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EH12 5EY

The declaration of war occurred on the 4th of August 1914 and the Scottish football season started the following week.

Hearts Football Club was riding high at the top of the league and were expected to win the championship that year.

But as Hearts FC historian David Speed explains, as the conflict unfolded, many questioned whether football should be played at all: 鈥淭here was a crusade to stop the playing of professional football. It was seen by many as disgusting that football was being played as men were dying in the war. The players came under increasing pressure through the press 鈥� some really nasty letters were sent.鈥�

Hearts players responded to the pressure by volunteering to join Kitchener鈥檚 army or becoming involved in war related work: sixteen players in total. Across the city, Hearts鈥� arch rivals Hibernian Football Club were also doing their bit for the war effort:

鈥淲ithin a few days of the start of the war, seven Hibs players had either joined up or had become involved in war work,鈥� says Hibs FC historian Tom Wright. 鈥淓ven before conscription teams like Queens Park, Falkirk and Dunfermline 鈥� they all played a massive part.鈥�

Many of the Hearts and Hibs players joined the 16th Royal Scots Battalion 鈥� popularly known as Macrae鈥檚 Battalion after its founder Sir George Macrae.

鈥淭he 16th Royal Scots went to France in summer 1915. In early 1916 they were sent down to Albert on the Somme to prepare for the big push on the 1st of Jul 1916 which became known at the Battle of the Somme,鈥� says David Speed. 鈥淎fter the initial bombardment, the 16th Royal Scots advanced uphill, their objective being the village of Contalmaison. But the bombardment had not damaged the German鈥檚 trenches or their barbed wire and there was wholesale slaughter of the British men.鈥�

Twenty thousand soldiers were killed on the first day of the Somme. Macrae鈥檚 Battalion lost 570 men and 35 officers attacking Contalmaison. Three Hearts players died in the assault and four other players died later in the war.

This year a plaque has been unveilded at Hearts鈥� stadium Tynecastle to commemorate the players who signed up and every year there is a service of Remembrance at Edinburgh鈥檚 Haymarket Clock Tower Memorial, built to honour the Hearts players who served.

Images courtesy of David Speed (Heart of Midlothian FC) and Tom Wright (Hibernian FC)

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