The Great War of 1914-1918 claimed the lives of almost 10 million soldiers from around the world and left much suffering from the physical and mental scars that the conflict caused. Hard as it may have been to take anything positive from the war, there was progress made in technology and medicine as well as transforming the lives of women and the working classes. While it can be easy to glorify what happened over 100 years ago, there is no doubt that many believe that the conflict was necessary and that much good came out of it.

In Aberdeen and at Pittodrie, the normal preparations were made in time for the new 1914/15 season.

By the beginning of August, Germany had mobilised armed forces and had declared war on Russia. Two weeks later, Aberdeen opened their season with a 3-1 win against Dundee at Dens Park after Britain had declared war on Germany. Manager Phillip brought in several new faces to the side with Bert MacLachlan joining from Aston Villa. Bobby Archibald was signed from Third Lanark and keeper George Anderson arrived after a spell with Newcastle. Football’s decision to continue playing after the outbreak of war was a source of controversy and for many a moral issue. The debate said a lot about football’s place in society back then; in England the League started in September by which time Aberdeen had played their first three matches. As British troops were retreating at Mons, football continued despite claims from politicians for players with “strength of limb” to serve and march to the battlefield.

There was also the amateur and professional debate as players being paid was effectively “bribing much needed recruits” from the war effort. In Scotland, the War Office and the Scottish League agreed that league football would continue ‘for as long as possible’ with the Scottish Cup suspended. At Pittodrie, the effects of the war were soon to become clear. Within weeks, defenders Bobby Hannah and Alex Wright were called up to the Forces. There was also a dramatic fall in attendances which had a huge impact on the club’s finances. With more young men being sent to join the war effort, the claims “that it would be all over by Christmas” were quickly dismissed.

The playing staff at Pittodrie was decimated but they still managed to complete the season without too much difficulty.

By 1915 the club continued to struggle on and when a lowly 1,500 turned up for the game against Ayr United in September 1915, it became clear how difficult the situation had become. The club had also saw no less than 14 registered players either enlist or be conscripted to the war effort. However the club continued and once again finished their season in a credible 11th place.

However the folly of continuing playing was all too clear in the coming months. Travelling to fulfil fixtures was becoming difficult. With little or no money coming through the gate, the club were effectively surviving day to day. In 1916, the club did consider pulling out of the league. The problem that the Aberdeen officials faced was the prospect of being isolated from league football when the war was finally over and football would return to normal.

It was well known inside the game that a club from the west of Scotland was ready to step in and take Aberdeen’s place. The club had no intention of quitting and their resolve would be unbroken. 1916/17 ended with Aberdeen bottom of the table. To highlight some of the problems faced, when Aberdeen travelled to face Kilmarnock on 27th January 1917, they missed their train connection to Ayrshire, arriving at Rugby Park some 25 minutes late.

Having changed on the train, they went on to play and were beaten 7-0, a then club record defeat. A week later, Aberdeen beat league leaders Rangers 3-1 at Pittodrie. With only seven wins all season, Aberdeen finished two points behind Raith at the foot of the table. The sad state of affairs was compounded in their final league game of the season at Cappielow as Aberdeen could only raise ten players. Their hosts ‘loaned’ them one of their reserve players so Aberdeen could take the field with a full team. Meanwhile in the Great War, Britain introduced conscription as pressure on resources intensified.

The Battle of Verdun began and that gruesome conflict would last for ten months with more than a million casualties. In 1916, the Women’s Army Auxiliary was founded. The war came closer to home when a zeppelin raided Edinburgh with 13 deaths and 24 wounded. The Allied Forces were forced to surrender to Turkish forces at Kut after 143 days with around 9,000 British and Indian troops captured. A turning point finally came in May 1916 when the German fleet was irreparably damaged in the Battle of Jutland.

At Pittodrie, the situation had become desperate.

There was no prospect of the club being in a position to compete in football by the start of 1917. Aberdeen, along with Dundee and Raith Rovers, had no option but to withdraw from the league until the end of hostilities. But at least the decision held out hope for the future. Had the club ceased playing two years previously, they would have been left out in the cold. Now they knew that they would be welcomed back when the time came. The hope was that the financial situation would have improved. Between 1917 and 1919 there was no competitive football played in the north east of Scotland.

Those left at the club would dedicate their time to the war effort and minor football. Pittodrie closed its doors and braced itself for the end of the Great War. Meanwhile in Europe, the Western Front was the focus of the conflict and the battle of Verdun finally came to an end. It was the longest and most costly conflict. In early 1917, the United States severed diplomatic ties with Germany as U-Boats threatened US shipping. Two months later the US declared war on Germany and troops began to mobilise immediately. 1917 brought significant advances for the Allies while the first American troops landed in France in June.

Later that year the Ypres Offensive began, which was seen as a significant gain for the Allied Forces. By the end of the year Britain had liberated Jerusalem ending 673 years of Turkish rule. By March 1918 the German assaults had reached the Somme. The greatest air battle of the war took place with over 70 aircraft involved. A month later, the German advances were halted by the British and Australian forces at Amiens. In September 1918 the Great British Offensive on the Cambrai Front led to the storming of the Hindenburg Line.

By October 1918 Germany asked the Allies for an armistice, while the whole Channel coast west of Flanders was liberated from German occupation. As the Turkish forces surrendered to the British, Germany signed the armistice at 6am on November 11th 1918 – 100 years ago today – to bring an end to the conflict.

The Great War affected all parts of the country like never before. It is inconceivable these days to think football and any kind of normal daily life could continue while such horror was continuing on the battlefields. The Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen is home to some rare artefacts and evidence of the harrowing tales from the conflict. Some of the items are particularly poignant; a Benson & Hedges tobacco tin has a folded piece of Gordon Highlanders tartan, still marked in dried mud of the battlefield 100 plus years on.

Beside that is a tiny version of the New Testament. An accompanying letter to a soldier’s mother tells all that her son died in action in November 1917. “He was killed instantaneously by a shell and suffered no pain whatsoever. He was a quiet lad and much respected by his soldier comrades. His Testament has been handed over to the authorities and will no doubt reach you in due course. I cut a bit of tartan from his kilt and enclose some as it is something you might appreciate.” Such tales were replicated a thousand times over and those at home never really understood the scale of the atrocities and the reality of the conflict until many years later.

At Pittodrie it was very much a case of picking up the pieces. Two years of closure and the ongoing conflict had left the club very much in turmoil.

In an effort to reclaim some togetherness, a sequence of friendly matches were arranged before and after the club reconvened in May 1919. It was reported that most of the players who had served the club before the war had re-signed for Aberdeen.

Of the 33 club officials and players who enlisted in the war effort eight had lost their lives.

All clubs were affected by the Great War.

The Heart of Midlothian story is well known.

In November 1914, with the Gorgie side comfortably leading the First Division, 16 players removed their football boots for those of the Army, enlisting to fight in France.

In doing so, they became the first British team to sign up en masse. They were part of the now legendary “McCrae’s Battalion” (the 16th Royal Scots). The unit was named after its colonel, Sir George McCrae, a former Liberal MP for Edinburgh East.

16 players from Hearts enlisted, along with 500 supporters and ticket-holders. In addition to the Hearts contingent, players and 150 followers of Hibernian, seven Raith Rovers players and a number of professional footballers from Falkirk, Dunfermline Athletic, East Fife also joined the Battalion.

Fans were encouraged to follow in their heroes’ footsteps and fight alongside the men they cheered on every Saturday afternoon.

Sadly many would not return. Nowhere was this more true than at the horrors of the Somme, where the British army lost 20,000 men on the first day alone. This included three Hearts players. By the time the war concluded, seven Hearts first-teamers had made the ultimate sacrifice.

To honour these men and the many others who fought in both world wars, a memorial was erected in 1922. It is presently situated in the Haymarket, near the offices where the first batch of players enlisted. Every Remembrance Sunday, officials, players and supporters of Heart of Midlothian Football Club gather to pay their respects. In October 2014, the battalion was inducted to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

But there are many less well known stories.

In March 1916 Celtic centre half Peter Johnstone strolled into a British Army recruitment office in Glasgow. Less than a year later the Celtic defender was killed in action on a French battlefield. Johnstone may never find himself in any Celtic Hall of Fame but the Fife born defender was a hero as he died when his regiment, the Sixth Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders, attempted to capture a chemicals factory in the battle of Arras in north east France. His name is listed on the memorial at Arras. Johnstone was the only serving Celtic player to die in the Great War but 13 players connected to the club perished during the conflict.

Included in that list was Donald McLeod who played more than 150 games for Celtic and former full-back Robert Craig. Several others returned from the war as heroes. Willie Angus never played for the first team but he was awarded the Victoria Cross after a rescue mission in which he lost an eye and was wounded on no less than 40 occasions. In those days the club had a strong relationship with the Gordon Highlanders, even to the point where Celtic trained the battalion’s football team and allowed several army cup games to be played at Parkhead.

The club played their part in the war effort with appeals for volunteers made during the half time breaks at matches, while games were arranged between Celtic and a Scottish League XI at Hampden to raise funds for the war effort. Celtic also won a hat trick of league titles between 1915 and 1917 as football continued in Scotland unlike in England.

Aberdeen FC during World War I

1914-15

High spots
Arrival of George Anderson and Bert MacLachlan from England.
Aberdeen won the Aberdeenshire Cup for a record 10th time since 1903.
Aberdeen won the Dewar Shield for the 4th time.
Despite the ongoing hostilities in World War I, John Edgar received a benefit match.
Low points
Departures of Hannah and Wright, as they were called up to join the war effort.
Falling attendances meant a 25% cut in players’ wages.
The Scottish Cup was suspended due to events in Europe and the war effort.

1915-16

High spots
Dave Main finished as club top scorer for a record fourth time.
The club had no fewer than six players serving in the armed forces in 1916, one of the largest representation by any club in the Scottish League.
Low points
Aberdeen conceded six goals in a League game for the first time v Third Lanark (2-6).
Scottish Cup competition still suspended due to war in Europe.

1916-17

High spots
3-1 win over Rangers at Pittodrie.
Low points
Aberdeen lost the services of eight players who were in the military.
Record defeat (0-7) at Kilmarnock, when Aberdeen players had to use train to change, following delay in arrival to Ayrshire.
Aberdeen withdrew from league competition for the remainder of the War.
Finished bottom of 20-team league.

ABERDEEN FOOTBALL CLUB HERITAGE TRUST WAR MEMORIAL ROLL OF HONOUR

At the Annual General Meeting of Aberdeen Football Club on 1st August 1919, Mr Tom Duncan, Chairman, paid tribute to the thirty-three Players and Officials who gave service in the Great War, eight of whom made the supreme sacrifice. Other men who had been associated with the club also died in that conflict, as did two others in the Second World War.

They are all remembered here as members of the Aberdeen FC Roll of Honour.

They include one-time Captain, Alex Halkett and reserve players Andrew Hamilton and Allan Lawrie. In the 1940’s two promising young players also died: John Waran Campbell and George Scott, both of whom were serving in the Royal Air Force. Each individual deserves equal respect but it is notable that the list includes two brothers – Charles and James Neilson from Ellon, who also had another brother killed in the conflict.