The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872 by Gary Ralston

Author:Gary Ralston [Ralston, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781859837474
Publisher: Derby Books Publishing Company Ltd
Published: 2010-10-20T23:00:00+00:00

William McBeath

William Shakespeare once wrote that sorrow comes not as single spies, but always in battalions. That was in Hamlet. It could equally have been written about MacBeth. Or McBeth. Or McBeath. Or McBeith, or any one of the many derivatives of the surname used throughout the life of the founding father about whom least has, until now, been chronicled. If William McBeath had proved as adept at evading tackles on the field of play as his historical footprints have been at slipping the best efforts of researchers off it he would surely have followed in the path of fellow pioneers Moses McNeil and Peter Campbell and won representative honours for Scotland. Unfortunately, the faint tracks he did leave, which have required expert genealogical assistance to help trace back in time, lead along a sad path of poverty and the poorhouse, mental decline and the tag of ‘certified imbecile’, two marriages (the latter of which appears to have been bigamous) and even a criminal charge for attempted fraud. His final resting place in a pauper’s grave, in a lair shared with a total stranger, lies unmarked, literally under a holly bush in scrubland at the forgotten fringes of a Lincoln cemetery.

Until now the life of William McBeath, beyond his contribution to the formation of the football club, has remained a mystery. He is first mentioned in reference to Rangers in 1872 as a family friend of the McNeils and one of the four founding fathers of the club. However, he played his last game for Rangers in November 1875 and disappeared from club records soon after. Not even a photograph of him has ever been uncovered. In truth, the game of football did not appear to be his forte, despite his best efforts – he was forced to take to his bed for a week after the club’s first game against Callander, so exhausted was he by the effort required to participate in the developing sport. However, like Peter McNeil, he clearly enjoyed the respect of his peers for his organisational skills and W.D. McBeath was the first president of the club, listed in the roll of office bearers for the 1874–75 season.

The last recorded mention of William in connection with Rangers came in the pages of the Scottish Athletic Journal in April 1884 when he was honoured by the club at its half-yearly meeting for the role he played in its conception and subsequent birth. The paper reported: ‘Mr William McBeath, one of the founders of Rangers FC, was presented with a beautiful gold badge by a few of those who were intimately associated with him in the management of the club when he was one of its active members. The presentation was made by Tom Vallance, who is a sort of connecting link between the ancient and modern members, and the grateful manner in which he did so was worthy of the occasion. Mr McBeath replied briefly and after thanking those who had been good enough to honour

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