Peter Roney

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.

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

Footballing career

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 September 2023, 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

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
  1. "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. 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. "Peter Roney | Service Record". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  10. 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
  • Byrne, Stephen; Jay, Mike (2003). Bristol Rovers Football Club – The Definitive History 1883–2003. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-2717-2.
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