The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872 (10 page)

The gravesite of Peter McNeil, who lies buried with his brother, fellow pioneer Willie, and their parents John and Jean.

For those with an interest in Rangers’ history Craigton Cemetery has, until now, been better known as the final resting place of legendary manager Bill Struth, the Ibrox colossus who led the club from 1920–54, winning 18 League Championships, 10 Scottish Cups and two League Cup Finals and who was only overtaken last season by Govan son Sir Alex Ferguson as the most successful manager in the history of the British game. Until recently his grave lay badly neglected as dozens of headstones, including his own, were toppled over or dislodged by the cruel wrecking ball of a juvenile demolition squad fuelled by a warped sense of adventure. Admirably, the neglect of Struth’s grave was raised by fans at a club AGM and Rangers quickly agreed to assume responsibility for the restoration of the headstone and future upkeep of the plot. The only problem, cemetery staff point out with a smile, is that Mr Struth lies with his back to the club he helped establish as one of the most famous in the world. Even the Rangers fans among them grin and say that, after a couple of trophyless seasons before the second coming of Walter Smith, it was maybe no bad thing.
  Sadly, however, there are few moments of humour in the story of Peter McNeil, who lies unacknowledged in a plot no more than 50 yards from Struth. Looking for gravesites, particularly those over 100 years old, is akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, cemetery workers Alex and Bob Stewart, who are brothers, and colleague Ted Burrows are Rangers supporters and a hunt for McNeil’s final resting place in plot I501 provides a welcome lunchtime distraction as they kindly volunteer their services and expert knowledge. The ground underfoot has turned into a mulch of mud and soggy foliage, much of it from overhanging trees whose leaves autumn had earlier stripped, just as McNeil was shredded of his dignity in the latter stages of his life by the tragedy of his growing insanity.
 Around and about we go, up one path and down the other, trying to determine if the Edwardian hand that scripted the official records of McNeil’s burial on 3 April 1901 penned the letter I, J or L before the grave number of 501, which would make uncovering his final resting place on the reference grid of the cemetery layout all the easier. Finally, after half an hour of searching and calls to and fro on the phone to the burials department at the council, we have narrowed our search to a neglected scar of grass which has long since been trodden by visitors come to respect the memories of their loved ones. Here, the ancient bones of once dignified citizens share ground space with empty bottles of cheap wine and crushed and drained beer and lager cans. The colours of the labels on the glass and aluminium are just as faded as the elegance of this once handsome burial ground.
  Finally the gravesite, for what it is, is located on a slight incline beside a grander McNeil plot, which includes an intricate headstone, indicating a family of some means, if not necessarily substantial wealth. In truth, Peter McNeil’s final resting place, which has no marker of its own, is a sorry sight as overgrown weeds hold pieces of rubble and stonemasonry from surrounding monuments in their grasp. A pyramid-shaped block of stone is wedged in the soft ground, but is easily released and turned to face the sky, probably for the first time in decades. The name McNEIL is stamped on the side and it is quickly identified as the crown that has fallen from the head of the neighbouring memorial. Alex, the gaffer, confirms from his records that this is site I501, one of three plots owned here by the McNeil family since 1875. Clearly, no one has been near the graves for years. Off in the distance, through the naked branches of a nearby tree, Ibrox Stadium still sparkles in the sun.
Peter McNeil was listed as aged 42 or 43 at the time of his death on 30 March 1901, although earlier census records indicate his date of birth was more likely to have been around 1854, making him four years older. He was a small man, standing a little over five feet four inches tall, but he possibly had bigger vanities as his wife, Janet, was at least eight years his junior and may have been reluctant, in his eyes, to enter into a courtship with a man of more advanced years. Birth records were less stringently kept before 1855, allowing those born before that date to play fast and loose with their age. McNeil clearly had no such qualms about clutching on to his youth a few years longer than most for the best of intentions, love and eventual marriage, even if his attempt at holding back time was strictly unauthorised.

Founding father Peter McNeil, former SFA treasurer and player, honorary match secretary and vice-president of Rangers. (Picture courtesy of Scottish Football Museum.)

The picture that emerges of McNeil is of a man of modesty, order and principle, characteristics that would serve his fledgling club well as it grew in power and influence in the Scottish game throughout the 1870s and early 1880s. He arrived in Glasgow from the Gareloch, where he was born, around 1870 and was in his mid-teens when he made his way to the city. He lived at No. 17 Cleveland Street and No. 169 Berkeley Street in Charing Cross with oldest sister Elizabeth, among other family members, and quickly set up with brother Harry in the business of H. and P. McNeil, listed as ‘hatters, hosiers, glovers and shirtmakers’ but better known as the ‘leading athletic outfitters in Scotland.’ They had premises at No. 21 and No. 23 Renfield Street before moving to a new shop at No. 91 Union Street in Glasgow city centre in 1883. They were regular advertisers in the sporting press at the time, including the Scottish Football Annuals. Their banner displays called out ‘to all the principal clubs in Scotland, also to the Scottish, Sheffield, Ayrshire and Welsh football associations’ and they were ‘outfitters for all amateur athletic sports’ and promised ‘association footballs specially made.’
  Peter was one of the founding four of Rangers and, while his temperament may have been even and his judgement regarded as sober, his personality was clearly underpinned by a tenacious streak of stubbornness. It was to stand the club in good stead during its first season at Flesher’s Haugh as he fought – no doubt, sometimes even literally – to preserve for Rangers the most favourable playing corner of Glasgow Green, thus allowing the club to forge its early reputation as one worth watching to the casual observer. There is no escaping the high regard with which early pioneer William ‘True Blue’ Dunlop held the contribution of Peter to the formation and growth of the club in its infancy. He wrote: ‘Peter McNeil, with characteristic self-denial and zeal for the best interests of the club, used to journey to the most desirable part of the Green about twelve noon, and set up the now noted standards (early goalposts). But it was not enough to set them up. He had, at first, either to watch them himself or pay a boy for doing so until the classic hour in the afternoon was reached.’1
  Any early disputes on the right of Rangers to play in their preferred corner were, according to Dunlop, soon replaced by public acceptance that this was a special team of young players, as worthy of their right to indisputably own a corner of public ground for a few hours every week as they were the support of football fans for whom a trip to Hampden Park to watch Queen’s Park was either too far or too expensive for average wage-earners. Dunlop added: ‘Peter’s commendable zeal was not taxed to the utmost…the rapid strides with which Rangers had acquired (their) reputation constrained the followers of the ball to look, wonder and admire. As a consequence, the desirable part of the Green was, with something like mutual agreement, regarded by all as sacred to the Rangers. And if players looked, didn’t spectators come and stare? The sacred spot became the Mecca of the Green, the god Football being there worshipped by thousands of devotees whose piety would not bear either a journey to Hampden Park, or the necessary subscription…Football was their Allah and the Rangers, if not at that time the prophet, were at least their prophet.’

The Glasgow team from 1880 that defeated Sheffield 1–0, in Sheffield. Committee man Peter McNeil is seated on the floor, far right, next to brother Moses, on the chair. Rangers were also represented by William ‘Daddy’ Dunlop, third from right in the bottom row and goalkeeper George Gillespie, back row, far left. (Picture courtesy of Scottish Football Museum.)

Peter played alongside brothers Moses, William and, occasionally, Queen’s Park stalwart Harry, and was one of the club’s early captains, a reflection of the respect with which he was held at the new club for his powers of organisation. As a player he featured regularly early on for the Light Blues and took part in the club’s first match against Callander in May 1872. He held down a regular first-team place until 1876, when the position of honorary secretary would have at least lessened the blow of being overlooked in favour of more capable performers on the pitch. He served the committee well and was secretary from 1876 to 1883, the equivalent position of the modern team manager, and vice-president of the club from 1886–88. In addition, he was one of the earliest treasurers of the SFA, beating off several other candidates to win the vote of football’s governing body in April 1879, a further reflection of the admiration in which he was held, not only at Rangers but throughout the infant game. After he stepped down in April 1883, the Scottish Athletic Journal noted: ‘The meeting expressed their sense of the worth of the “genial Peter” and he must have felt proud at the reception accorded him when he stood up to acknowledge the vote of thanks awarded him.’2
  However, his tenure as treasurer at the SFA was not without it challenges, as the new regulatory body struggled to find its feet financially in the early years of the game. Peter resigned as treasurer at the association’s AGM in 1883 to concentrate on his own business affairs, but it was a time of frustration at the inability of the SFA to balance its books. Nevertheless, his contribution was noted in the minutes of the time and Peter also received a formal vote of thanks for his efforts. The minutes stated ‘that the association regret that Mr McNeil has resigned the office of treasurer and that this association feels deeply indebted to him for his great services in the past.’3 Andrew Carnegie himself would have struggled to make sense of the game’s financial figures, which relied heavily on the money raised at the gate every second year from the fixture against England. By October 1883 the SFA’s debt had risen to a daunting £120, secretary John K. McDowall had not been paid for nine months and was owed £80 and even Scottish Cup winners Dumbarton had still to be reimbursed for the £15 they had spent on medals for their players. However, the situation improved as the decade progressed, in part as a result of a move from premises at well-to-do Carlton Place into Waterloo Street, halving the SFA’s rent at a stroke (the SFA returned in September 1889 and bought the Carlton Place premises outright, moving in after refurbishment by 1892).
  For much of the 1870s and 1880s, and even into the early 1890s, McNeil appeared to lead a prosperous life. He had married Janet, who came from Cathcart, in March 1885 and within five years they had two children, John Fraser and Gertrude Grace. At that time, H. and P. McNeil were still regular fixtures in the Post Office Guide, an early Yellow Pages in which relatively well-to-do citizens paid to advertise their business and home addresses. By 1891, according to the census, Peter, 34, (but probably 37 or 38) and Janet, 29, had moved with John Fraser (5) and Gertrude Grace (1) and a domestic servant to No. 37 Bentinck Street in Glasgow, a stone’s throw from the West End Park, later renamed Kelvingrove, where the idea of forming a club had first been mooted in 1872.