Full name Thomas Vallance Role Footballer Place of death Glasgow, Scotland Height 1.88 m | Years Team Name Tom Vallance | |
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Date of birth (1856-05-27)27 May 1856 Place of birth Succoth Farm, Renton, Scotland Date of death 16 February 1935(1935-02-16) (aged 78) Died February 16, 1935, Glasgow, United Kingdom | ||
Tom Vallance (27 May 1856 – 16 February 1935) was a Scottish footballer. Vallance was the first in a long line of inspirational Rangers captains. He made 38 Scottish Cup appearances for the club.
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Football
Before football, Vallance was a rower. He is noted as been abnormally tall for the times but was only around six feet two inches. He played at right-back for Rangers from 1874 to 1882. He left Scotland on 22 February 1882 to take a position in Calcutta. He embarked on a career in the tea plantations of Assam but returned after a year suffering from blackwater fever.
Vallance was also capped at international level, making seven appearances for Scotland.
After football
He was a successful restaurateur, a poet and an artist, whose paintings were displayed by the Scottish Academy. Reference has been made to a family connection to Sir Stanley Matthews, but this proved not to be the case.