NEW England manager Sam Allardyce has been invited to a family reunion – in Scotland.
The 61-year-old’s surname, and more than 40 variants of it, has its roots in the old Barony of Allardice from Kincardineshire, on the north-east coast of Scotland.
The current clan chief is Richard Allardice, a 69-year-old retired former postal worker from Leominster, Massachusetts, who only discovered he was descended from the historic line in 2001 when he got a phone call to say: “Yeah, dude, you’re the chief.”
The man who made that call was Jim Allerdice, president of the Allardice Family Association who is keen to get the Allardices of the world back together again.
The last gathering was over “beers and mincemeat pies” at the Stone Mountain Highland Games in Jim Allerdice’s home city of Atlanta, Georgia, in 2001.
But he hopes that the venue for the next shindig will be the ancestral home of Allardice Castle, near Inverbervie, built in the 17th century but now owned by a man called William Cowie.
Allardyce wrote in his autobiography that both his parents were from Scotland, with his father being born in Aberlour.
Referring to the reunion, Allerdice said: “Everybody with the Allardice name would be invited, absolutely.” .
There is certainly a lot of history attached to the name.
A progenitor of the Allardice name is said to have slain a wild boar as it attacked the Earl of Huntington in 1198 as he returned to shore from the Third Crusade, having been shipwrecked nearby.
The earl’s brother, King William the Lion, is said to have confirmed the local lands of Alrethes to the man as a reward for saving his sibling, giving birth to the name. The heroic act is also said to have earned the Allardice clan its motto: “In Defence of the Distressed”.
“Having never met [Sam Allardyce] personally, it appears that he does live up to the family motto,” said Jim Allerdice.
“It seems that he has taken distressed football teams and made them whole again time and time again. So, now, it would appear, he is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
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