BEARGER 1,829 Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/club-welcome-mcneils-family/ Tuesday, 12 January 2016, 13:00 by Nick Thomson THE STORY of Rangers’ four founders is well known, but what of the others that played in the club’s first ever match back in 1872? Well, one of those men was Harry McNeil, the older brother of Moses McNeil, and on Saturday, Rangers will welcome his great-grandchildren Ann Law and Archie Stewart to Ibrox Stadium as guests of the club. Accompanying them will be Iain McColl and Gordon Bell from the Rangers’ Founders Trail, and the duo are also involved with the Rangers’ Graves Restoration project which is how they came to meet both Ann and Archie. Iain takes up the story now, and he explains: “A number of years ago we started researching the story of the founders, and we were very lucky through Gary Ralston, the author of the ‘Gallant Pioneers’ book, to locate current family members. “We made contact with Ann and Archie back in 2009, and they contributed initially to the book, and off the back of that, we started the Rangers’ Graves Restoration project where we managed to find the resting places of not only our founders, but a lot of the people associated with Rangers in their early days and years. “One of those was Harry McNeil, and we knew him to be the great grandfather of Ann and Archie. We found him in an unmarked grave in a cemetery in Rutherglen, and myself and my colleague Gordon Bell thought it would be a good idea to make contact with Ann and Archie to see if it would be suitable to undertake the restoration of his grave as part of the project. “So we went and met them last summer, and they were thrilled with the project and also the Founders’ Trail, which they joined us on too. We then met with Stewart Robertson [Rangers’ Managing Director] in November to discuss the whole Founders project and the restoration project was discussed at length, and I explained the story about Ann and Archie to him, and suggested it may be good to invite them along to a game as guests of the club. “Harry had the distinction of playing in Rangers’ first ever game against Callander on Fleshers Haugh, and Stewart agreed it would be a great idea to invite them along, and from there, the club offered to cover the cost of the restoration of Harry’s grave, and that’s currently under construction and it will hopefully be in place by the end of this month or by early February. “Harry was there on day one, and he was still visiting Ibrox with his grandchildren in the 1920s, so he had the benefit of seeing the seed planted at Fleshers Haugh and going on to play at Ibrox in front of huge crowds, which must have been incredible for him to see. “Both Ann and Archie now are thrilled to bits to be coming to the game. They are a big Rangers family, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming them on Saturday.” You can find out more about the Founders Trail and the Graves Restoration Project at http://www.thegallantpioneers.co.uk. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTP 0 Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 I've said it many times but what an absolute outstanding job the lads at the Founders trail are doing, and have produced for us to date. Amazing. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno55 0 Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 If any rangers fans who haven't done this tour don't delay book today it's unbelievably brilliant... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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