{{short description|Scottish footballer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Use British English|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox football biography | name = Peter Roney | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1886|1|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Knightswood, Scotland<ref name="BristolRovers" /> | death_date = {{death date and age|1930|8|25|1886|1|15|df=y}}<ref name="BristolRovers" /> | death_place = Scotstoun, Scotland<ref name="BristolRovers" /> | height = 5ft 9in<ref name="BristolRovers" /> | position = Goalkeeper | youthyears1 = | youthclubs1 = | years1 = | clubs1 = Petershill | caps1 = | goals1 = | years2 = {{0|0000}}–1905 | clubs2 = Strathclyde | caps2 = | goals2 = | years3 = 1905–1906 | clubs3 = Cambuslang Hibernian | caps3 = | goals3 = | years4 = 1906–1907 | clubs4 = Ayr | caps4 = 18 | goals4 = 0 | years5 = 1907–1909 | clubs5 = Norwich City | caps5 = 53 | goals5 = 0 | years6 = 1909–1915 | clubs6 = Bristol Rovers | caps6 = 178 | goals6 = 1 | years7 = {{0|0000}}–1919 | clubs7 = Ayr United | caps7 = 0 | goals7 = 0 | years8 = 1919–1921 | clubs8 = Albion Rovers | caps8 = 10 | goals8 = 0 | years9 = 1921 | clubs9 = Ashington | caps9 = | goals9 = | totalcaps = | totalgoals = }} '''Peter Roney''' (15 January 1886 – 25 August 1930) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Southern League clubs Norwich City and Bristol Rovers prior to the First World War.
==Footballing career== Roney began his footballing career in Scotland with Petershill, Strathclyde and Cambuslang Hibernian,<ref>{{Cite web |title=N to Z. |url=http://bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com/n-to-z.html |access-date=29 June 2023 |website=The Bristol Rovers History Group |language=en}}</ref> before moving to Scottish League Second Division club Ayr in October 1906.<ref name="BristolRovers">{{Cite web |title=We Will Remember Them |url=https://www.bristolrovers.co.uk/news/2022/november/remembrance-day/ |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=www.bristolrovers.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> He moved to England in May 1907 and joined Southern League First Division club Norwich City.<ref name="BristolRovers" /> Two years later, Roney joined divisional rivals Bristol Rovers and became one of the first goalkeepers to score a goal,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Goalscoring Goalies |url=http://www.goalkeepersaredifferent.com/keeper/scoreframe.htm |access-date=6 January 2010 |website=Goalkeepers are Different}}</ref> when he scored from the penalty spot in the club's final match of the 1909–10 season.<ref>Byrne & Jay (2003), p.90</ref> As of {{LastMonth}}, Roney is the only goalkeeper to have scored for Bristol Rovers.<ref>Byrne & Jay (2003), p.91</ref> He made a total of 178 Southern League appearances during his six-year stint with the club.<ref>Byrne & Jay (2003), p.492</ref> Roney finished his career after the First World War with Ayr United, Albion Rovers and Ashington.<ref name="Litster">{{Cite book |last=Litster |first=John |title=Record of Pre-War Scottish League Players |publisher=PM Publications |location=Norwich}}</ref>
==Personal life== Roney was born at Knightswood Hospital, Scotland in January 1886.<ref name="BristolRovers" /> He married his wife Violet in 1909 and at the time of the 1911 census he had one son, Kenneth.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1911 |title=Census of England and Wales, 1911 |url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbc%2f1911%2frg14%2f15040%2f0249&parentid=gbc%2f1911%2frg14%2f15040%2f0249%2f1 |url-access=subscription |access-date=22 January 2016 |via=Findmypast}}</ref> Whilst a player with Bristol Rovers, the family lived in Eastville.<ref name="BristolRovers" />
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.<ref name="FATFWW">{{Cite news |title=Peter Roney {{!}} Service Record |language=en-US |work=Football and the First World War |url=https://www.footballandthefirstworldwar.org/peter-roney-service-record/ |access-date=12 November 2018}}</ref> He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.<ref name="FATFWW" /> 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,<ref name="Litster" /> 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".<ref name="17th" /> It was reported in November 1919 that Roney was seriously ill at home in Ashington.<ref name="BristolRovers" />
{{Quote |quote=You could hear the Germans talking and singing among themselves as though there was no war on at all. Then all of a sudden our artillery would send them a reminder, and then all you could hear were cries of agony. I've nearly turned grey listening to the groans of the wounded. |author=Peter Roney, March 1917<ref name="17th">{{Cite web |last=Hudson, John |date=30 December 2008 |title=From football pitch to battlefield |url=http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/football-pitch-battlefield/article-575600-detail/article.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523181910/http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/football-pitch-battlefield/story-11258152-detail/story.html |archive-date=23 May 2012 |access-date=6 January 2010 |website=This is Bristol |publisher=Bristol Evening Post}}</ref>}}
His plight became a matter of concern to Bristol Rovers in 1921 when he was said to have been "down on his luck", "[lying] on a bed of sickness" and suffering from severe rheumatism as a result of his war service.<ref name="VintageFootballers">{{Cite web |title=Roney Peter Norwich City 1907 |url=https://www.vintagefootballers.com/product/roney-peter-image-2-norwich-city-1907/ |access-date=18 April 2020 |website=Vintage Footballers |language=en-GB}}</ref> The directors of the football club donated ten guineas (£10.10s) 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 November 1921 |title=For Peter Roney |work=Western Daily Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/19211111/049/0005 |url-access=subscription |access-date=21 January 2016 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>
Roney died on 25 August 1930 in Scotstoun, Scotland, at the age of 43.<ref name="BristolRovers" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *{{Cite book |last=Byrne |first=Stephen |title=Bristol Rovers Football Club – The Definitive History 1883–2003 |last2=Jay, Mike |publisher=Tempus |year=2003 |isbn=0-7524-2717-2 |location=Stroud}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roney, Peter}} Category:1887 births Category:1930 deaths Category:Scottish men's footballers Category:Norwich City F.C. players Category:Bristol Rovers F.C. players Category:Middlesex Regiment soldiers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Machine Gun Corps soldiers Category:English Football League players Category:Men's association football goalkeepers Category:Cambuslang Hibernian F.C. players Category:Ayr F.C. players Category:Scottish Football League players Category:Ayr United F.C. players Category:Albion Rovers F.C. players Category:Ashington A.F.C. players Category:Scottish Junior Football Association players Category:Footballers from South Lanarkshire Category:Footballers from Glasgow Category:Military personnel from Glasgow Category:Petershill F.C. players Category:Strathclyde F.C. players