Obituaries: Ron Glasgow, ​Scottsh rugby international who won OBE for services to the Combined Cadet Force

He was born in Aberlady, the middle child of Tom and Nettie, His father, a former policeman, was greenkeeper at Haddington Golf Club and Ron was born between big brother Alex and wee sister Bunty.

Ron was educated at Knox Academy in Haddington, leaving after Sixth Year in 1948 with no clear career path in mind. He spent the summer working on local farms, where he relished the physical tasks, before joining the Scots Guards, where he was a member of their elite Parachute Platoon. He saw service overseas during the Malayan Emergency, and in Cyprus and Egypt.

In the UK, he was one of the Guards on-parade at the legendary 1949 Trooping the Colour ceremony. This was the first full Sovereign’s Birthday Parade following WWII; the first in which the future Queen Elizabeth II rode, with her father King George VI unable to ride and taking the salute after arriving by carriage. It was also the first Trooping the Colour to be watched by the future King Charles III. Ron was always very proud of having taken part.

After leaving the Guards, Ron went to the Scottish School of Physical Education, at Jordanhill College. Having previously played his club rugby at Haddington, he came under the influence of the legendary Bill Dickinson at Jordanhill. He captained the College XV in his final year, 1957 and during his three years there, he was selected six times for the Glasgow District XV, helping them to their first Inter-District Championship title in 1955, the year in which he was chosen for his first Scotland Trial.

There have been suggestions that the fact he was into his thirties before he won his first cap was down to him “not doing trials”. Back then, the Scotland selectors set great store by performances in the International Trials. Ron was a consistently good performer in the Inter-District games, these mattered. It was felt he didn’t display the same intensity when the game had the title of “Trial”.

On graduating from Jordanhill, he obtained his first teaching post, at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen. This meant he transferred his club allegiance to Gordonians and his District play to North and Midlands, a side he would go on to represent on 21 occasions.

Ron himself felt his greatest contribution to rugby union in the Granite City was his being able to persuade Ian “Spivvy” McCrae to switch from football to rugby. The pay-off for this came in 1969, when McCrae came on as the first ever replacement in an international, replacing Gordon Connell in a memorable Scottish win in Paris.

He was elected Captain of Gordonians for the 1960-61 season, but, in December, 1960, he obtained a post at Dollar Academy, where he would spend the remainder of his teaching career. Ron spent 28 years at the school, retiring as Head of PE.

At Dollar, he was also prominent in the school's Combined Cadet Force, initially as second-in-command to Ivor Barbour, then, as CO himself, ending with the rank of Lt Colonel and an OBE for services to the Combined Cadet Force. Guardsman to Lt Colonel – not bad for a boy from Haddington.

Moving to Dollar meant another switch of clubs, to Dunfermline. At the Clackmannanshire school, he formed a brilliant coaching team with another Scotland back-row forward, Adam Robson, before handing on the coaching duties to another very-good teacher in John Foster.

Ron finally won his Scotland cap in 1962, in the first international of the season, a 3-11 loss to France, in Paris. He really forged his international reputation in his second cap, against Wales, in Cardiff. Scotland had not won in Wales since 1937, or in Cardiff since 1927, but in terrible conditions the Scottish pack was inspired as Scotland won 10-3.

Ron Glasgow finished-off a break by Frans ten Bos (who scored the second try) and John Douglas, to open the scoring, carrying the Welsh full-back Kevin Coslett, who out-weighed him by two stones, over the line as he scored. He was also involved in the build-up to the ten Bos try and some journalists have tagged that win as: “Ron Glasgow’s Match”.

He won a further eight tries over the next four season, along the way impressing the visiting All Blacks by his storming display for North and Midlands against the touring New Zealanders in 1964. They value their loose forwards highly in New Zealand and tourists such as Colin Meads were amazed that Glasgow was not in the Scotland team after that performance.

He was back in the national side for the Calcutta Cup win, at Murrayfield, in March 1964, scoring the opening try in what has become known as: “Jim Telfer’s Match”. This was the second successive year in which Ron Glasgow scored the opening try in the Calcutta Cup match – he really was a big game player.

Ron Glasgow married twice. The first time, in 1958, to childhood sweetheart Anette. In 1962, their son Calum was born, but it was a difficult birth for both mother and baby and while Calum survived, but afflicted by cerebral palsy, his mother died a few weeks later.

Ron then met Dollar girl Anne Fleming, they married and had Catriona and twins Cameron and Anthony in a happy union which was only broken by Anne’s death from cancer in 1988. Cameron carried on his father's rugby influence, by being capped off the bench against France in 1997, while Anthony followed his father into the military.

A force of nature as he hounded opposition backs on the rugby field, off it, Ron Glasgow was a quiet and shy. He could talk for hours about rugby, but had little time for social chit-chat. Away from that game, he was a ferocious golfer and a very-keen hill-walker and exerciser of the family dogs.

In a charity walk, for SOS, the Stars Organisation for Spastics, around Glasgow's Pollok Park, the long-retired Glasgow walked the legs off two other Scottish rugby legends. Sandy Carmichael had to drop out early with one of the first incidents of the mobility issues which would blight his later years, while blisters put paid to Gordon Brown after 40 miles. Ron Glasgow soldiered on, covering 100 miles in half an hour over 24 hours of walking.

He was Scottish Presbyterian in his demeanour, son Cameron observing: “Our rugby boots were always bought two or three sizes too-big, for us to grow into; and they had to be Adidas Flanker – real rugby boots. They were all right for a genuine flanker like Dad, but, a bit heavy for a three-quarter like me, before I put on the three pairs of socks to fill the growing room.”

Ron Glasgow's long ane eventful life will be celebrated by a Memorial Service in Dollar Parish Church at 2pm on 1 November. Rugby club ties will be the order of the day. Sure to be there will be incoming Scottish Rugby Union President Keith Wallace, like Ron a Haddington man. Ron was Keith’s fathers best man and the new President considered him “an honorary uncle”.

To those of us who saw him play – he was a legend.

Obituaries

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