When the roll is called and the Last Post sounded

As we approach the 11th of November it is time to pause

Each week on this site team lists are posted just as they were in 1914 albeit then on notice boards and in newspapers now we have websites

In March 1914 things were in some respects not greatly different when Glasgow Accies posted a team for the last match of the 1913-14 season that then took to the pitch on 28th March at Hamilton Crescent Partick beating old city rivals West of Scotland 27-8

Before the start of of the following season the secretary of West had written to his players urging them to sign up for His Majesty's Services

The war was about to strike a savage blow to Anniesland and Balgray Rugby with casualty lists almost incomprehensible nowadays

The Accies XV who beat West to a man enlisted in the forces at the outbreak of war.
Eight were killed, six wounded and only one returned unscathed.

When the team role was called on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918 it made for tragic reading

"They shall not grow old"

Thomas Burton HLI --wounded 1916 awarded MC
Arthur Russell --killed on the Somme 1916
William Barras Argyles --killed 1918 awarded MM
Charles Andrew HLI --wounded on the Somme Ypres and at Arras awarded MC
Arthur Laird HLI --killed 1916 on the Somme
John Warren RE --wounded awarded MC
Eric Young Cameronians --killed Gallipoli 1915
John Smith HLI --wounded Gallipoli 1915
John Sandeman Argyles --wounded Palestine
Frank Sandeman HLI --wounded Mesopotamia 1918
Robert Arthur Glasgow Yeomanary --awarded MC and Belgian WC
George Speirs HLI --awarded French WC killed 1918
George Macewan HLI --killed Gallipoli 1915
Archibald Templeton Cameronians --killed Gallipoi 1915
Thomas Stout Cameronians --killed Gallipoli 1915
George Warren HLI --survived War

HLI. Highland Light Infantry
Cameronians Scottish Rifles
RE Royal Engineers
Argyles Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders

Scottish Rugby suffered a disproportionate number of casualties in WW1 with the death 30 Scottish Caps

From this time and distance it is hard to imagine the numbness as War Office telegrams arrived breaking the tragic news often followed by a handwritten letter from the Unit commander outlining the circumstances and later when the Widow's Penny was presented to the bereaved in recognition of a husband brother or son who had made the ultimate sacrifice
A peel of bells raised by public donation still hangs in the steeple above Oran Mor to remember them especially the twenty seven Academicals both Glasgow and Kelvinside who fell on one day 28th June 1915 at Gallipoli
When Armistice Day arrived in 1918 some 950 former pupils of our three associated schools High School of Glasgow, Glasgow and Kelvinside Academies had lost their lives

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

This article was posted on 9-Nov-2011, 08:01 by Hugh Barrow.