Meiklejohn David Image 5 Glasgow Rangers 1930

Description

Govan born centre half David Meiklejohn started his football career with Maryhill Juniors and signed for Glasgow Rangers for £10 in 1919, where he became a supremely successful stalwart of Glasgow Rangers in the period immediately following World War One, and he is considered truly a legend of the club,. He made his Scottish League debut against Aberdeen at Pittodrie in  March 1920, and between 1920 and 1936 he played 563 League and Cup games for the club, scoring 46 goals, winning 12 Scottish League Championships and 5 Scottish Cups in a glory laden period for The Gers. Including other cups his appearances number some 600 for Rangers. He also scored the opening goal in the 1928 Scottish Cup Final when Rangers defeated arch rivals Celtic 4-0. He was captain of the Rangers team on the tragic day that Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson was killed in an accidental collision with Sam English in September 1931. He was also the first Ranger to be granted a benefit match in a match Rangers lost 5-1 to Huddersfield Town.

To cover all of his achievements as a player and as a captain and leader of men requires a much larger space than available here. Indeed, a book published in 2014 considered his (forgotten by the distance of time) achievements for Rangers to be greater than those of John Greig, the latter day holder of the “Rangers’ Greatest” title. That his career should be considered in such a light is itself a testament to his achievements, whether or not there could ever be a definitive conclusion.

He won 15 caps for Scotland between February 1922, when he made his debut against Wales at Wrexham, and November 1933, when he scored the opener in a 2-2 draw with Austria, in total scoring 3 times and captaining his country 6 times. He also represented The Scottish League on 6 occasions between October 1921 and November 1932. He formally retired from playing in May 1937 and became a sports reporter for The Daily Record.

After World War Two he left the newspaper to manage Partick Thistle, a role he filled for twelve years from 1947 until his sudden death in 1959 in the Director’s Box at Broomfield Park, after a match that Partick had lost to Airdrie. In 2009 Meiklejohn was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

In the photograph taken at Wembley Stadium on 5th April 1930 he shakes hands with England captain David Jack before a match which England won 5-2.