Allan Roy

ALLAN Roy, who has died just under one month before his 100th birthday, was Scotland’s oldest living rugby internationalist.

Described as: “A great bear of a man”, the 6ft 4ins second row forward won six international caps.

He was a surprise call-up for the opening match of the 1938 international tournament, in which Scotland won all three games and thereby a Triple Crown; but he had rather a different campaign in 1939, when he was again an ever-present in the Scotland second row, as all three internationals were lost.

There was no Five Nations then, the British Isles nations did not play the French. Any hopes he had of further caps were of course extinguished later in 1939, with the outbreak of war.

His debut, against the Welsh at Murrayfield was a baptism of fire, in a fiercely-fought international marred by several injuries, with the Scots winning 8-6, courtesy of a last-minute penalty goal.

But if that was a war of attrition, his second cap was perhaps the high-point of Roy’s career as he played a leading role, as Scotland emerged 23-14 victors from a match which included eight tries.

The then Glasgow Herald report of the game highlights Roy as Scotland’s man of the match among the pack: “His breaking away with the ball at his feet from scrum or line-out was magnificent.”

From there it was on to Twickenham and what is still remembered as “Wilson Shaw’s Match” as the Glasgow High School FP stand-off, Scotland’s captain, led his side to the Triple Crown, scoring two brilliant tries into the bargain as Scotland won 21-16.

Roy and the other Scottish forwards survived a pounding from the bigger English eight that day, but still had enough in the tank to provide the possession from which Shaw scorched away to score his legendary match-winning try in the final minute.

But, in typically Scottish fashion, the Triple Crown was followed by the Wooden Spoon, “won” in the most-heart-breaking of circumstances at Murrayfield as Roy and his team mates out-scored the English by two tries to nil, but, the English kicked three penalties to win 9-6, in front of a then world record crowd of 78,000.

The Roy family hailed from Tayside but his parents moved to Merseyside in 1900 to set-up a sack hire firm as an outlet for the production from their Dundee jute mill.

The young Roy was was schooled in Edinburgh, at Fettes College, before going on to Liverpool University, intent on becoming an architect.

His father, however, had other ideas and he joined the family firm, and also began to play rugby for Waterloo.

At around the time he was capped, he joined the Territorial Army, enlisting in the Liverpool Scottish and when war broke out, was commissioned into the Cameron Highlanders, spending the early war years with a training battalion.

In 1943, however, he went to Burma with his regiment, serving their until the end of the war and making him a proud member of the Burma Star Association.

The war, however, had taken what should have been the best years of his rugby career and on demobilisation, with the rank of mkajor, golf replaced rugby as his main sporting outlet.

He proved himself no mean player, quickly getting down to scratch, remaining there for many years and enjoying a long and successful run as a member of the Lancashire county team, as well as taking part in the leading amateur competitions.

He was also left to mount a successful recovery operation on the family firm, which had been reduced to a shell by the war. Ever the pragmatist, he diversified into paper bags, opened laundrettes during the boom of the 1950s and also manufactured and sold snooker tables and plastic netting.

In retirement he continued to golf, while overseeing the impressive garden at his family home, The Hawes. His garden was large enough for him to include a putting green, an inclusion which paid a big part in allowing him to develop a deadly short game.

Allan Roy, who was predeceased by his wife Peggy in 2004, is survived by daughters Kirsty and Jeannie, son Neil, six grand-children and 12 great-grand-children.