HAROLD DAVIS, RANGERS LEGEND - HIS MEDALS Comprising 9ct gol...

Hammer

£14,000

HAROLD DAVIS, RANGERS LEGEND - HIS MEDALS
Comprising 9ct gold and enamel 1960-61 Scottish Football League Winner's medal (weight 8.54g), 9ct gold 1956-57 Glasgow Charity Cup Winner's medal (weight 13.56g), silver-gilt 1973-74 Scottish Football League Winner's medal, 9ct gold and enamel 1968-69 Scottish Football League Trainer's medal (weight 9.16g), 9ct gold 1961-62 Scottish Cup Winner's medal (weight 11.75g), 9ct gold and enamel Glasgow Cup Winner's medal (weight 10.46), 14ct gold 1961 European Cup Finalist's medal (stamped "585" weight 11.15g), 9ct gold and enamel 1960-61 and 1962-63 Scottish Football League Championship First Division medals (weight 14.89g and 14.00g respectively) and 9ct gold Scottish League First Division Winner's medal (weight 28.26g), framed together on a fitted blue velvet base within a silver frame (maker's mark "RS", Birmingham, 1990).

Together with an archive of material relating to Davis' career, comprising Rangers Football Club Hall of Fame torso trophy set upon a slate base, measuring approx. 27cm in height overall, with an accompanying photograph of Davis holding the trophy following its presentation on Sunday 1st February 2004 and a boxed Balvenie Single Barrel 15 Year Old presentation set; a Former Player's necktie, with another 1975 club tie; assorted photographs, including posed team portraits, alongside other more candid shots showing Davis individually and in company; a copy of The Rangers Football Handbook for 1963-64; a copy of The Bayview (East Fife FC matchday magazine) with the cover story "Harold Davis: A True Football Hero"; a programme for a Rangers Supporters Erskine Appeal dinner chaired by Davis, bearing signatures including John Greig and Davy Wilson; a pair of oak bookends featuring the Rangers crest, with one "book" signed by Davis and dated 1958 to interior etc.

Born in Cupar, Fife on May 10th 1933, Harold Davis' football career commenced with a brief stint with the local Newburgh F.C., before moving to East Fife, where he was managed by Scot Symon, a relationship reprised at Rangers later in their respective careers. In 1951, Davis began his national service, joining the Black Watch at Perth and enlisting for the Korean War. Catastrophically wounded in action two years later, he would undergo an extensive programme of operations to counteract the two gunshots he'd taken to the stomach. Returning to health after an extended period of convalescence, Davis remarked that “a lot of the other patients were older, content to simply get fit enough to live. I wasn’t. I was determined to get extra-special fit.” His spirit caught the attention of his physiotherapist, former Rangers player David Kinnear, who recommended him to Symon, now at Ibrox. Joining Rangers in 1956, Davis would appear 261 times for the club, soon developing a reputation for his quick, hard style of play, founded upon that commitment to "extra-special" fitness. His peak arguably came with his appearance in the European Cup Winner's Cup Final of 1961, for which he received the medal here offered. 

Leaving Rangers in 1964, he spent a season with Partick Thistle before his retirement from the game. There followed many years in coaching and management roles, with Queen's Park, Queen of the South and Dundee, as well as a period back with Rangers. 

In 1975, Davis moved with his family to Gairloch in Wester Ross, where he opened the Craigmore Hotel. Much involved community life, he would remain there until his death, on 26th June, 2018. He was 85.

Provenance: By family descent. Previously on display at the Rangers Museum at Ibrox.

The proceeds of the sale shall go towards establishing a charitable trust in Harold and Violet Davis’ memory, which will benefit young people in Wester Ross where they lived for over forty years.