“Do not ask where Hearts are
playing and then look at me askance. If it's football that you're wanting, you
must come with us to France!”
Private George Blaney, Castle
Brewery, Edinburgh, December 1914
Last week I attended Tynecastle for
the Hallowe’en fixture between Heart of Midlothian and their cross-city rivals
Hibernian. It was my first Edinburgh Derby since August 1989, which had been my
first ever Hearts live game. Since then I’ve watched the ‘Boys in Maroon’ in
such diverse places as Bologna, Prague, Madrid and, er, Falkirk. They are my
‘Scottish team’ and, thanks to the antics of the Allams, they have come pretty
close to usurping Hull City in my affections these past few years.
But why Hearts?
My affinity with The Jam Tarts
began back in the mid-Eighties, when the unfolding tale of their heart-breaking 1985/86 season resonated strongly with somebody still scarred by the
events of Turf Moor ’84. My involvement with the football fanzine movement then
helped move things on. Among the many
fanzines we struck up relationships with in those early days of Hull Hell & Happiness was Heartbeat, produced by a group of Hearts
supporters based in and around Manchester. What their A4-sized publication
lacked in quality of production it more than atoned for in quality of content;
especially its attacks on its bitter rivals in which the editors certainly
didn’t hold back. Many were not only very funny but bordered on tasteless. It
was the sort of thing we were wanting to do at HH&H prior to our summoning by The Don. As such, we quickly
adopted Heartbeat as our favourite
other fanzine. Editor Mike Van Vleck was a man with allegiances to various
sports teams and it was through his support of Salford Rugby League that I
finally made his acquaintance, courtesy of a game against Hull Kingston Rovers
in March 1989. A follow-up visit to see The Tigers entertain Hibs the following
pre-season cemented our friendship and a month later, I joined the Manchester
Hearts at a raucous Tynecastle where a goal from “the big Moose” was enough to
secure victory on a sodden summer afternoon.
Almost thirty years later, my
second derby experience would be remembered more for the accompanying
crowd-related incidents than for the quality of football on the pitch. But even
though the game itself was poor, the anticipation and atmosphere was something
I’ve not experienced at a City match for some time. Furthermore, as I wandered
around Edinburgh in the days before and after the game – as part of a half-term
mini-break with the family – it reinforced the affection I now have for my
adopted team and the city that spawned it. This weekend, when we mark the
centenary of the Armistice that ended the Great War, those bonds will be
strengthened even further. As I gather in Ypres to mark the eleventh hour of
the eleventh day of the eleventh month, along with many others uppermost in my
thoughts (my family ancestors and the ‘Easington Fallen’ who I travelled to
France and Flanders to honour last year) I will think of Heart of Midlothian
Football Club – “the team
that went to war for Britain”.
The
story of the involvement of Hearts FC in the First World War has been
brilliantly described in two books (Jack Alexander’s McCrae’s Battalion: The Story of the 16th Royal Scots (Mainstream, 2004) and Tom
Purdie’s Hearts At War 1914-1919 (Amberley, 2014)). It was
also the subject of a couple of fine newspaper articles, courtesy of Alex Massie in The Guardian from 2005 and The
Independent’s Robin Scott-Elliott four years ago in a piece
to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War. It is a tale guaranteed to stir the emotions, describing how “the
best team in Hearts’ history” turned their backs on footballing glory to go to
war.
At
the start of the 1914/15 season, Hearts were described as the “young
pretenders” of Scottish football but a 2-0 opening day win over champions
Celtic at Tynecastle underlined their title credentials. Six wins from their
opening six games had them sat proudly atop the league, a position they would
maintain for much of the campaign. By November the only points dropped in the
first fourteen games had come courtesy of a careless defeat at the hands of
Dumbarton and a surprise draw against Queens Park. They were looking
increasingly good for a first Scottish League title since 1896/97. Then the Great
War intervened. Having already seen army reservists Neil Moreland and George
Sinclair called-up at the outbreak of hostilities, winger James Speedie joined
them immediately after a 2-0 home win over Falkirk on 14 November, having
answered a half-time appeal made on behalf of the Queens Own Cameron
Highlanders. The Edinburgh Evening
Dispatch proudly proclaimed, “Three Hearts men with the Colours now”. That
number would soon increase dramatically.
As the
military crisis deepened in France, the pressure on young men to ‘volunteer’
became intolerable. Football became a target of “an orchestrated campaign of
abuse”[i], with satirical magazine Punch printing a cartoon urging men to
take part in the ‘Greater Game’ – played not for trophies but on the field of
battle. In Parliament, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was urged to “introduce
legislation taking powers to suppress all professional football for the
continuance of the war”. As the “leaders of the Scottish League and considered
by many observers to be the most irresistible footballing combination in Great
Britain”, Hearts became a principal target. A letter from ‘The Soldier’s
Daughter’ in the Edinburgh Evening News
basically accused Hearts players of cowardice and suggested they adopt a nom de
plume of ‘The White Feathers of Midlothian’. It enraged those in the Tynecastle
dressing room. A few days later the popular local businessman and Liberal MP
Sir George McCrae asked manager John McCartney about the possibility of some of
the Hearts players joining the battalion being raised by him, “telling him that
such actions would make for a large following and a speedy formation of the
unit”. His request was granted and eleven players immediately signed-up, with five
others turned down on medical reasons. Among the few who didn’t join
immediately were brothers Archie and Jimmy Boyd, who first wanted to discuss
the matter with their mother. In the event “Young Jimmy made the decision for
them both. Archie was engaged to be married and had more to lose”.
Between
August and November 1914, sixteen Hearts players became ‘soldier footballers’ –
a figure unequalled in the United Kingdom and one that would almost double over
the next two seasons”[ii]. Among those enlisting
later was the captain, Bob Mercer who had originally been turned down due to a
torn knee ligament. Along with his team-mates he now “traded the playing fields
of Scotland for the killing fields of France (and) the roar of the crowd for
the roar of gunfire” By their actions, Heart of Midlothian FC became the first
British football team to sign up en masse. At the Hearts AGM of July 1915, it
was reported that “the lead established by these gallant youths reverberated through
the length of the land” and “some 600 supporters and shareholders followed suit
and joined up”. Many of these supporters enlisted in direct response to a Press
Statement released by the Hearts Board of Directors, in which they stated their
“earnest desire” that “an entire ‘Hearts Company’ be formed of players, ticket
holders and general followers”. The Statement read:
“Now then young men, as you have
followed the club through adverse and pleasant times, through sunshine and
rain, roll up in your hundreds for King and Country, for right and freedom.
Don’t let it be said that footballers are shirkers and cowards. As the club has
borne an honoured name on the football field, let it earn its spurs on the
field of battle.”
Those
answering the call were offered free admission to the Edinburgh Derby on
Saturday 5 December. “Eight hundred men duly turned up and marched into the
ground prior to kick-off” before “both teams emerged to thunderous applause”.
Conditions matched the reception but Hearts made light of them to “sweep
Hibernian back to Leith”. Tom Purdie said their play “lit up grey leaden skies
in a 3-1 win”.
Heart
of Midlothian were not alone in answering McCrae’s call. In total some 75 clubs
were represented in the 16th (Service) Battalion, The Royal Scots, otherwise
known as ‘McCrae’s Battalion’. These ranged from junior clubs to the likes of
Raith Rovers, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Hibernian. In addition there were representatives
of other sports, including rugby union, cricket, field hockey, swimming,
athletics and bodybuilding. The 16th Royal Scots was the original Sporting
Battalion and the first to earn the ‘Footballer’s Battalion’ sobriquet.
By
the start of 1915 the players’ military training had begun, involving long,
exhausting runs in the nearby Pentland Hills. The rigours eventually began to
take its toll, with bouts of influenza and blisters a recurring issue. Having
won 19 of their opening 21 games that season, playing football previously
described in the Press as "dainty, dazzling" and being "full of
pace and panache”, Hearts players (unlike those of either Celtic or Rangers) eventually
succumbed to the exertions of having to combine weekly military drills with
weekends playing football. They won only eight of their 17 games
post-mobilisation and when “a lacklustre Hearts team” were beaten 1-0 at St
Mirren on 17 April, Celtic “hurried past them” to eventually take the title by
4pts. An embittered Edinburgh Evening
News stated:
“Hearts have laboured under a
dreadful handicap, the like our friends in the west cannot imagine. Between
them the two leading Glasgow clubs have not sent a single prominent player to
the Army. There is only one football champion in Scotland and its colours are
maroon and khaki.”
Tom
Purdie describes how the Hearts players came off the Love Street pitch “totally
and utterly disconsolate, mentally and physically exhausted. They sat within
the changing room in numb silence”. Manager John McCartney addressed them and
expressed his utmost pride in their efforts before leaving the room to stand
alone in the corridor, where it was said he too had tears in his eyes. He knew in
his heart that some of those players he’d left in the changing room would never
play together in a maroon jersey again. McCartney later told the Edinburgh Evening News that his team had
played at times when they were so tired they could hardly stand. In addition, the
league’s top scorer Tom Gracie had been diagnosed with leukaemia but had asked
his manager to keep it from the other players. Yet despite all this, they had
taken things to the final day. He said, “Edinburgh is proud of them”. It’s
cruelly ironic that, similar to the season that first wooed me to the club, finishing
second didn’t deprive the Hearts players of the glory their efforts deserved.
However, in this particular case, “they had (also) won the hearts and
admiration of the nation”.
On
the morning of 18 May 1915, McCrae’s Battalion went to war. Purdie wrote:
“1,100 men marched proudly down the Mound and Market Street to Waverley Station
to the sound of the pipes and drums. Thousands turned out to wish them a fond
farewell and a safe return”. But what must have seemed at the time like a
‘glorious adventure’ descended into anything but. In total, seven first team
players failed to return. James Speedie was the first to fall, killed in action
at the Battle of Loos on 25 September, just eleven weeks after arriving in
France. A month later Tom Gracie succumbed to his illness. Duncan Currie,
Ernest Ellis and Harry Wattie fell on the first day of The Somme, to be
followed later by John Allan and the aforementioned Jimmy Boyd who also gave their
lives before hostilities were ended. Several more sustained injuries that
ensured they would never play football again. A detailed list of those killed
and wounded is available on the excellent McCrae’s Battalion Trust website but suffice to say
no other football club in this country paid such a price – on or off the field.
Hearts
continued to function as a team during the War years, largely helped by
servicemen home on leave or those players involved in vital war work at home.
Amid falling attendances, struggling finances, ongoing team disruption and
continuing bad news from the Western Front the Scottish League somehow carried
on. Hearts managed a creditable fifth-place finish in 1915/16 but that proved
their best. Mid-table placings followed over the next three years. Five days
after the Armistice in November 1918, The Jam Tarts produced their best display
of the season to beat Third Lanark 5-0 at Tynecastle in front of a 7,000 crowd,
many who joined in the singing of patriotic songs, led by the Grassmarket Band.
As Purdie writes, “There was a special welcome back to Tynecastle for some
brave individuals”. Honouring a promise made at the time of their departure, “a
Main Stand season ticket was given to the returning members of 16 Royal Scots C
Company who had been season ticket holders, shareholders, officials or indeed
players”. On the reverse of the ticket, along with the Royal Scots crest and the
person’s name, rank and service number, was printed the following:
“Voluntarily these men went forth
to fight for King and Country. The gloomiest hour in the nation’s history found
them ready. As pioneers in the formation of a brilliant regiment, sportsmen the
world over will ever remember them. Duty well done they are welcomed back to
Tynecastle; Hearts of Oak!”
It’s
widely acknowledged that had the Great War not come along, the Hearts side of
that era “might have established a dynasty in Edinburgh”, leading to Scottish
football being “carved up between three rather than two powers”. In his 2005
piece, Massie went so far as to suggest that the Kaiser can perhaps be blamed
for the lack of competitiveness in the Scottish game! As it is, since the Great
War Hearts have largely remained also-rans, which is possibly another reason I
– as a Hull City supporter – was drawn to them in the first place!
Sadly,
I believe the story of the Hearts ‘soldier footballers’ is one that still
remains largely unknown to most football supporters. Indeed, had I not been
drawn to Hearts by that 1985/86 season, it may have been one that I too would
have easily overlooked? There have been attempts to address this. In November
2014 BBC Learning produced Footballers United as part of its World War
One season and more recently, A War Of Two Halves is enjoying a second run
at Tynecastle having proved a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sadly, my visit was
a week too early for the latter but simply sauntering around the streets of ‘Auld
Reekie’ brought the words of Alexander and Purdie to life; from the recently
re-named McCrae Place, and Castle Street in the
New Town to the Haymarket Memorial and Tynecastle itself. Walking
along Princes Street I allowed myself to imagine the gridlock as huge crowds of
well-wishers gathered to provide the brave Hearts lads with a magnificent
send-off. I even looked up at the Castle and imagined the “weather-beaten
fortress nodding its head in approval”. Many a passing tourist – and local for
that matter – must’ve wondered who this Sassenach was wandering around with a
fixed smile on his face, seemingly staring into space. But before I got too
carried away on a wave of nostalgia, I was away to Ryries for a pre-Derby
livener or three… (As an aside, a bus ride along Easter Road to Leith in order
to visit the former HMY Britannia had me chuckling as I imagined that 1914 Hibs
team being “swept back” along the very same route over a hundred years earlier)
The
Hibees certainly weren’t swept away in my latest Edinburgh Derby, the game
finishing goalless with the visitors surviving a second half sending-off and a
late disallowed goal. It was a game played in a tetchy atmosphere far removed
from that described by Purdie, with Hearts keeper Zdeněk Zlámal and Hibs boss
Neil Lennon both going to ground after separate spectator-related incidents.
These incidents provoked far more post-match talking points than the game
itself. The Edinburgh Evening News back
page led with the headline “You Coward”. Despite the dropped points and a
subsequent weekend defeat by Celtic, Hearts arrived in November sitting above
the Glasgow side at the top of the league, just as they had done in November
1914 – when the term “Coward” had a far more sinister connotation and the ‘Boys
In Maroon’ really were the ‘Talk o’ the Toon’.
Lest
we forget.
FOOTNOTE:
My
previous blog posts around the subject of the Great War commemorations are as
follows: A Greater Game (24/11/2014); Oppy Wood, Hull Pals & finding
Easington’s Fallen
(09/11/2017)
[i]
From http://www.mccraesbattaliontrust.org.uk/white-feathers-of-idlothian/
[ii]
From http://www.mccraesbattaliontrust.org.uk/the-sporting-battalion/
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