as we remember the Aberdeen and Hearts fallen heroes

Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, before the game tomorrow at Pittodrie there will be a minute’s silence as we pay tribute to the military and civilian servicemen and women who lost their lives in the two World Wars and in more recent conflicts.

We also remember the players, staff and supporters of both Aberdeen and Hearts who made the ultimate sacrifice and did not return from the battlefields of Europe during World War I & II

In November of 1914 Heart of Midlothian topped the Scottish First Division.

However, possibly the greatest team to ever wear the famous maroon jersey stepped forward for a much greater cause.

Eleven Hearts players became the first professional footballers in the country to enlist in a new battalion which was being raised by the charismatic and much-loved Edinburgh politician and businessman Sir George McCrae.

Within a week 1350 men had been gathered including many shareholders and supporters of ‘the Hearts’.

They were joined by fellow professionals from Raith Rovers, Falkirk, Dunfermline and East Fife.

Supporters of these teams and Hearts city rivals Hibs stood side by side for a cause far nobler than football and took their place in “McCrae’s Battalion”.

On 1st July 1916 – the bloody opening day of the Battle of the Somme – seventeen British divisions assaulted an impregnable German defensive system, bristling with barbed wire and machine guns.

20,000 British soldiers died that morning, a further 40,000 were wounded. Entire battalions of pals, brothers, neighbours and work-mates were wiped out in a matter of minutes.

Amid this awful carnage it was ‘McCrae’s’ – the Sportsman’s Battalion – that penetrated furthest into the enemy position.

They lost almost three quarters of their strength in doing so. Somehow though a small group pressed on to reach the tiny ruined village of Contalmaison, deep inside the German trench system.

They were heroes but their achievement lay largely unrecognised for decades until almost 90 years later.

In November 2004, a 14-foot high traditional Scottish cairn was unveiled in Contalmaison to “set right a historic wrong”.

Constructed by Scottish craftsmen, using entirely Scottish materials, sourced in Caithness, Nairnshire, Moray and the Lothians, it is already recognised as the most handsome battalion memorial to be erected in the Somme since the high-water mark of such commemorative projects in the 1920s.

The fundraising committee that built the Cairn has now evolved into the Scottish Registered Charity number 037303 – the “McCrae’s Battalion Trust”.

The Trust now runs annual pilgrimages to Contalmaison on the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme and it is fitting that representatives from Hearts, Hibs, Falkirk, Raith Rovers and East Fife are amongst the regular attendees to pay their respects to former colleagues and supporters that won a trophy much more valuable than any piece of silverware.

As the nation pays its respects to those who have fallen in times of combat, playing football in a time of war has been widely accepted as normal practice, but the perception that it was politically correct to do so was certainly called into question on many occasions during the hard early days of the Great War in 1914.

Every day, news would break of gallant servicemen falling in the fields of Europe, yet a full list of football fixtures was played out. In August 1914 as the Kaiser’s troops poured across the border into neutral Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany and immediately looked to enlist 500,000 men for the Army. Meanwhile the SFA convened a meeting to carry out their normal business. Calls were made to postpone the playing of football while the country was at war, but the majority of clubs deemed it a ‘panic’ measure.

While the history behind McCrae’s battalion where the majority of the Hearts football team laid down their boots to answer the call to arms en masse is better known, it is important not to forget the contribution made by Aberdeen during those troubled times. McCrae himself has been perceived as a native of Edinburgh but he was actually born in Aberdeen on 29th August 1861.

Aberdeen as a club were wholly supportive of the war effort and were as shocked as any other to discover that they had to continue to fulfil their fixtures. By the very nature of their geographical position and the increased activity in the war, those days were without doubt as tough as could be imagined. While the entire sixteen players of the Hearts side enlisted almost as one, no less than 14 brave Aberdeen players had joined the Armed Forces by 1915. Several had been called up, while others enlisted to help the war effort.

The folly of continuing to play football was highlighted with Aberdeen effectively playing two sides; one for the games at Pittodrie and virtually another to fulfil their away matches. With every resource being put towards the war effort, there was a shortage of everything and travelling around the country was ill-advised, but some of the Aberdeen players who lived away from the area found their way to take part in away matches. With crowds dwindling due to the now critical situation in Europe, Aberdeen as a club were effectively surviving from day to day.

The war effort drained everything from the club and they were taking little income through the turnstiles. Despite trying to take new players in, the likes of Bobby Hannah and Alex Wright were called up to the Army; more would follow as the crisis at home and abroad deepened. The club did consider the prospect of withdrawing from the league as they struggled to meet their commitments. Away from home, the club were struggling to get a side together with the influential George Brewster and Jock Wyllie only playing in home matches and it was reported that a club from the west was ready to take Aberdeen’s place in the league. If such a development had come to fruition, it would almost certainly have meant that Aberdeen would have begun life after the war as a non-league club.

Such a prospect did not appeal to many of the club members, some of whom were still around from the days of the amalgamation and the struggle to get into the league. Aberdeen continued to survive until, almost mercifully, football was halted in 1917. No football was played in the area between 1917-1919; Pittodrie closed its doors as the nation braced itself for a long war with no end in sight.

When the Great War finally came to an end in November 1918 and it was back to business for Aberdeen in the spring of 1919. While it was a time for reflection, the club re-signed many of the players and staff that had survived the traumas of the past five years.

Aberdeen had lost eight men who perished during the war.

The AFC Heritage Trust will be holding the annual Remembrance event at the Pittodrie on Monday 11th November in the ground floor concourse of the Richard Donald Stand. Doors will be open at 10.30 with the event beginning at 10.45. There will be a two minutes’ silence at 11.00. As always supporters are welcome to join the Pittodrie Staff in paying respect to those members of the Club who gave their lives in the two World Wars.

ABERDEEN FOOTBALL CLUB HERITAGE TRUST  WAR MEMORIAL ROLL OF HONOUR

WORLD WAR I

Sergeant-Major John Mackay 1916

(Royal Engineers)

Company Sergeant-Major Charles Neilson 1916

(Gordon Highlanders)

Gunner Alex L Halkett 1917

(Royal Field Artillery)

Captain Joseph Ellis Milne DSO 1917

(Royal Medical Corps)

Gunner John Munro 1917

(Royal Field Artillery)

Lance Corporal Angus McLeod 1917

(Gordon Highlanders)

Trimmer Frederick Watson 1917

(Royal Naval Reserve)

Sergeant James Hadden Neilson 1917

(Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders)

Captain Herbert Murray MC 1918

(Gordon Highlanders)

To read about them please visit the AFC Heritage Trust website by clicking here

WORLD WAR II

Sergeant Observer George Gardiner Scott 1942

(Royal Air Force)

Flying Officer John Waran Campbell 1943

(Royal Air Force)

Thank you to our friend Paul Kiddie at Hearts for his help with this article