Moses McNeil
Scottish footballer (1855-1938)
Moses McNeil (29 October 1855 – 9 April 1938) was a Scottish footballer who was one of the founding members of Rangers Football Club. He played as an outside forward.
Early life
Moses McLay McNeil was born on the 29 October 1855, at Belmore, Garelochside; now the location of the HMNB Clyde Naval Base at Faslane.
His father was John McNeil (Master Gardner) from Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland and his mother was Jean Lowdon Bain from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. They were married in Glasgow 1839. When born, he had seven brothers and two sisters.
Club career
McNeil, along with fellow founding members Peter McNeil (his brother) and friends William McBeath and Peter Campbell, adopted the name Rangers, reportedly from an English rugby annual. Rangers played their first ever match against Callander F.C. at Glasgow Green's Flesher's Haugh in May 1872, which resulted in a 0–0 draw. Rangers played one more match in 1872, an 11–0 win against a team called Clyde (not the surviving Clyde F.C.).
In 1874 Rangers played their first-ever Scottish Cup match, and McNeil scored in a 2–0 win over Oxford, but Rangers lost to Dumbarton in the second round.
The public source identifies “Moses McNeil” as scottish footballer (1855-1938). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Moses, McNeil and Scottish.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6915879. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1855, 1938, 1839 and 1872.
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This entry incorporates text from “Moses McNeil” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.