Product Description

The harrowing and heartbreaking stories behind the founding fathers of Rangers are sympathetically revealed and told for the first time. This is the first in-depth study of the club's early years' history for almost a century. Rangers are one of the most famous teams in world football, but the scale of their success is astonishing set against the backdrop of their formation in 1872. Back then, four young men gathered in a park in the west end of Glasgow and decided to set up a team that would do justice to the new craze of association football. Amazingly, William McBeath and Peter Campbell were just 15-years-old, Moses McNeil was only 16 and his brother Peter the elder statesman at 17. Soon they were joined by Tom Vallance, another 16-year-old who quickly rose to become captain of the famed club. None of those gallant pioneers was a native of Glasgow and yet within five years they were Scottish Cup finalists, set up in their spiritual home on the south side of the burgeoning industrial city and attracting a working class audience they have never since lost. But what became of the men who formed a club that's loved and cherished by so many? Rangers may have scaled great heights, but the personal lives of almost all the founding fathers were touched with terrible tragedy. Journalist Gary Ralston has used fresh research and uncovered hitherto unseen documents, records and transcripts to sympathetically recount the heartbreaking stories behind the men who created a great institution. He reveals the torrid 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 in the forgotten 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, also tells of happier times, the links with royalty and football aristocracy such as Sir Stanley Matthews and the club's relationship with the city in which it was born and grew in the tumultuous Victorian era. It also traces the only two known surviving grandchildren of the founders and tells 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9542 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-11
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Gary Ralston, 39, works with the Daily Record in Glasgow and has covered sport extensively for the paper, including the Beijing Olympics, World Cup final, Champions League final, Six Nations and Super Bowl. A journalist for 20 years, he has reported on Scottish football extensively at home and abroad at club and international level for papers including the Daily Express and The Sun. He started his full-time career at the Rangers News, the official club publication. He lives in Stirling with wife Laura, son Lewis and daughter Jennifer.

Customer Reviews

An absolute must-read for Rangers fans everywhere
Knowledge of the Gallant Pioneers who founded the Rangers has been scarce to say the least. However, this wonderful book - which is brilliantly informative and fittingly poignant throughout - fills in a lot of missing gaps and should be of interest to Rangers supporters everywhere.

The story of Rangers is the greatest rags-to-riches story in the history of football but, as this book details, is marked with tragedy as well.

Quite simply, it's the most important book on Rangers to be released in years, if not ever.

It's not a statistical analysis of early results although there are references to certain games, but a narrative which covers Rangers' formative years and details the lives of the four young men who founded our Club.

There is absolutely no way it will disappont on any level in the slightest and every single Rangers fan in the world should have a copy of this in their house.

The author has commendably not romanticised anything, nor does he shirk from any contentious issues and the book is all the richer for it.

Buy it, read it and encourage others to do the same.

A Truly Fantastic Read
Rangers 1872: The Gallant Pioneers is a truly fantastic read. Most committed Rangers fans will be familiar with the names of The Gallant Pioneers and the broad story of the formation of the club. This book puts flesh on the bones in remarkable and hitherto unprecedented detail. Do not make the mistake of thinking that this is a dry and remote account of results and dates, nothing could be further from the truth. It is a highly engaging narrative of the lives and fates of The Gallant Pioneers that no-one could help but be moved by. Again though, this is no melancholy trudge through tragedy and despair, although there is enough adversity to soften the hardest heart. This book is so comprehensively researched and sympathetically written that there are some genuine laugh out loud moments as The Gallant Pioneers are transformed from distant images on faded photographs into real people with distinct personalities, complete with authentic anecdotes to illustrate that point.

If you are a Rangers supporter, this book is quite simply a must for you. You have to own it. Even if you are not, it is a collection of moving human stories set against the back drop of a burgeoning industrial Glasgow that really should fascinate anyone.

This book is quite simply a triumph.

A Long Overdue History
This is an excellent and long overdue account of the lives of the founders of Rangers FC. The author sets the scene in the first chapter, as he outlines the social conditions in Glasgow, into which the founders moved from Argyll. The author goes on to examine the foundation of Rangers, highlighting previous good work on the subject, but also some inaccuracies. The author sets the inaccuracies straight, and provides substantial evidence of where, when, and why the club was formed.

Between chapters describing the early successes and failures of the club, are biographical details of the founders - Moses McNeil, Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell, William McBeath and Tom Vallance (accredited as a founder although not there at the inception.) The lives of these men range from success to tragedy. An inspiring and yet very much sad story throughout.

The author places the founders in the correct social background. They were not from the poorest background, but nor were they rich by any means. Rangers players did not live in the deprived conditions suffered by many in the city, but nor did they live in the opulent areas of the West End that were emerging at that time. They lived in tenements.

The author highlights the charitable work carried by Rangers. This charitable work was open to all irrespective of faith or creed.

The author dismisses the often cited inaccuracy (or deliberate jibe), that the club was founded on a sectarian basis. There was no ban on players because of their religion. This aspect of Rangers did not evolve until another 50 years, and could form the basis of another book. Rangers were founded for footballing purposes.

So the author destroys quite a few myths in his well-researched book. Rangers were not a rich club from the outset, Rangers did give generously to charity, and Rangers were not founded on a religious basis.

This book sets the record straight. Gary Ralston is to be commended on this excellent work.