Tributes paid following death of man who created Australian Doncaster Rovers club

Ray Shew was the founder of Doncaster Rovers Soccer Club - based in Melbourne – and which was created nearly 60 years ago.

The club took its name from our own Doncaster Rovers - despite the two outfits being more than 10,500 miles apart.

DRSC announced Mr Shew’s death in a social media post.

A spokesman wrote: “With a heavy heart, we have some sad news.

“Our club’s founding member Ray Shew passed away on the evening of Wednesday 31 May 2023

“Ray founded Doncaster Rovers Soccer Club in 1967 and we are forever grateful as we are one of the oldest clubs in Victoria with a rich 56-year history.

“The club will release a formal statement in due course regarding a date for a memorial service to be held at Anderson Park (the club’s home ground) with Ray’s family, friends, past and present Doncaster Rovers members.

“Our condolences go out to the Shew family. May he rest in peace.”

The club’s most successful period was in the 1990s, during which it spent the majority of the decade in Division 1 of the State League, winning the title in 1994 and climbing to the Victorian Premier League.

Doncaster is a suburb of Melbourne and was first settled in the 1860s and 1870s by Germans, who called it Waldau, but English settlers, who had a habit of using already established UK names for places in Australia, renamed it Doncaster and the monicker stuck.