Alex G. McBain:
an appreciation
JIM RODGER writes: Yesterday's obituary of my dear friend Alex G.
McBain recorded that he was only the second non-Catholic Scot to receive
a papal knighthood. It was the late Archibishop McIntosh who discovered
a financial genius, but his work for the Roman Catholic Church in
London, Liverpool, and Scotland was not the only side of his brilliant
talent.
He was financial adviser to Rangers, the John Lawrence Group, and was
the ''mystery businessman'' who sacked the late Scot Symon, the Rangers
manager, in 1967. As a sports writer on the Scottish Daily Express at
the time, I tracked him down to a little office two stairs up in
Waterloo Street, Glasgow, where I found him eating a couple of
sandwiches.
He told me: ''I just went to see Mr Symon and told him I was there to
give him some help and make sure that he was given the proper financial
advice.'' Scot Symon didn't see it that way: he thought it should have
been done by the board.
On another occasion, he demonstrated his authority at a meeting in St
Enoch's Hotel, when Symon's successor David White was called away to the
phone. Alex did not take kindly to his speech (about Rangers Pools)
being interrupted. When David returned Alex asked him to stay outside
the room until it was over.
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