In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,

As we once again approach the time of year when the Nation pauses to remember we of the Annieslands should also pause

To a large extent the playing fields of Anniesland and Balgray act as War Memorials in memory of a generation of young players who left these same fields in 1914 to die on very different fields in Flanders

A generation of young men and boys who went to school together, played rugby together ,signed on together served together and in some cases died together.Four from one team from Anniesland were casualties on the same day in the same action at Gully Ravine Gallipoli .Such was the makeup of the Pals Battalions that comprised the Scottish Regiments of the 51st Highland and 52nd Lowland Divisions that saw action in many of the landmark battles of 1914-18.These young players also served in many other branches of the Armed forces but the tragic impact largely fell on these two Divisions of the British Expeditionary Force made up of volunteers

The concentration of casualties is put in sharp focus when you remember that the Glasgow Academical team of 1913-14 had six wounded and eight killed

In the immediate years that followed the conflict Glasgow and Kelvinside Academies established War Memorial Trusts and the Glasgow High School Pavilion at Old Anniesland that we use to this day was opened in 1927 as a War Memorial

This was because the former pupils had died or been wounded in numbers unimaginable in today's world ,they fell on far off fields whose names are etched in history Ypres ,the Somme ,Cambrai,Arras and their legacy is embodied in the fields we play on today

The price paid by former pupils of our three associated Schools Glasgow High School, Glasgow Academy and Kelvinside Academy was enormous and from this time and distance it is difficult imagine the atmosphere in the terraces and tenements of Glasgow when the War Office telegrams arrived breaking the terrible news often followed by a personal letter from the unit officer outlining the circumstances

A peal of bells hangs in the steeple above Oran Mor at Botanic Gardens raised by public subscription to particularly remember the 34 pupils from the three Schools who died on one day the 28th June 1915 at Gallipoli The brunt of the casualties that day fell on the 52nd Lowland Division- 156th Brigade and in particular the1st/ 8th Battalions Cameronians The Scottish Rifles,whose colours are still seen each time GHK take the field
The term" kindred club "takes on a much deeper resonance when you share a War Memorial

These memorials record stark figures relative to the respective sizes of the School Rolls some 927 former pupils from our three associated Schools made the ultimate sacrifice

The impact that the Great War had on rugby and rugby clubs is summed up in a poem by Mick Imlah about London Scottish but so easily could apply also to Anniesland and Balgray

London Scottish
(1914)
April, the last full fixture of the spring:
‘Feet, Scottish, feet’ – they rucked the fear of God
Into Blackheath. Their club was everything:
And of the four sides playing that afternoon,
The stars, but also those from the back pitches,
All sixty volunteered for the touring squad,
And swapped their Richmond turf for Belgian ditches.
October: mad for a fight, they broke too soon
On the Ypres Salient, rushing the ridge between
‘Witshit’ and Messines. Three-quarters died.
Of that ill-balanced and fatigued fifteen
The ass selectors favoured to survive,
Just one, Brodie the prop, resumed his post.
The others sometimes drank to ‘The Forty-Five’:
Neither a humorous nor an idle toast.


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

This article was originally posted on 6-Nov-2012, 07:57 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 6-Nov-2012, 11:07.