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This morning we remembered their morning

This morning we remembered their morning

Hugh Barrow28 Jun 2015 - 09:17
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100 years ago to the hour

This morning 28th June 2015 a simple ceremony of remembrance took place at the Glasgow Academy War Memorial on Gt Western Rd to recall the events of exactly 100 years ago

Representatives of the Glasgow Academical Rugby Club paid their respects to the team of 1914
Among those in attendance was Lt Col Sandy Fitzpatrick MBE who has played for Accies for many years and recently commanded the 52nd Lowland Division Royal Regiment of Scotland the Division that suffered so much at Gallipoli

Our longest day 28th June 1915

Gallipoli is usually portrayed as an ANZAC Campaign but the losses sustained by the Scottish 52nd Lowland were enormous and at times overlooked

The Gallipoli Campaign had a massive impact on the Glasgow Academy particularly those serving with the 52nd Lowland Division.156th Brigade 7/8th Cameronians The Scottish Rifles
The Academical relationship with The Rifles goes back to the very birth of the Club in 1866. Our first President H.E.Crum-Ewing was an officer with the First Lanarkshire Volunteer Rifles who shared their drill ground at
Burnbank with Accies when the Club was formed ,a ground that was to become famous in the early days of cricket ,rugby and soccer providing Rangers with a home enroute to Kinning Park
Lt Col Crum Ewing then helped form Third Lanark( Volunteer Rifles ) F.C.in 1872 a club that survived until 1967
The Volunteer Rifles became the The Scottish Rifles in 1881 and it was to this Regiment many Glasgow Accies signed on for in 1914

The most concentrated loss of life for Glasgow Accies was not on the Western Front but at Gallipoli .A year before the Somme on the 28th June 1915 an action took place known as Gully Ravine.On that day some 27 Academicals Glasgow and Kelvinside fell in the fighting as they faced the Turks
A summary of the action does not make for pleasant reading

"In the ravine the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment did not advance as far as those troops on the spur since Ottomans there were somewhat sheltered from the deadly bombardment from the sea. Their final position was fortified with rocks and boulders and became known as "Border Barricade".
On the right of the advance, along Fir Tree Spur, the battle did not go so well for the British. The inexperienced soldiers of the 156th Brigade lacked artillery support and were massacred by Ottoman machine guns and bayonet attacks. Despite the opposition, they were ordered to press the attack and so the support and reserve lines were sent forward but made no progress. By the time the attack was halted the Brigade was at half strength, having suffered 1,400 casualties of which 800 had been killed. Some battalions were so depleted they had to be merged into composite formations. When the rest of the 52nd Division landed, the commander, Major General Granville Egerton, was enraged at the manner in which his 156th Brigade had been sacrificed."

When the Accies played their final match of the season on 28th March 1914 they little knew that by 1918 eight of the team would have made the ultimate sacrifice and six had sustained terrible injuries only one of the team got through The Great War unscathed Four that team Eric Young ,William Church both capped for Scotland ,Tommy Stout and Archie Templeton fell at Gully Ravine .They had played together signed on together served together and on that morning died together

A relationship that had started on a pitch at the side of Gt Western Rd some 200 metres from the War Memorial at Kelvinbridge had reached the final whistle

Further reading