The Moonlighter

Fathers Day is the 16th June so why not treat Dad to a Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour Gift Voucher. The Gift Vouchers are without limit of time and reserve a seat on any Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour of your choice(allowing for availability). We’ll be adding a lot more dates once next season’s fixtures are published later this month. Adults £28 Senior Bluenoses and Wee Bears ( under 16) £19 +£1 P+P per order Gift Vouchers, which can be purchased here on our website are posted out on the day of purchase. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/shop Our full range of merchandise can also be viewed.

It will be an honour for us to present the Founders Story for the Newton Stewart Rangers Supporters Club at the Cree Inn on Friday 5th July at 8.00pm. The pub is situated at Creebridge, Newton Stewart DG8 6NP Tickets are only £10 for adults and £5 for kids. 07796 012673 The evening will also provide an insight into The Rangers Graves Restoration Project and The Founders Trail. We hope to see a few of you along.

It will be an honour for us to present the Founders Story at Sandbank Street Orange Hall Maryhill Glasgow on Saturday 29th June at 7.30pm. The presentation will also provide an insight into The Restoration of Rangers Graves Project and The Founders Trail. A disco will be held after the presentation until midnight. Tickets which are priced at only £5 can be purchased from iain.macleod.im@gmail.com We hope to see a few of you along.

Two seats have become available on this Saturday’s Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour Adults £28 Child/Concession £19. If you’d like to join us please reserve your seat here on our website https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/ Further information 0790 2855536.

At the end of last week the Restoration of Rangers Graves Project received a wonderful donation of £200 from the Newton Stewart RSC. We'd like to thank the members of the Club for their overwhelming generosity as this will help to ensure that our restoration work continues over the coming months. Donations can be made here on our website https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/the-restoration-of-Rangers-graves Thank you.

From Fleshers Haugh to Ibrox Stadium we’re bringing our Founders back to the heart of our Club! After the success of our Founders Presentation night at Ibrox in March we’re delighted to announce a second event on Saturday 12th October. Come in to Ibrox via our Front Door, walk up the Marble Staircase, visit our incredible Trophy Room then join us in the Thornton Suite for the most incredible sporting story of all. Tickets for this unique event are priced at only £22 which includes a Half-Time Pie and a Pint. A Disco will bring the evening to a conclusion. Doors Open 7.00pm.Cash Bar Available until 11.30pm The Founders Presentation runs for approximately 90 minutes with a 30 minute interval built in when we will run a prize laden raffle! We also encourage a Q and A session. As an addition to the Founders story we will also give an insight into the Founders Trail and the Restoration of Rangers Graves Project. If you’d like to join us for this special event please purchase your tickets using the link below. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/

Last Friday night we had the pleasure of presenting the Founders Story at Halfway Bowling Club for the Halfway True Blues RSC and friends. At the end of the evening we were presented with the wonderful amount of £235 which was the proceeds from the raffle which was held. We'd like to thank the organizers for a cracking night and everyone who attended for their generosity as this will help to ensure that our restoration work continues over the coming months. Thank you. If you’d like to chat about hosting a Founders Presentation event please send an email to thefounderstrail@gmail.com or call us on 0790 2855536.

On the 27th May 1856 the Rangers legend that was Tom Vallance was born. To quote his Rangers team-mates from the 1870’s ‘’ The whole of Rangers loved him like a brother’’ Over the years of our research one name kept popping up time and again and that’s the name of Tom Vallance who had on reflection sadly been overlooked. Tom was born at a small farmhouse known as Succoth near Renton in the parish of Cardross in 1856.When young he moved with his family to the Old Toll House at Shandon on the Gareloch.Tom came to Glasgow in the early 1870’s following the path taken by his friends from the Gareloch ,the brothers McNeil and Campbell . Tom Vallance had an astonishing 60 year association with the Club, and his is an incredible CV. He was a master oarsman, a champion athlete (he set a Scottish long jump record of over 21 feet), he studied at the Glasgow School of Art, had paintings accepted by the Royal Scottish Academy and was Rangers Club Captain and President for many years. We have recorded details of Tom Vallance being present at the ceremony held on 1st January 1929 which saw the opening of the Main Stand at Ibrox and also at a dinner which was held in the St.Enoch’s Hotel after a Rangers match in 1933 when we faced Sporting Club of Vienna. He was also a guest of the Club at the New Years Day fixture against celtic.So, the lad who was present at Fleshers Haugh in 1872 is still attending Ibrox some 60 years later where the Club that he’d helped form and nurture were now playing in front of crowds in excess of 100,000. Tom was a successful business man. He had The Club restaurant at 22 Paisley Road West which today is the Viceroy Bar,The Metropolitan which stood on Hutchison Street in the Merchant City area of Glasgow and the Lansdowne which was at 183 Hope Street. Tom was having the Rangers results wired to his restaurants for the benefit of his patrons as early as 1890. When Rangers moved to First Ibrox in 1887 it was said that it was common for Club President Vallance to be working the turnstiles on matchday. At the opening of the Main Stand in 1929 Tom Vallance recalled the facilities being so cramped at the Rangers ground at Kinning Park that the players would have to wash in basins of cold water in the open air. It was the teenage Tom Vallance who helped lay the very foundations upon which our Club was built, hard-work, discipline, honesty, integrity and fair play .Mr. Struth said during that famous speech “No matter the days of anxiety that come our way, we shall emerge stronger because of the trials to be overcome. That has been the philosophy of the Rangers since the days of the Gallant Pioneers” Tom was paid the ultimate accolade by the Club in May 1898 when he was made a life member. As a lasting tribute to the incredible contribution he made to our Club we had Tom put on to canvas by way of a painting by artist Helen Runciman .Tom Vallance has now taken his rightful place at the top of the Marble Staircase alongside his friends and fellow Founders. Tom died on 16th February 1935 aged 78 at 189 Pitt Street Glasgow. He is buried in Hillfoot Cemetery in Bearsden and his funeral was attended by Mr. Struth, Chairman James Bowie and his old team-mate James McIntyre who both took a cord.Incredibly ,players from the Vale of Leven team whom Tom had faced 60 years earlier in 1877 were also in attendance. He was a great Ranger who loved his Club. Today we celebrate the life of Tom Vallance.

We at the Founders Trail are aware that due to time constraint, distance and cost many supporters can't make the journey to Glasgow to join us on the Founders Trail so five years ago we launched the Founders Trail Roadshow which is an alternative format which lets us take our wonderful story out to you. The Founders Trail Roadshow tells the story of our Founders from the shores of the Gareloch, to their arrival in Glasgow, their journey to the front door of Ibrox Stadium and beyond. This is done by way of a slideshow presentation. We profile each of our Founders and the subsequent growth of our unique club. The presentation also provides an insight into the Restoration of Rangers Graves Project and of course the Founders Trail. We hope that by telling this story it will give everyone an understanding of the very foundations upon which those lads built our club. Over the last few years our Founders Trail Roadshow has visited places such as Belfast, Plymouth,Blackpool,Campbletown,Fraserburgh,Thringstone and Aberdeen,we have bookings all around the country with supporters clubs lodges and organisations over the coming weeks. The presentation lasts for approximately 90 mins, with a 20 minute interval we also encourage a Q&A session at the conclusion. The roadshow can be booked to coincide with other entertainment you may wish to provide for those attending. We have all of our own equipment, all we need from you is a plug point and an audience. If you would like to discuss us bringing the Founders Trail Roadshow to your supporters club, lodge or organisation then please email us at thefounderstrail @gmail.com or call 07902 855536.

‘’Thus ended their first match played at the latter end of May 1872 some two months after the inauguration of the club’’. The words of Rangers player William Dunlop from his article The Rangers FC which he wrote so eloquently for the SFA Annual in 1881 using the pen name ‘True Blue’. Rangers Football Club played it’s first ever match 147 years ago this week. Our Club was formed on a spare bit of ground at Fleshers Haugh by a few kids who’d come to Glasgow seeking employment and a better way of life. Their Club ,which they formed for no other reason than the love of football and the pursuit of sporting excellence, would go on to become the world’s most successful. That first ever match was against Callander and ended 0-0, Willie continued, “Their first game was a terrible spectacle with the ball suffering an incredible amount of abuse” William McBeath was given man of the match and then spent a week in bed recovering due to his exertions’’ Founder William McBeath was from Callander and we believe it would have been Willie who approached ex-pats from the town who had settled in Glasgow and that’s probably where the opposition came from for our first match. Willie’s Rangers team-mate Sam Ricketts wrote in 1884 about the boys playing those first few games in their civvies and journalist John Allan wrote about them having to change behind a bush as there were no facilities. William Dunlop described how genial Peter McNeil would travel on a Saturday morning to a desirable part of the Glasgow Green, set up the noted standards and stand guard until the classic hour came when he would be joined by his friends. We felt this was a very dramatic and moving image and commissioned a painting to be done depicting this scene.We presented the painting by artist Helen Runciman to the Club in 2009 and it now hangs on the marble staircase at Ibrox. The Rangers would remain at Fleshers Haugh for three years . They then began their journey around Glasgow to Burnbank and Kinning Park before finally settling in the Ibrox area in 1887. The Rangers FC by William Dunlop. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/the-Rangers-f-c-by-true-blue

Next Friday night folks. Tickets which are only £5 can be purchased from smcintyre114@yahoo.co.uk

Tickets which are only £5 can be purchased from smcintyre114@yahoo.co.uk

Come along and hear the greatest sporting story of all and support the Lodge. £5 on the door.

£5 tickets still available and can be purchased from Davie Marshall on 07882 692161

That was a really enjoyable night.

It will be an honour for us to present the Founders Story at Halfway Bowling Club on Friday 24th May at 7.30pm. The Club is situated at Mill Road Cambuslang Tickets are £5 which can be purchased from smcintyre114@yahoo.co.uk The evening will also provide an insight into The Rangers Graves Restoration Project and The Founders Trail. We hope to see a few of you along.

We still have a few seats available on tomorrow's Trail. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/

Tickets for the Founders Presentation which are £5 can be purchased from Davie Marshall on 07882 692161

We still have a few seats available on this Saturday's Trail. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/

A limited number of seats have become available on Saturday's Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour. Adults £28 Child/Concession £19. If you’d like to join us please reserve your seat here on our website https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/ Further information 0790 2855536.

All items are posted out within 24 hours.

It will be an honour for us to present the Founders Story at Crawford Street Orange Hall Partick on Saturday 11th May at 7.30pm. The presentation will also provide an insight into The Restoration of Rangers Graves Project and The Founders Trail. A disco will be held after the presentation. Tickets which are £5 can be purchased from Davie Marshall on 07882 692161 We hope to see a few of you along.

A limited number of seats have become available on Sunday’s Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour. Adults £28 Child/Concession £19. If you’d like to join us please reserve your seat here on our website https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/ Further information 0790 2855536.

Margaret Ferguson was only 18 years old when she lost her life at Ibrox Stadium on the 2nd January 1971. She was also the only female to die in the tragedy. Over the last couple of years ,as part of our Restoration of Rangers Graves Project, our colleague Chris Beglin has restored the bench in Markinch, which had been placed in memory of the five boys who tragically died that fateful day, and the Robert Mulholland memorial bench in Glasgow. With this in mind we were contacted in January by Ian McLeod Milne ,who organises the Annual Supporters Memorial Service at Ibrox, with a view to restoring the bench that had been placed in memory of Margaret at Muiravonside Cemetery. Subsequently I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret’s sister Mary at the Ibrox Memorial Service earlier this year. We contacted Falkirk Council and they gave their consent for the bench to be removed, restored and put back in place. Once again our man Chris, and his colleague Stevie, got to work and we’re delighted to say that Margaret’s bench has been restored and was put back in place today with her sister Mary and niece Annette in attendance. Our sister Margaret Ferguson will be in our hearts forever. The tragic link between Margaret and Colin Stein: https://www.BOYCOTT THIS LINK/sport/football/ibrox-disaster-only-female-victims-1079390

Last Friday night we had the pleasure of presenting the Founders Story at Lodge Houston St.Johnstone for their members and friends. At the end of the event our Restoration of Rangers Graves donations bucket was sent around the hall and the incredible sum of £179.29 was raised. The Lodge also donated £242.00 which gave us a wonderful total of £421.29,every penny of which will go to the Restoration of Rangers Graves Project. We'd like to thank the organizers for a cracking night and everyone who attended for their generosity as this will help to ensure that our restoration work continues over the coming months. Thank you.