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Champions in Maroon and Khaki

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 Battle
st
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
Find more at TheUntoldGame.co.uk or on social media, @TheUntoldGame