson (Callander Printers, 1985).
3. Administrator of www.workhouses.org.uk
4. Lincoln Echo, 21 August 1965.
Chapter 10 – The FA Cup – From First to Last
1. The Official History of the FA Cup, Geoffrey Green, page 27.
2. Scottish Umpire, 2 November 1886.
3. Drink, Religion and Scottish Football 1873–1890 by John Weir.
4. One Hundred Years of Scottish Football by John Rafferty, page one.
5. Quote taken from The Second City by C.A. Oakley, page 233.
6. Scottish Athletic Journal, 30 March 1883.
7. ibid, 12 October 1883.
8. ibid, 7 January 1885.
9. ibid, 13 April 1883.
10. Scottish Umpire, 26 October 1886.
11. Liverpool Courier, 1 November 1886.
12. Scottish Umpire, 2 November 1886.
13. ibid, 8 February 1886.
14. ibid, 8 February 1886.
15. The Only Game by Roddy Forsyth, page 22.
16. Scottish Sport, 6 August 1889.
17. Scottish Referee, Monday 5 August 1889.
18. Scottish Umpire, 22 February 1887.
19. Scottish Athletic Journal, 22 February 1887.
20. ibid.
21. Scottish Umpire, 8 March 1887.
22. Scottish Athletic Journal, 15 March 1887.
23. ibid, 29 March 1887.
24. ibid, 15 March 1887.
25. The Story of the Rangers by John Allan, pages 44–45.
26. Scottish Athletic Journal, 1 March 1887.
27. The Only Game by Roddy Forsyth, page 22.
28. Scottish Sport, 6 August 1889.
29. Scottish Referee, Monday 5 August 1889.
Chapter 11 – Tom Vallance
1. A profile of Vallance appeared in the Scottish Athletic Journal of 25 March 1885.
2. I am indebted to George Parsonage of the Glasgow Humane Society for his good humoured and patient assistance, expertise and historical knowledge of the period in question, not to mention his knowledge of rowing from then until now.
3. Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches by D.D. Bone (1890).
4. Scottish Athletic Journal 25 March 1885–86.
5. Many thanks to Paul Rowland, editor of the Indiaman Magazine, the only genealogical and history magazine dedicated to the lives of the British in India between the 16th–20th centuries. He kindly put me in touch with Derek Perry in Australia, a former tea planter and Assam historian who agreed with marvellous alacrity to write a sketch based on his research of the conditions Tom Vallance would have faced in the region in the 1880s.
6. Scottish Football Journal, 25 March 1885.
Chapter 12 – Happily We Walk Along the Copland Road
1. Scottish Athletic Journal, 22 February 1887.
2. ibid, 21 March 1884.
3. ibid, 12 October 1886.
4. ibid, 23 August 1887.
5. Scottish Umpire, 10 July 1888.
6. Liverpool Echo, 1 November 1886.
7. Scottish News, 22 August 1887.
8. Scottish Umpire, 9 August 1887.
9. Scottish News, 22 August 1887.
10. ibid.
11. Scottish Athletic Journal, 23 August 1887.
Chapter 13 – A New Era
1. Scottish Sport, 29 January 1892.
2. Scottish Umpire, 10 June 1885.
3. Scottish Athletic Journal, 19 June 1885.
4. ibid, 8 December 1885.
5. Scottish Sport, 22 March 1890.
6. Scottish Football League – The First 100 Years by Bob Crampsey, page 40.