Origins of Bective Rangers from Bective House College established 1834.

Dr. John Lardner Burke

In 1834 Trinity College scholar, Dr. John Lardner Burke (born 1805 Ennis, Co. Clare) opened the doors of the "Bective House Seminary for Young Gentlemen". It was a boarding and day school situated at No. 15 Rutland Square East, the former name for the eastern side Parnell Square. The school was ideally situated for recreational activities for its students as a green field within the Rotunda Gardens was across from the college. The green field is long gone and is now occupied by the Garden Of Remembrance. The students used this field and occasionally went to the Phoenix Park. This was a time of huge social and economic change with many new schools opening across the large towns and cities in Britain and Ireland. The sport of rugby football was very much in its infancy with the popularity growing throughout schools, universities and British Army regiments across the British Isles. The game had many variations and its rules depended very much on the location of where it was played.

The Earl of Bective

The Earl of Bective was the proprietor of houses on the square including numbers 15, 16 and 17 Rutland Square East. Number 15 was the school, number 16 is listed as the Lardner Burke’s family residence and number 17 was the Earl’s Dublin townhouse. His principle residence was Headfort and its vast estate, the house is Ireland’s only Adams designed building. The Earl’s first residence in this square was on the site of  "Findlaters Church” as it is known to many Dubliners (St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church).

The Bective Rangers Crest

With the historical information currently available and in advance of further research we can only presume that as the landlord to Dr. Lardner Burke’s home and school he gave his school the name Bective House College with the permission from the Earl. This form of patronage was quite common between landlord and tenants particularly tenants such as Lardner Burke’s school.  The official club crest of Bective Rangers, a fleur-de-lis between two boars heads facing upwards is taken directly from the centre of the Earl Of Bective’s family Coat of Arms. The Earl Of Bective title is a subsidiary title of the Marquis of Headfort.  

The club’s founding fathers when electing to adopt this crest clearly did so in recognition of the school and its past pupils who established the club.  This well regarded school is recorded as having over 200 pupils on its rolls with many of its alumni prominent in the professions, academia and in the Anglican Church. No surprisingly for the time Dr. Lardner Burke was known as quite a religious man. This is illustrated with a quotation from him regarding his assertion as to having an institution where he could "refer with confidence to has being effected under God, for the upper classes of society in this country".

In 1869 Dr. Lardner Burke sold the college to Rev. Dr. William Woods (from Hillsborough, Co. Down) a teacher at the school.  For reasons yet unknown Lardner Burke at the good age of 65 decided to move his family moved to London where he later took a position as headmaster at Clapton College, Hackney until his death in 1885. Rev. Woods as the second and last headmaster owned the college until ill health forced him to close the school and returned to Hillsborough where he died, also in 1885, the year Bective House College finally closed its doors. 

Illustrious Bective old boys

Mr. Edwin Woods a decendant of Rev. Woods recently provided information from his family’s archives for   the publication of a biographical book of the life of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. Rev. Woods known for his interest of the new sport of rugby was Stoker’s master in the college. Like many of his fellow Bective House students he continued his studies at Trinity College. Stoker was a big forward known for his athleticism and became heavily involved with the rugby, rowing and athletic clubs in Trinity. Stoker was first blooded to the game of rugby at Bective House College.

Apart from Bram Stoker other students of Bective House College include:
John Edward Walsh, Q.C. Attorney General for Ireland, represented Trinity College as their Westminster M.P, later became a judge and author.

Rev. Richard Frederick Littledale. A Church of England rector. A writer famous for his translations, historical and religious works including "Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome". He was rector at St. Mary’s Soho in London.

Sir John Thomas Gilbert. Historian and archeologist who wrote many important and historical reference books of Dublin history. Involved in founding the Public Records Office and was Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy for 34 years.

Sir Robert Stawell Ball. Pioneering scientist and mathematician who became Astronomer Royal and Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College and later at Cambridge University.

Sir Charles Cameron. Notably the first Corporation of Dublin official to be installed as Freeman of the City of Dublin for implementing measures which decreased the death rate amongst the city’s impoverished from one of Europe’s highest to one of the lowest. A Grand Master of the Free Masons in Ireland, Sir Charles Cameron was second President of Bective Rangers 1898 to 1908.

It could be assumed that some form of rugby was played from the 1860’s at the school. As sport in those days was not highly organised the distinctions between school and club teams were somewhat blurred which would explain the clubs matches with Wesley College and Kings Hospital in 1881, Williamstown Castle (Blackrock College) in 1883 and Clongowes Wood College in 1891. The Clongowes connection proved fruitful with many former Clongowians joining including the Magee brothers. One famous companion of the early Bective members, James Joyce mentions Bective in his writings such as Ulysess, Finnegan’s Wake and A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.
 

From Bective F.C. to Bective Rangers F.C.
As clubs become more established and the game organised at school level inter club-school games declined. The first Leinster Senior Schools Cup was contested in 1887. As the Bective school closed its doors in 1885 there was a large number of non-pupils of the school in the club. To reflect the fact that Bective was an open club it was deemed appropriate to amend the clubs name from Bective F.C and style themselves as Bective Rangers F.C.

As Bective F.C. was in existence before the I.R.F.U. (1873) we use F.C. rather than the more commonly used R.F.C.  Even then as with the Bective of today the club was a veritable melting pot with members from different parts of Dublin, Ireland and Britain with different religious creeds. This is clearly evident with the early Bective surnames such as: Tabuteau, Magee, Tuke, Du Cros, O’Conor, Mooney and Cullen.

The Donnybrook Ground and the famous Bective Jersey

The club first trained and played its matches at the Phoenix Park and over subsequent years moved around Dublin using pitches at Sydney Parade, Cullenswood Avenue Ranelagh (adjacent to Rugby Road) and for a number of seasons at the Royal Dublin Society during the late 1890’s and early 1900’s before settling to our Donnybrook home in 1910.

 
From a club meeting minute book dated 29th September 1903 James M. Magee proposed the following regarding the club jersey "to change from rose and green to rose, green and white". The meeting unanimously approved the proposal thus the rose, green and white Bective Rangers jersey came into being.