Ever since the early days of the Rangers there has always been a great support from fairer sex. Here are just a few of them.
When the club was first finding its feet there was a strong female looking after the young Ranger’s. Elizabeth McNeil (older sister of Moses, Peter & Willie) ran the McNeil home in Berkley St. As well as the younger McNeil brothers Elizabeth looked after other Rangers player including James Campbell (younger brother of founder Peter) who lodged there for a while.
Whilst it is unknown whether Elizabeth ever went to any games we do know of a few who did. One of these was the great Tom Vallance’s wife Marion. Marion had football in her blood as she was the younger sister of Willie ‘Daddy’ Dunlop team mate of Tom for many years. There are various reports of Marion attending Rangers games but the following article finds her travelling to London to see the Rangers play Arsenal in 1892. Marion was also involved in the Rangers Musical Society from time to time.
Another great lady supporter in the early years was Margaret the mother of Rangers greats Donald & John Robertson Gow. She ran a pub in Cecil St just off the Paisley Road. Margaret was an active supporter of Rangers in many was as we can see from the following advert where alongside Tom Vallance she was selling tickets for in this case a football special to Edinburgh. Her pub was used as a ticket outlet to many club events.
Margaret’s support for the team was recognised at the half yearly meeting in 1889 where she bought the players socks and scarf rings.
These are just few ladies from the early days of the club that gave their support to the club.