A MONUMENT dedicated to one of the founder fathers of Rangers has been targeted by vandals.

The tribute to Peter Campbell was unveiled three weeks ago in Penarth, Wales where the Scot set sail on a voyage to India.

Born in the late 1850s in Rhu in Argyll, Campbell was one of the four founding members and made 24 Scottish Cup appearances for the club.

The 25-year-old was on board the St Columba with a cargo of coal bound for India when the ship was hit by a storm. He drowned in the Bay of Biscay in France in March 1883.

Russell Calderwood of the Cardiff Rangers Supports Club said he intended to speak to Penarth Council about having a perspex cover fitted to protect the memorial.

A spokesman for Rangers heritage group The Founders Trail said: "To the scumbag who went out of his way, in a quiet corner of Wales, and attempted to erase the name of our Founder Peter Campbell and that of Rangers Football Club from the inscription.

"Did you even for a second consider that this memorial is a dedication not only to Peter Campbell but to every soul who perished when the St Columba went down?

"No, your brain capacity obviously couldn’t stretch there. Let me assure you now that your pathetic efforts were futile."

"Our restoration work will continue with greater pace than ever before.

"We will continue to place these memorials , re-erect and repair those fallen and forever celebrate the names of those who made our club the world’s most successful."