One hundred years to the night...

McCrae’s Battalion Centenary 1914-2014. Supporting Help for Heroes and Poppy Scotland

‘Somewhere in France – with love from the trenches’

On Friday 27 November 1914 a grand public meeting was held in the Usher Hall to inaugurate Lieutenant Colonel Sir George McCrae’s new Active Service battalion of the Royal Scots. The evening remains one of the most memorable and emotional moments in Scotland’s long history. By midnight three hundred volunteers had stepped forward – among them thirteen players from Heart of Midlothian Football Club and fellow professionals from Dunfermline Athletic, Raith Rovers, Falkirk, Hibernian, and East Fife.

Sportsmen and supporters from countless other fields joined them and within five days the roll was full. Scotland’s sporting battalion went on to win undying fame on the killing fields of the Western Front, carrying their name with pride and distinction, but at a terrible cost. More than a thousand officers and other ranks perished in the war. Many of them have no known grave.

On Friday 28 November 2014 Scotland will remember McCrae’s Battalion with a poignant evening of music, drama, song and previously unseen contemporary images. The distinguished actor Ken Stott will act as narrator.

Dunfermline Athletic are proud to support this evening, and indeed have recently become life members of McCrae’s Battalion Trust. Sir George McCrae’s wife was Lizzie Russell from the New Row, Dunfermline, and George had worked in the town as a young man. When he rose to fame and fortune, he maintained his links with Dunfermline and thus it should be no surprise that there were many Dunfermline lads in the Usher Hall audience that evening in 1914.

Among them were Davie Izatt, the Athletic half back, and Jimmy Morton, a Committee Member, -- both killed on 1 July 1916. Along with them went Bill Robertson (later adjutant of the battalion), Stewart Kennedy, a famous architect, and Robert Martin who came to command 14 Platoon of D Company – which is better known as the Dunfermline Platoon.

Indeed there were so many volunteers from the ‘Auld Grey Toon’ that night, that Sir George decided that they should have their own platoon. We hope that as many Dunfermline supporters as possible will attend on 28 November, and wear their shirts, scarves or anything to mark them out as Pars. By so doing you honour the memory of those brave Dunfermline men who served and died in McCrae’s Battalion.

All profits will be divided between the military charities, Help for Heroes and Poppy Scotland. In effect, the lads of 1914 will be helping their counterparts in today’s armed forces cope with the injuries sustained on active service in Afghanistan and other theatres.

The same dreadful injuries as those sustained on the Western Front – and at the same age. The life of a soldier has not changed much these past hundred years. McCrae’s legacy lies not in the history books, but in a living and breathing form of Remembrance with which everyone can engage.

We hope you’ll join us for a very special evening ... one hundred years to the night.

Doors open 19.00
Audience seated for 19.30
Tickets available from the Usher Hall
Full price adult £19.14
Concession £15.00
Child £10.00
Adult and Child combination ticket £25.00