Peter Roney


Peter Roney was a professional footballer who played in goal for Norwich City and Bristol Rovers prior to the First World War.

Footballing career

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

Personal life

Roney was born in Rutherglen in Scotland in January 1887. He married his wife Violet in 1909, and at the time of the 1911 census he had one son, Kenneth.
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. He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. 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, 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".
His plight became a matter of concern to Bristol Rovers in 1921 when he was said to have been "down on his luck" and " on a bed of sickness", suffering from severe rheumatism as a result of his time fighting in the war. The directors of the football club donated ten guineas 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.
Roney died on 25 August 1930 in Clydebank, Scotland, at the age of 43.