Brechin City: 1906-1920, the Early Years 

By ALEX. WOOD

CHAPTER 8             THE MIDDLE YEARS OF THE WAR
1915-16: A Skeletal Season
LIMITED OPPORTUNITIES
The AGM of the Northern League was held in August 1915 and there it was indicated by the representatives of the four Forfarshire county clubs that if the league was to continue they could manage to raise teams.  It was also agreed however to make no arrangements for fixtures meantime.[1]
Saturday 18^th December 1915 saw Brechin City take the field for the first time in almost ten months.  A friendly against Brechin Hearts ended in a 2-2 draw.[2]  (Although senior football in the area had almost closed, Brechin Hearts had maintained a skeletal junior fixture list, supplemented by friendlies against the teams of various locally stationed military formations.)
On the 15^th of January 1916, City played a friendly against the 2/7^th Battalion, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and lost 5-1.[3]  On the 22^nd of January City defeated Brechin Hearts 2-0 in a friendly at Nursery Park.[4]  City’s only competitive game of the season was a first round Forfarshire Cup tie against Arbroath at Gayfield: Arbroath won 4-0.[5]  The next week City drew a friendly against the 2/9^th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, which team included Speedie, the former Glasgow Rangers and Scotland player.[6]
FOOTBALL UNDER ATTACK, AGAIN
The anti-football hysteria came closer to home with Bishop Robbards, the Episcopalian Bishop of Brechin, announcing in a sermon in Arbroath that it had “saddened him beyond words to see that in Scotland alone the football authorities have decided to go on with their big matches.  There is no harm, of course, in the ordinary games that are played.  Our fellows must have their exercise – those who have been working hard in our factories and our munition places, our soldiers at their drill must have it.  Of course no-one would object to that, but football in that organised way, it seems deplorable.  To me it is utterly humiliating that when our fellows should be struggling out there in the trenches, or watching day in and day out in the North Sea that thousands should be hurrying off and spending all their time and thought and attention by seeing 22 people kick a football.”[7] It may have been hypocritical cant but the cumulative effect of such comments, combined with the dearth of players, cast a shadow over football. 
MORE ENLISTMENTS …..
Robbards may have reflected a mood of disenchantment concerning those who had not enlisted.  It may have been the looming Derby Scheme, de facto conscription.  It may simply have been that with dwindling numbers football was becoming untenable and the remaining players felt they might as well go the way of the rest.  For whatever reason, the enlistments of the footballers continued.  Walter Fowler enlisted in the 5^thBlack Watch in October 1915.  Collie Martin, then playing for Dundee Hibs, enlisted in the same battalion, apparently (by the evidence of their first regimental numbers, 3495 and 3498 respectively) on the same day or the next day.

Jim Livie the goal-keeper and occasional centre-half, with the regimental number of 3395, seems to have enlisted in the preceding weeks.  (Jim Livie rose to the rank of sergeant and is pictured here, on the right in the middle row, serving with a Regimental Aid Post.)
In the same month, James Hetherington, Brechin’s half back who had played one game for City in 1910-11 and turned out with some regularity in 1913-14 and 1914-15, enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery.[8]  Jim Melvin had come to Brechin from Forfar for City’s inaugural season and played regularly over the succeeding four seasons across the half back line (as well as at least once in goal!): he enlisted in November in the Motor Transport section of the Army Service Corps.[9]  James Bushnell, a regular Brechin Hearts player who had played one game for City in 1907-08, had enlisted in the 3/5^th Black Watch by November 1915[10] but was later to transfer to the Labour Corps.[11]
Another former City player, Colin Hampton, then with Chelsea, had enlisted in August 1915[12] in the Royal Field Artillery[13] but by December he was noted in The Brechin Advertiser as Bombardier (the artillery equivalent of corporal) Hampton of the Motor Machine Gun Section of the Royal Field Artillery.[14]  Indeed he was a Corporal in November 1915 when he won a Cup medal for his Motor Machine Gun Service Battery team.  He was noted at that point as serving with the 28^th Battery MMGS.[15]  He eventually served as a machine gunner in Mesopotamia.  His service number in the Motor Machine Gun Corps was 2338.[16]  In 1918, by which time he was a sergeant, his armoured car was shattered by shellfire and Colin was taken prisoner by the Turks, only to be released with his comrades when the armistice was declared while being marched to Constantinople.[17] Colin was awarded the Military Medal, the citation for which was gazetted in 1919.[18]
The next seeming bad news to hit Brechin was that Davie Glen had been wounded.[19]  The Advertiser corrected its error the next week.  “Regarding the report that Private D. Glen, Royal Scots, a former well-known Brechin City football player, had been wounded, his mother received a letter the other day from the young man stating that he had heard the rumour in France, and that he was happy to say it was untrue and that he was safe and well.”[20]
Harry Hampton, Colin’s second cousin, enlisted in The Black Watch in February 1916, went to Francein July of that year and was wounded in the October.[21]  Bob Laing enlisted in the Royal Engineers in July 1916 and was in France by December 1916.  James Lyon enlisted as an Air Mechanic in the Royal Flying Corps.[22]
….. AND MORE CASUALTIES 
Immediately prior to what should have been the start of the season, former Arnot and Brechin Rovers goalkeeper and occasional City player, James Vallentine, a private in the 2^nd Battalion, the Scots Guards was wounded in France.[23] 
Robert Strachan, who had played for City, Dundee and Dundee Hibs, was invalided home in September 1915 and thereafter transferred to the 3/5^th Battalion of The Black Watch before returning to the front.[24]
In March 1916 the death in action in East Africaof Private James Lyon, son of Mr J Lyon of the Star Hotel, was reported.  He was quoted as a former “well-known footballer here” but in fact this was not the former Brechin captain, James S Lyon, but his brother, John S Lyon, who had emigrated to South Africasome fourteen years previously.[25]
Another report, in June 1916, reached Brechin of David Glen having been wounded.  On this occasion it was accurate although the wounds, from a German start-light to his stomach and hands, were not serious.[26]
PLAYING FOR ANOTHER TEAM
Enlistment may have been picking off more of Brechin footballers but it did not mean the end of their footballing.  The 3/5^th Battalion, The Black Watch (the training cadre of the 5^th, the Forfarshire Territorial Battalion) was stationed in Ripon in Yorkshire and had among its numbers in March 1916 at least seven Brechin players, James Bushnell, Walter Fowler, James Livie, Collie Martin, James Milne, Robert Strachan and Ritchie.[27]  Bushnell, Fowler, Livie and Martin had all enlisted in late 1915 or early 1916.   Interestingly, one of the Physical Training Instructors at Ripon was Corporal Alfred Anderson, who had gone to France with with 5th Battalion in October 1914, been wounded and posted to Ripon where he served for the remainder of the War.  Anderson lived until 2005 and was the last surviving Old Contemptible.
Having been wounded and invalided home, Robert Strachan was stationed with 3/5^th prior to his return to the front.  Milne was also recovering from wounds prior to returning to the front.  Ritchie, who had played for Brechin Harp, Brechin Rovers and Arbroath Fairfield before playing for Brechin City in its first season, is also noted among those playing for the 3/5^th team.  He had likely continued to play Junior football but had had a handful of games for City in each of 1906-07, 1909-10, 1910-11 and 1912-13.  He then played seven games for Dundee Hibs at the beginning of 1915-16.
The 3/5^th Black Watch football team played a series of games against other Highland regiment teams in the spring of 1916.  They lost 5-4 to the 4^th Cameron Highlanders[28]; they lost by two goals to the 3/7^th Argylls and beat the 3/4^th Black Watch by 4-3 and later by 5-1[29]; they defeated the 3/4^th Seaforth Highlanders 9-1 (in which game both Collie Martin and James Milne played)[30]; and they defeated the 7^th Black Watch 4-1 in two successive weeks[31].  As the season drew to a close the 3/5^th Black Watch defeated the 6^th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders by two goals to nil: several Brechiners were in the team.[32]  Collie Martin, Walter Fowler and Ritchie are also all noted as having played in a regimental five-a-side tournament.[33]  A photograph of the 3/5^th Black Watch team at Ripon shows at least four of these players, James Livie, James Bushnell, Walter Fowler and Collie Martin.[34]
1916-17
In September the Forfarshire Football Association postponed making any arrangements for the Forfarshire Cup until the New Year.[35]  The season was Brechin’s first since 1906 when not a single game was played.
ENLISTMENTS
By March 1917 James S Lyon, City’s first captain, was serving as an Air Mechanic with the Royal Flying Corps.[36]
DECORATIONS
Lance-Corporal Robert Jaffray, formerly of the Black Watch, by then of the Machine Gun Corps, well-known Brechin Junior player and a one-game player for City, was awarded the Military Medal in June 1917.[37]
THE CASUALTIES
James Bushnell: wounded
James Low Bushnell, a regular with Brechin Hearts, who had played one game for City, in 1907-08 and who was the brother-in-law, of David Nicholl, was reported as wounded September 1916.[38]  Bushnell would return to play for City after the war.
Robert Strachan: killed
The next City player to fall was Robert Strachan.  Robert Mitchell Strachan, son of James Strachan, linen factory worker, and ElizabethStrachan (nee Mitchell) was born on 18^th December 1882 at 14 Union Street.   By 1891 his parents, three brothers, sister and himself had moved to a one roomed house at 86 High Street.  By 1901 the family, now comprising his parents, four brothers, two sisters and Robert, were living in a two roomed house at 38 Montrose Street.  Robert was noted, at that point, as a flax worker.  He had married Mary Burnett in Brechin in 1908.  At the time of his marriage he was resident at 13 Kinnaird Place and noted as a paper mill worker, which was also his occupation at the time of his enlistment.  He was a well-known member of the City Band.[39]
He played for Brechin Harp, Brechin City, Brechin, Dundee Hibs,[40] Brechin City again, Dundee 1910[41]  and finally returned for a third period with Brechin City.
Robert Strachan enlisted in the 5^th Black Watch in October 1914, at which point he was noted as residing in Southesk Terrace, Brechin.[42]  He had arrived initially in France, according to his medal roll, on 13^th March 1915.    “He was wounded with the local Territorials,”[43] and invalided home in September 1915 (at which point his address was again noted as Kinnaird Place).  After being wounded, he was attached to the 3/5^th Black Watch, the 5^th Battalion’s training cadre[44].
In October 1916 the 4^th/5^th Black Watch, as part of the 39^th Division, was engaged in the Battle of the Ancre Heights, one of the final phases of the Somme offensive of that year.  Lance Corporal Robert Strachan, originally of the 5^th Black Watch, Service Number, 240664, was first reported missing at the end of October 1916.[45]  His death is noted as 14^th October 1916 but it was not until November 1917 that his wife, who resided at Southesk Terrace, was officially notified that her husband was by then presumed to have been killed.[46] Robert Strachan has no known grave but is commemorated on the Black Watch’s panel on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme.
Harry Hampton: wounded
Harry Hampton, cousin of Colin Hampton, and latterly a City regular, was reported wounded while serving as a private with The Black Watch in November 1916.[47]
Gordon MacFarlane: wounded and decorated
Corporal Gordon MacFarlane, the former Brechin Hearts player, occasional City player and Brechin and Forfarshire cricket player, was wounded in the face in November 1916 while serving with the 5^th Black Watch.[48]  At the end of February The London Gazette carried the announcement of his award of a Distinguished Conduct Medal.  “For conspicuous gallantry in action.  He, with another serjeant, reorganised some men and attacked an enemy bombing post, driving the enemy out and rescuing a wounded officer who had been captured.  Later, although himself wounded, he continued to remain at his post.”[49]
D Collie Martin: killed
David Collie Martin, generally known as Collie Martin, was the next Brechin footballer to die in the war.  David Collie Martin, generally known as Collie Martin,  was born on 19^th March 1890 at 8 Union Street, Brechin, the son of David Collie and  Jessie Ann Martin. As an infant, in 1891, he was boarded in Market Street with the McGarrie family.  As a youth  he had resided in 1901 in 86 Montrose Street with his grandmother, mother and aunt.  In 1913 he married Catherine Reid, at which point his residence remained 86 Montrose Street, Brechin.  At the time of his marriage in 1913 he was noted as a bleachfield worker and immediately before enlisting in 1915 he was employed at the East Bleachfield in Brechin.[50]  His address at the time of his enlistment however appears to have been 26 Kinnaird Place, Brechin.[51]
He had played for Brechin Hearts, Brechin City, Dundee, Brechin City (again) and Dundee Hibs.
He enlisted in the 3/5^th Black Watch around October or November 1915.[52]  He is noted as having been killed serving as a corporal with the 5^th Black Watch near Ypres on 26^thMarch 1917, a week after his twenty seventh birthday.  The Third Battle of Ypres  was still some three months away when he was killed on this section of the front over which fighting had continued almost incessantly since the early days of the war.   His Service Number was 241085.  He is buried in Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, on the outskirts of Ypres, Belgium.
In a letter to his family, his company sergeant major said, “”The Germans tried to raid us and Collie was hit by a shell.  He never spoke and died in a few minutes.  When I saw him he had a smile on his face.  He was a good soldier and greatly respected by everyone.  He was a great favourite, and Brechin today is the poorer for the loss of one of her gallant sons.”[53]
David Glen: killed
The Battle of Arras in the spring of 1917 saw enormous Scottish casualties, with three of the Scottish Divisions (the 9^th Scottish, the 15^th Scottish and the 51^st Highland) all engaged.  The Arras campaign was initiated on 9^th April 1917, Easter Monday, and on that date fell one of Brechin City’s best known early players, Davie Glen.
David Glen, the one time captain of Brechin Hearts, the bustling centre forward, the veteran of City’s first decade, the first Brechin City player to have been awarded a testimonial, had also played (very briefly in both cases) for Dundee and Milwall as well as for his home town team.[54]
David Glen enlisted in December 1914[55].  He was serving with the Service Number 16611 as a Sergeant with the 13^th Royal Scots when he was killed.  The 13^th Royal Scots was a Service Battalion which had been raised in Edinburgh in September 1914, was attached to the 45^th Brigade of the 15^th Scottish Division from that point until the end of the war and which landed in France in July 1915.   Glen’s medal roll indicates that he arrived in France on 5^th August 1915.
On Easter Sunday, 1917, in the area around Arras, for the first time that year, the sun had a touch of warmth although snow still lingered around many of the banks.  The Germans shelled Arrascontinuously that Sunday.  The Monday morning, 9^th April, however was cold with a sharp wind blowing from the south-east and rain squalls.[56]  On that day the British and Imperial forces launched their offensive around Arras, sometimes referred to as the First Battle of the Scarpe.  It was essentially a diversion in support of the French offensive about to be launched (on the 16^th of April) by General Nivelle on the Aisne.  David Glen was killed on the first day of that battle.
David Glen had been awarded the Military Medal for bravery (notification of which award only reached his mother a few weeks after his death) and had been recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal on several occasions.[57]  The major commanding his company wrote to Glen’s mother some time after his death.  “It did not take me long to see what a magnificent soldier your son was, and I always was confident that he would do his duty.  He not only fulfilled the duties of a platoon Sergeant, but he took a keen interest in the welfare of the whole company.  One always found him working or supervising work in the trenches to improve the bad conditions for the men.  It was not necessary to tell Sergeant Glen what to do every time we went into the trenches, for he had so carefully studied how to improve existing positions to be able to carry on.  He was a tower of strength and many a time I have seen him helping others to carry their loads, when they were exhausted.  We played football together, worked and fought together and I always found him a most capable and fearless leader.  He was killed during the taking __ village, in front of Arras, on the 9^th April 1917.  Serg. Glen was well-known outside of our Battalion.  Our Brigadier-General often asked how Serg. Glen was, and he expressed his sorrow to me when I told him of your son’s glorious death.  For conspicuous gallantry in a raid I recommended your son for the D.C.M.  Accept my deepest sympathy in your loss of a very good and noble son.  He has paid the great sacrifice for us all, and I am convinced that he is happy now that he has won so magnificently the last peaceful rest.  Had I not been wounded two days afterwards I should have written to you before.”[58]
His mother resided atMontrose Street, later at 28 Kinnaird Place, Brechin.  He is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, France.
Gourlay is certain that the motives which sent Davie Glen to fight in a war, the complex causes or justifications for which he may not have felt able to articulate, were “forScotland, for Brechin, forKinnaird Place, for the Port and its Reading-Room, the Eagle, the Neuk, the Dennies. The Loan, the Brig and the Hill – wherever men meet or walk in or around our old grey town.”
Gourlay’s final words on Glen illustrate a profound depth of personal admiration.  “Possibly only his men came to realise the complete dependability of the quarrier.  Few of his contemporaries quite grasped the significance of his worth and the effect it had on the youngsters who watched him play.”[59]
Walter Fowler: killed
Walter Fowler, son of James Fowler, a tenter in the Denburn Works, and Margaret Ann Fowler (nee Barclay) was born on 1^st January 1889 in the High Street, Brechin.  He died exactly a fortnight after David Glen, and only a few miles away.
Walter Fowler played for Brechin Arnot as a juvenile.  In April 1909, while noted as an Arnot player, he was selected to play inside left for a Brechin Second Class Juniors select against Brechin Hearts, his future club.  The Second Class select beat Brechin Hearts four-two.[60]  By August 1910 he was noted as Brechin Hearts’ expected outside left for the season ahead but was not noted among the Hearts’ new signings.[61]  It is assumed therefore that he joined Brechin Hearts between April 1909 and August 1910.  It is noted, at the outset of 1911-12, that Brechin Rovers were “exceedingly anxious to secure the services of … the little outside left, Walter Fowler, but (he) declined the offer and decided to stick to the maroons.”[62]  Walter Fowler was a regular in the Hearts line-up of 1911-12.  He played left half for Hearts in a challenge game against a Brechin City XI in December 1911 and was among the noted Hearts players in the report of a pre-season friendly between Brechin City and Brechin Hearts in September 1912[63].
Like David Glen before him, Fowler had been captain of Brechin Hearts, in his case in the last pre-war season, 1913-14.[64]  In that season Brechin Hearts won the Arbroath and District Junior Cup, beating Ardenlea 3-2 in the replayed final.[65]  Walter Fowler continued to play for Brechin Hearts into the next season: he is noted as one of the scorers in a 3-3 draw with Dundee Osborne on 3 November 1914.[66]  He played for the Forfarshire Junior select and also at some point played for Brechin City.[67]  (He was likely the outside left noted as Fuller in the Brechin City team defeated by Montrose on New Year’s Day 1915.[68])  He is also noted as having played a trial for Dundee Hibs, for whom he “played a good game forward, and had many dashing runs”, against Forfar Athletic on 3 April 1915 at Forfar.[69]  He in fact scored the opening goal in the first half and Dundee Hibs led 1-0 at the interval. The game in fact ended a 3-3 draw.  At the end of 1914-15 Brechin Hearts were the defeated finalists in the Forfar District Junior Cup: Fowler was one of the two scorers in the replayed final.
He is noted on the Roll of Honour of D & R Duke’s Denburn Works, where he was employed as a lapper[70], as having left Duke’s in October 1915.[71]
Walter Fowler enlisted in the 5^th, the Forfarshire battalion, of The Black Watch, likely in October 1915 and trained with its depot battalion, the 3/5^th, at Ripon in Yorkshire.  While at Ripon he played for the 3/5^th Black Watch football team.  Several other member of that team, including Collie Martin (formerly of Brechin City, Dundee and Dundee Hibs), James Bushnell (formerly of Brechin Hearts and with a single game for City) and the goal keeper, James Livie, were also from Brechin and had played junior football as well as games for Brechin City, in the town.  Walter Fowler returned to Brechin from Ripon in May 1916 to marry Mary Ann Sinclair.

He transferred at some point between June 1916 and April 1917, along with another Brechin soldier, James Low, to the 7^th (Fife) Battalion of The Black Watch with the Service Number 292529.  The 7^th Black Watch was part of the153rd Brigade of the 51^st Highland Division.  Shortly before five o’clock on the morning of 23^rd April 1917, British troops advanced east of Arras upon the German line between Gavrelle, Guémappe and Fontaine-lez-Croisilles.  This advance marked the beginning of the Second Battle of the Scarpe.  The Germans had brought up many new batteries, spread along the line, and had massed large numbers of machine guns in the villages, trenches and emplacements, from which they were able to sweep the British line of advance by direct and enfilade fire.  These machine guns were thick in the ruins of Roeux.[72]  The 51^st Highland Division attacked the village of Roeux and the German line which stretched from Roeux northwards past the Roeux chemical factory and the station on the road to Gavrelle.  On that day, the 7^th Black Watch advanced from the general direction of Fampoux, parallel to and immediately north of, the railway line, and suffered, along with the remainder of the division, severe casualties.[73]
At first Walter Fowler was noted as missing.  “Information from the front has been received that a well-known Brechin footballer, Walter Fowler, has been missing since 23rd April.  He was one of the best known juniors in the Centre and North of Scotland and has appeared in representative matches.  He also played for BrechinCity.”[74]
One week later however, the same columns report his death.  “Intimation has now been received that Private Walter Fowler, Black Watch, who was previously reported missing was killed in action in Franceon 23rd April.  Before the war he was a lapper at Denburn Works.  He was one of the best known junior football players in the district and had played in several representative matches as well as for BrechinCity.  He was the only son of Mr James Fowler, 11 Montrose Street, and leaves a young widow and child who reside in Damacre Road.”  The same issue includes a death notice: “Deaths: for their Country.  Killed in action in Franceon 23rd April Private Walter Fowler, only son of Mr and Mrs James Fowler, 11 Montrose St, Brechin, and husband of Mary Ann Sinclair, 13 Damacre Rd, Brechin.”[75]
Tragically, two days later, his friend, James Low, who had transferred with him from the 5^th to the 7^thBlack Watch, was also killed.  Walter Fowler is buried at Brown’sCopseBritishCemetery, Roeux, and James Low lies less than fifty yards from him.  Brown’s Copse Cemetery is on the Black Watch’s line of attack between Fampoux and Roeux.  At the request of his widow who visited Brown’s Copse in the 1920s, his grave in inscribed with the words, ‘He lies in a beautiful spot’.

 
Chapter 9 of ‘Brechin City, The Early Years’, can be accessed at https://www.alexwood.org.uk/2012/08/brechin-city-the-early-years-chapter-9/
 
BUILDING THE ARCHIVE
The author of this article would be glad to hear any information which corrected, improved or enhanced any of the information given here and would be delighted to hear of any readers who have documents, photographs, articles or simply memories or knowledge of any of the names mentioned or of any other Brechin footballing connections with the 1914-18 War.  The author can be contacted at: info@alexwood.org.uk .   Any such material will be used to supplement this article.
 
SOURCES
The major sources for this work were:
Adams, David G: The Kirn Poke o’ Brechin, Chanonry Press, Brechin (1986)
Adams, David G: The Brechin Bran Tub, Chanonry Press, Brechin (1987)
Adams, David G: The Brechin Rag-Bag, Chanonry Press, Brechin (1988)
Adams, David G: The Brechin Lucky Dip, Chanonry Press, Brechin (1989)
Alexander, Jack: McCrae’s Battalion, Mainstream,Edinburgh (2003)
Carr, William: A Time to Leave the Ploughshares,London (1985)
Cheshire, Scott: Chelsea, A Complete Record 1905-1991, Breedon Books (1991)
Crampsey, Bob: The Scottish Football League, the First 100 Years, SFL,Glasgow (1990)
Cumming, George: Through the Years with Brechin City FC, Simmath Press,Dundee (1948)
Falls, Cyril: History of the Great War, France and Belgium, 1917
Gibbs, Philip: The War Dispatches, Tandem,London (1968)
Gourlay, David M.A.: A Brechin Eleven and A Printer’s Dozen
Hampton, W: Collection of Colin Hampton Memorabilia (including medals, press cuttings and photographs)
Lynch, Michael: Scotland, A New History, Pimlico,London (1992)
McArra, Kevin: Scottish Football, a Pictorial History,Edinburgh (1984)
McLeod, Rod: 100 Years of Scottish Football, STV,Glasgow (1973)
Price, Norrie: Up Wi’ The Bonnets, N Price,Aberdeen (1993)
Smailes, Gordon, Scottish Football Records,Derby (1995)
Smout, T.C.: A Century of the Scottish People, 1830-1950,Fontana,London (1997)
Swinburne, John: Motherwell Football Club, 1886-1999, Tempus, Stroud (1999)
Wilkie, Jim: Across the Great Divide, Mainstream (1984)
Wood, Alex.: Collection of Walter Fowler memorabilia (including medals, photographs and Brechin Hearts membership card)
The Brechin Almanac 1918
The Brechin Almanac 1920
Brechin and The Great War 1918 (Brechin Advertiser, February 1919)
The Brechin Advertiser
The Courier and Argus
The London Gazette
D & R Duke, Denburn Works, Roll of Honour, Brechin (1919?)
Relichtie Arbroath FC fans’ website http://www.relichtie.plus.com/directory.htm
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Debt of Honour web-site http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx
The County of Angus Roll of Honour http://vzone.virgin.net/ian.edwards2/index.htm
Corstorphine, James K: The East Fife Football Historian website http://members.tripod.com/~corstorphine/historian.html
Dundee United FC website http://www.dundeeunitedfc.co.uk/
Fulham FC website http://www.fulhamfc.com/
Loons Mad, independent Forfar Athletic fans website http://www.forfarathletic-mad.co.uk
The National Archives, Documents on Line, for World War One medal lists http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline
McColl, Brian: Scottish Football Encyclopaedia website http://www.geocities.com/brianmccoll19662003/ScottishFootballAtoZ.html
Parker, Jim: Machine Gun Corps Research website www.machinegun.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
 
Ross, James M: Scotland – List of Qualifying Cup Winners, website http://www.rssf.com/tables/scotqualcuphist.html
Tangerine Dream, independent Dundee United fans website http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Park/8250/united.htm
 
WELLnet, Motherwell FC website
http://members.lycos.co.uk/kissmyzeus/pa/h.html
 
Birth Certificates were traced for most mentioned men and marriage certificates for several via Scotland’s People, the web site for the General Register Office forScotland, from which were also traced census entries
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
 
In addition the following individuals and institutions were of enormous assistance in compiling the material on which this article was based and their efforts and support is acknowledged with gratitude:
 
Chelsea Football Club (Claire Lait);
CrystalPalaceFootball Club (Rev Nigel Sands);
DundeeFootball Club (David Forbes);
DundeeUnited Football Club (Mike Watson and Steve Gracie);
Bill and Agnes Hampton, Brechin;
Jenny Hill, The Brechin Advertiser;
James Livie, Brechin;
Ken Macaskill, ofEdinburghand formerly of Brechin
Steve Mitchell, Editor,BrechinCityProgramme and Director, Brechin City FC;
Jack Souter, Luthermuir;
The Staff, Brechin Public Library;
The Staff, The National Library ofScotland.

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