Remembering Our Own
Wednesday, 1st Jul 2015Today is the 99th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.
On that opening morning alone, nearly 20,000 British and Empire soldiers died, with a further 40,000 wounded. Dunfermline Athletic lost half-back Davie Izatt and Committee Member Jimmy Morton – their bodies were never found and their names are recorded on the Thiepval Memorial.
They had been members of the 16th Royal Scots, better known as “McCrae’s Battalion”, which included professional footballers from several Scottish clubs, notably from Hearts but also from DAFC, East Fife, Falkirk, Hibernian, Raith Rovers and St Bernard’s.
Every year, members of the McCrae’s Battalion Trust (of which DAFC is a Life Member) make a pilgrimage to the little village of Contalmaison, the furthest point of the British advance on 1 July 1916.
This year the club’s wreath (made by the Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Edinburgh) was placed on the commemorative cairn by the Dunfermline Athletic Heritage Trust’s John Simpson, who said: “To represent the club on any occasion is a great privilege and responsibility – to do so standing side-by-side with supporters of other Scottish clubs, with all of us remembering the fate of so many on that awful day, is poignant beyond belief.”
A fuller report on the 2015 pilgrimage will be published when John returns from France.
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