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CHAMPIONS IN MAROON AND KHAKI

Hearts went from training straight into matches and, unsurprisingly, their form
suffered. Eight wins from their seventeen games after being called up saw their title
challenge falter, and Celtic capitalised. Gracie, to his credit, was the joint highest
goalscorer. But there was only one champion in the minds of the public, ‘and it’s colours
are maroon and khaki’. In September of 1915 came the devastating news of James
Speedie’s death, and Gracie followed a month later, final shocks of mortality before they
made their own way to France at the beginning of 1916.
The Western Front was a quagmire by the time McRae’s battalion made it to France,
and the destruction was at a scale never seen before. But worse was yet to come, and
on the 1 July the deadliest day in the history of the British Army came to pass. The
st
Battle of the Somme ran until November – 141 days – and saw 420,000 British
casualties, but almost 15% occurred on the first day. Alfred Briggs, one of the Hearts
players, was shot in the leg, the arm, the foot, the ankle and the forehead. Somehow,
he survived. Harry Wattie, however, was among the 20,000 dead, with teammates
Duncan Currie and Ernest Ellis. Boyd died a month later. Deployed in a different
battalion in Arras in 1917, John Allan was the final of the Hearts players to fall.

They left behind eight more players who suffered life-changing injuries in the fighting.
Of the eventual 19 Hearts players who served, just two returned home unscathed.
Seven paid the ultimate sacrifice.

We will remember them.

Martyn Green, The Untold Game

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