First of all thanks Gordon for agreeing to be interviewed. We’re very keen to make you the very first fan interviewed for the retroQPR blog.

How did you come to be a Rangers fan? What were your first home and first away games? What are your memories from those games and who did you go with?

My first QPR game was the FA Cup tie against Newport County in December 1962, at the White City Stadium. It was not until the following season that I saw a game at Loftus Road, the friendly against Hibernian. My first away game was the match at Crystal Palace in September 1967. 

I remember watching the game at White City. You were a very long way from the pitch when play was at the other side.  My dad (a Brentford supporter) took me to the game to stop me badgering him to take me to a match and the White City was the nearest ground to where we lived…..  

I ‘chose’ QPR as my team as I was born near the Queen’s Park area and attended St. Luke’s school. St. Luke’s church (next door) was paired with St. Jude’s parish as that church had already been demolished by then.

I used to stand on the terracing where the South Africa Road stand is now. In those days you could arrive about 10 minutes before kick-off and easily find somewhere to sit on the terrace to watch the game, unlike when my uncle (a West Ham supporter) took me to Chelsea where you had to be in the ground 90 minutes before the start just to try to get a space to see some of the pitch.

Do you know who was the first member of your family to follow Rangers and approximately when was that?

As far as I know I was the first member of my family to support Rangers. My dad was born in Chiswick and he supported Brentford. My uncle had roots in the East End and supported West Ham. 

I am pleased to say that my three children have all followed their Dad’s example and are ardent Rangers Fans. My daughter, Karen, has had a season ticket for over 25 years and my sons, Andrew and Neil, who now both live in Glasgow, still get to games whenever they are back home. 

Neil is very proud to wear any QPR gear he can on his non-work days. From his flat Andrew can see the lights of the other Rangers ground. When new R’s boss Mark Warburton was Rangers manager Andrew used to see and speak to him often on a flight from Glasgow to Heathrow.

What’s been your most memorable ever match?

Probably the Aston Villa League Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg in February 1977. It was a tremendous 2-2 draw. The game was just 5 days after I married my wife and we tell people that we went to a villa for our honeymoon. When they ask ‘was it in Spain?’ we reply ‘no – Birmingham!’

Who’s your all time favourite Rangers player and why?

I probably have 3 favourites from different eras of my time following Rangers. The first would be Rodney Marsh. That’s made more memorable for me as the programme that had a picture of him and Mike Kelly signing for the club in early 1966 was the first programme that my name appeared in. I had won 2 tickets for the game via the previous home game’s programme voucher draw. 

Next would be Stan Bowles for sheer entertainment and my admiration of his skill with the ball. Who can forget his wonderful scoring record in the first UEFA campaign? Even in his later years when he was playing at Brentford he was the star of the London Evening Standard 5-a-sides one year and deserved his Player of the Tournament award.

Finally my third choice is Les Ferdinand. I admired his strength and strong running; and enjoyed seeing him scoring with powerful headers. He is a true gent of the game and I wish that many others were of a similar personality.

I am pleased to say that I got to know Les when he was a player and we have remained in contact to this day. After I had my major operation last year Les was kind enough to visit me at home to see how I was doing. That blew me away!

What would be your most memorable Rangers team and why?

I think is has to be a toss-up between the 1966/67 team and the ‘Champions’ of 1976. Both teams gave me great pleasure when watching them. The 1966/67 particularly as so many of the side were ‘home grown’, having been members of the successful youth side 2 or 3 years earlier. 

To watch the 1976 side play and beat so many of the so called top clubs was even more pleasing, especially from where the club was 10 years previously.

What’s been your biggest thrill following Rangers?

I think the biggest thrill I have is being part of the club and being respected by all members of the staff and management that I have come into contact with. 

I had a similar feeling when  I was involved with Aldershot Town as kit man. When I stopped doing it I missed the banter from the dressing room and travelling on the coach.

What’s been your biggest disappointment? 

It is always disappointing when we have been relegated. It’s always a shame to see Rangers drop out of a division into the one below. My first relegation would have been in 1969 when we dropped from (the old) Division 1 to Division 2, although having spent just one season in the top flight it did however give the fans an opportunity to see the big clubs play at Loftus Road.

My other disappointment was when Liverpool pipped us for the title with just 13 minutes of the 1975-76 season left. I drove up to Molineux for the Wolves v Liverpool game. I got there at 17:30 and the ground was full so I had to listen to the radio commentary on my drive back. 

I know you are a keen collector of Rangers memorabilia. What are some of your most treasured items?

The three programmes I treasure the most are (a) the programme from our first war time game at Millwall in 1914; (b) the programme for our last FA Cup game as a non-league side at Aston Villa in 1920; and (c) the postponed game at Tottenham Hotspur in 1968. I believe there are only 30 copies of that in existence. 

The other piece of memorabilia I treasure is an original share certificate from 1898 from when the club turned professional. I know there are a number around, but to have a piece of history from when the club started out on the road to making it the club we know today is great.

How did your role as Club Historian come about? How did your first complete history of Queen’s Park Rangers (published in 1993) come about? Was it a case of the club approaching you or vice versa?

Back in the early 1990’s Breedon Books who were the publishers of the ‘Complete Record of ….’ Football Club book series approached the club as QPR were the only Division 1 (Premiership) side that they hadn’t covered. Tony Williamson, one of the club’s Directors, approached me to see if I would be interested in producing a history book. During the preparation of the book Tony said to Chairman Richard Thompson that I should be appointed as the official Club Historian / Statistician as the club didn’t have one at that time. I had a meeting with Richard Thompson and agreed to take on the role (even though it was unpaid).

I was able to use some of Derek Buxton’s match line-ups data when compiling my book. A lot of research was carried out at the Brent Archives using local newspapers. I looked into the club’s history and compiled the match details that I was missing. Without my daughter Karen’s help this would have taken much longer. 

Back in 1992 Microsoft Excel spreadsheets didn’t really exist so all of the book, both the narrative and statistical data, was hand-written and had to be proof read before printing. At that time I was working in Cabinda, which is an enclave of Angola. It was towards the end of their civil war so I took lots of paperwork with me to work on in the evenings as everyone was confined to the compound where we were working. 

Once I had Excel and Word up and running, maintaining the records and ensuring that they all cross checked with each other became much easier.

How has the role changed over the years?

The main part of the Historian / Statistician role hasn’t really changed over the years in that I still have to maintain the records of all the different levels within the club and to compile the end of season data on players, opponents, etc. What has changed significantly outside of the role is the growth of the internet and all the football related websites that are now around. These can cause confusion and often result in a number of email exchanges with people. For example some websites only include League appearances, ignoring any cup or play-off games; others add starts and substitute appearances together, whereas I and other club historians keep them separate. 

Speaking of Derek Buxton, What are your thoughts on his legacy? Did his work inspire you in any way to keep records of all matches played at every level by the club?

Derek Buxton was an inspiration to me to go and research the history of the club as far back as possible. I knew that Derek collected used postage stamps for the RNLI and I had won a sack of stamps in a stamp magazine completion. In exchange for the stamps Derek let me photocopy his line up ledgers. My daughter and I spent many hours at archives then in filling in the gaps he had, back to when we turned professional in 1899. 

I have now been able to trace a lot of our fixtures back to the late 1880’s, including our participation in the FA Amateur Cup and our games in the FA Cup as an amateur side.

I managed to also research the reserve side and post-WW2 the youth sides as well and now have nearly a full set of results for all of them. From the programmes and handbooks  I have managed to fill in a large number of line ups for these sides and I am always on the lookout for missing ones. 

If you ever had the opportunity to produce another book on Rangers, what would be the subject matter?

I was hoping to produce an updated history to coincide with the centenary of Loftus Road in 2017 with a chapter on all the grounds we have played at before. This would have been an extended version of the articles that appeared in the programmes a season or so before. Tony Incenzo and I had managed to locate the original ‘pieces of land’ we used and Tony photographed them as they are today. I approached the club to help produce the book but Euan Inglis (the club’s commercial director) wanted any publication to be an e-book. As I know my books are not suited for that type of media I was unable to get the publication off of the ground. 

What memories do you have of our European campaigns during the 1976-77 and 1984-85 seasons?Did you manage to get to any of the away legs?

I really enjoyed the 1976/77 UEFA Cup run and it was a disappointing way to exit the competition in Athens. Watching Stan Bowles and the others score so many goals was really great.

The 1984/85 competition was a disappointment, especially as we couldn’t play at Loftus Road due to the Omniturf pitch and had to go to Highbury. Losing on away goals in Belgrade was another unfortunate way to lose a tie. 

But Rangers can say that we have never lost a European tie on aggregate, only on penalties and away goals. Due to work and other commitments I never managed to get to a UEFA Cup away game. 

What are your views on the current state of the club, the potential move away from Loftus Road etc.?

Given the way the club has been run in the past I believe that Lee Hoos and the other Directors currently are doing the best they can with the limited resources we have and the constraints of Loftus Road. I would be disappointed to leave Loftus Road as it has been such a large part of my life, but appreciate that these days there’s a vital need for additional income on non-match days. It would also give us a chance to enhance our Community programme.

How proud a moment was it for you to see your hard work (along with that of Dave Robinson, then of the club’s community team) in seeing the plaque unveiled at our birthplace in Queen’s Park in the summer of 2011? What other achievements as Club Historian are you especially proud of? 

It was brilliant, especially after we found that the original St. Jude’s Institute building was still standing. I am proud of all the history books that have been produced as it has given me the opportunity to investigate more and more of the club’s earlier days.  I now have a full set of line ups since 1899 from our time as a professional club. This has taken a lot of time researching at the archives, but to fill in all the gaps I had was a great feeling.

How did you get involved with Aldershot Town F.C.? You have played a big part there over the years as well, a club managed of course until very recently by one of our favourite sons, Gary Waddock.

I knew the Shots manager Terry Brown and when the club were promoted to the Conference their reserve side joined the Football Combination he asked me, as I knew the Combination, would I like to help him. I started as kit man for the reserves and when the 1^st team kit man left I was asked if I would like to take on that (voluntary) role. 

When Terry had to leave due to his wife’s serious illness, Gary Waddock was appointed manager. I knew Gary from his time at QPR and he asked me to stay on. My role also included liaising with the coach companies and hotels we used for overnight stays before an away game. 

It was strange on the occasions when we came to Loftus Road for a reserve game to arrive on the Aldershot Town coach and go into the away dressing room. The biggest thrill for me with Gary was when we won the Conference to go into the Football League.

After Gary left to join Wycombe Wanderers I stayed on for a while, but left when I couldn’t get on with the new permanent manager. Having worked under two great managers who are now firm friends I decided it was time to go and to get back to attending more Rangers games as I could only get to Loftus Road when Aldershot Town didn’t have a game. 

In your time as either a fan or as a historian, who has been the most pleasurable manager or member of staff to deal with?

Back in my early days I admired what Alec Stock achieved and then the side that Gordon Jago assembled for Dave Sexton to take to the top (nearly) of Division 1. In my time I have had a good relationship with all the managers I have dealt with, together with a number of the other backroom and office staff.

Despite the ‘discussion’ Lee Hoos and I had over the details on the new badge and apostrophe, we get on really well. For my 65^th birthday he invited me and my family to join him in the C Club for the Leeds United FA Cup tie last season. 

Being involved with the Under 23s and, to a lesser extent, the Under 18s side I have established a rapport with the senior members of the academy staff including Chris Ramsey, Alex Carroll, Paul Hall, Andy Impey and Paul Furlong.

Does it give you a sense of pride to see the work the club are doing now with “Forever R’s” and the way the club is engaging with its former players?

I am very pleased to be part of the Forever R’s Club committee – to see and hear the reaction of the inductees and their families makes it all worthwhile. Some don’t look any older than they did in their playing days! The work that Andy Sinton, Andy Evans and others at the club put in behind the scenes in tracking ex-players and / or their families continues the ethos of QPR being a ‘family’ club. 

I know that other areas of the club, like Andy Evan’s QPR in the Community Trust, give the club a high and respected profile. This is particularly the case with the highly successful ‘Game for Grenfell’. 

I have had involvement as Historian in some of the Trust activities and was especially pleased to have been part of the project team on the ‘R’s Story’ documentary that produced the hour long film and associated material for schools and youth clubs.

What was the story behind the “Eureka” moment in the early 2010s where it was discovered that in fact Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club were formed in 1886 and not 1882 or 1885 as had always been reported?

The main factor was the work done by Peter Lupson in researching his book ‘Thank God for Football’ about league clubs that were formed at churches. He discovered that the Rev. Gordon Young joined St. Jude’s as a curate in 1886 (and left in 1887). As he was a major factor in the formation of the club it could not have been 1885 as the year in which the club was formed.

What are your views on the club backtracking on this and insisting on 1882 as the formal birthdate when the new crest was introduced in 2016?

Before the design of the new badge was released I had many meetings with Lee Hoos and Euan Inglis. As a result of these discussions Lee agreed to remove EST. from the badge as he said (and I agree) that we can trace our roots back to 1882 when Christchurch Rangers were formed.

The same question applies for the lack of the apostrophe in the club crest. This of course was dropped by the then club secretary Ron Phillips back in the late 1960s, this could have been the perfect time to bring it back and celebrate our birthplace? 

This was a more interesting discussion and I was disappointed not to get the apostrophe returned to the club’s badge. However after the badge was released Lee admitted to me that the apostrophe is correct English. 

What revelation from your research into the history of the club gives you the most satisfaction?

I think the two things that I get a lot of satisfaction from is finding out that we had additional home grounds in our amateur days; also compiling a full set of 1^st team line ups from 1899 for our time as a professional club. Another thing I was pleased to research was our participation in the FA Amateur Cup in the mid 1890’s and our early days in the FA Cup as an amateur club.

From your research into our early years, which figure involved with the club intrigues you the most?

The Rev. Gordon Young and how he formed a boys club which has grown into the club we know today and Lord Randolph Churchill ( pictured below) who was Patron of the club in the early 1890’s until his death in 1895. He was the MP for South Paddington and the father of Winston Churchill.

Thank you Gordon for your long standing dedication to Queen’s Park Rangers, your books and research and for helping us to launch the retroQPR blog!

Chris Guy and Martin Percival