Peter Roney

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Peter Roney
Personal information
Date of birth (1886-01-15)15 January 1886
Place of birth Knightswood, Scotland[1]
Date of death 25 August 1930(1930-08-25) (aged 44)[1]
Place of death Scotstoun, Scotland[1]
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Petershill
0000–1905 Strathclyde
1905–1906 Cambuslang Hibernian
1906–1907 Ayr 18 (0)
1907–1909 Norwich City 53 (0)
1909–1915 Bristol Rovers 178 (1)
0000–1919 Ayr United 0 (0)
1919–1921 Albion Rovers 10 (0)
1921 Ashington
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Peter Roney (15 January 1886 – 25 August 1930) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Southern League clubs Norwich City and Bristol Rovers prior to the First World War.

Footballing career[edit]

Roney began his footballing career in Scotland with Petershill, Strathclyde and Cambuslang Hibernian,[2] before moving to Scottish League Second Division club Ayr in October 1906.[1] He moved to England in May 1907 and joined Southern League First Division club Norwich City.[1] Two years later, Roney joined divisional rivals Bristol Rovers and became one of the first goalkeepers to score a goal,[3] when he scored from the penalty spot in the club's final match of the 1909–10 season.[4] As of April 2024, Roney is the only goalkeeper to have scored for Bristol Rovers.[5] He made a total of 178 Southern League appearances during his six-year stint with the club.[6] Roney finished his career after the First World War with Ayr United, Albion Rovers and Ashington.[7]

Personal life[edit]

Roney was born at Knightswood Hospital, Scotland in January 1886.[1] He married his wife Violet in 1909 and at the time of the 1911 census he had one son, Kenneth.[8] Whilst a player with Bristol Rovers, the family lived in Eastville.[1]

In 1914 Roney joined the 17th Middlesex Battalion, better known as the Football Battalion, with whom he served as a private in the First World War.[9] He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.[9] He found the realities of war difficult to cope with and the mental traumas that he suffered meant that he only briefly returned professional football,[7] it being reported in 1919 that he had undergone "such experiences during the war that he is unlikely to be heard of again in professional football".[10] It was reported in November 1919 that Roney was seriously ill at home in Ashington.[1]

You could hear the Germans talking and singing among themselves as though there was no war on at all. Then all of a sudden our artillery would send them a reminder, and then all you could hear were cries of agony. I've nearly turned grey listening to the groans of the wounded.

— Peter Roney, March 1917[10]

His plight became a matter of concern to Bristol Rovers in 1921 when he was said to have been "down on his luck", "[lying] on a bed of sickness" and suffering from severe rheumatism as a result of his war service.[11] The directors of the football club donated ten guineas (£10.10s) to him and arranged for a collection to be made at a Southern League match between Bristol Rovers and Norwich City, his two former clubs.[12]

Roney died on 25 August 1930 in Scotstoun, Scotland, at the age of 43.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "We Will Remember Them". www.bristolrovers.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  2. ^ "N to Z." The Bristol Rovers History Group. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  3. ^ "Goalscoring Goalies". Goalkeepers are Different. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  4. ^ Byrne & Jay (2003), p.90
  5. ^ Byrne & Jay (2003), p.91
  6. ^ Byrne & Jay (2003), p.492
  7. ^ a b Litster, John. Record of Pre-War Scottish League Players. Norwich: PM Publications.
  8. ^ "Census of England and Wales, 1911". 1911. Retrieved 22 January 2016 – via Findmypast.
  9. ^ a b "Peter Roney | Service Record". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  10. ^ a b Hudson, John (30 December 2008). "From football pitch to battlefield". This is Bristol. Bristol Evening Post. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  11. ^ "Roney Peter Norwich City 1907". Vintage Footballers. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  12. ^ "For Peter Roney". Western Daily Press. 11 November 1921. Retrieved 21 January 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.

Sources[edit]

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