Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the
beginning of Britain’s involvement in World War One, and with that comes a
little bit of perspective. Perspective about what we value as being important
in our lives. And whilst football cannot be seen as one of those things, there
is an important story relating to football that I think deserves to be shared.
Modern day footballers are given, perhaps justifiably,
various stereotypes concerning greed, wealth and attitude. A century ago, with
considerably less media coverage, this existed on a smaller scale, but for a
different reason altogether. With their compatriots fighting and dying on the
battlefields, most footballers in Britain chose not to get involved. That was until
Sir George McCrae raised a battalion from Edinburgh and the surrounding area.
And the players of Heart of Midlothian led the way.
 |
| 'C' Division, 16th Royal Scots Edinburgh 1914 |
Top of the league in Scotland, and having won 19 out of
their first 21 games, they were well clear of Glasgow Celtic. The Jambo half of
Edinburgh would have been excited at the prospect of a first league title in
nearly two decades. But, to fight for King and country required these men to
swap maroon for khaki. Whilst balancing some basic army training with playing
football, Hearts slid down the table whilst Celtic (who sent no prominent
players to the war effort) took over and dominated in a similar way to how they currently
do, all these years later.
Joined by players from Dunfermline, Raith Rovers and rivals
Hibernian, McCrae's Battalion (a subdivision of the 16th Royal Scots
Regiment) began the fight in France in early 1916. The Battle of the Somme
killed or badly wounded 636 of the 814 battalion members, with 7 Hearts
casualties. 2 more died in the following years, believed to be from lung problems
sustained in the fight.
This story is, quite surprisingly, almost unknown outside of
Scotland. In a century of British football tragedies and memorials, McCrae's
Battalion receives very little attention or recognition outside of Gorgie. It
is for this reason that I share this story.
Of course, the young men of McCrae's Battalion shouldn't be
singled out any more so than any other soldier who participated in the war
effort. But I do hope this story also puts things into perspective in terms of
how important yesterday’s anniversary was, especially given the comparatively
trivial things, such as football, that we see as ‘important’ today.
