THE SHINTY STICK HEROES
Courageous players took their will to win from the sports fields of Scotland to the battlefields of France
They fought bravely on the shinty field that day and they went on to do the same on the battlefields of France during World War I.
Posing triumphantly after their 6-1 victory over Kyles Athletic in the 1914 Camanachd Cup Final, these Kingussie players were unaware that for some it would be the last time they would wield a shinty stick, known as a caman.
The Great War began just a few months later and, by the end of that terrible conflict, six of the team were dead, two had been shot and wounded and one had been gassed. Kingussie captain William McGilliv ray was killed in May 1915 at Festubert, the same battle in which John Macpher son was wounded and later died of his injuries.
Lewis MacPherson died from an illness in a military hospital in Ireland in 1916 and the following year Alick Tolmie was killed in the Battle of Scarpe and John G MacPherson perished in the Battle of Arras.
The last member of the 1914 cup-winning team to surrender his life for his country was Malcolm MacIntosh, who was killed at Flanders in 1917.
Clubs from all over Scotland suffered a similar fate as their brave players fought as valiantly on the Western Front as they did on the pitches of their homeland.
Later this month, the shinty heroes of World War I are being honoured at Stirling Castle in a commemorative event presented by historian Hugh Dan MacLennan.
Hugh Dan said: “I wanted to put together a show highlighting heroes from the various shin ty-playing communities, bringing the connections between music, song, shinty and the First World War together.
“The casualty list and impact on shinty communities was simply horrendous. At the battle of Loos in September 1915, the first two lines of the 5th Camerons were annihilated by heavy machine gun fire.
“Of the 800 men and 20 officers who went over the top, only two off icers and 70 men were left. Many who died were shinty players.
“By the end of the war, nearly every club had lost players, with Beauly reporting to have lost as many as 25 men. In Fort William, at least 112 men were lost and in Skye and Tighnabruaich the shinty clubs lost the equivalent of at least two teams’ playing strengths.
“It is thought the total number of men lost would make up 15 teams. It wasn’t until the 1930s that clubs were back playing at the same level as they were before World War I.
“Many of the shinty players who went to the Front were also pipers and music they composed will be played at the event, including a tune called the Battle of the Somme by Pipe Major William Lawrie of Ballachulish, who died in 1916 after taking seriously ill in the trenches.
“It promises to be a great night of commemoration and music, which will be directed by former Scottish shinty captain, accordionist and Mànran star Gary Innes.”
Russell Jones, president of Kingussie Shinty Club, says they will never forget the men of the 1914 Camanachd Cupwinning team and is delighted they are being honoured for their bravery.
He said: “The players and supporters left Kingussie by train at 6am on the morning of Saturday, April 4, to travel to the match. Nobody realised at the time that it would turn out to be the last competitive match Kingussie would play for many years and many of the players would never play shinty again.
“Exactly four months later, on August 4, the HQ of the Scottish Command in Edinburgh received a telegram from the British government which simply read ‘mobilise’. Britain had declared war on Germany.
“By the end of the war in 1918, six of the players pictured would be dead. In all, the town of Kingussie had lost 60 men. Although some returned home and played shinty again and won the Camanachd Cup again in 1921, a whole generation had been lost and the effects of the carnage caused by the Great War would be felt for decades.
“A century after their 1914 triumph,
Kingussie won the Camanachd Cup. On that day, all our players wore jerseys with a special poppy logo and each player had the name of a 1914 player embroidered on the chest of his jersey. We won 4-1 against Glenurquhart. Ronald Ross scored two goals and Savio Genini scored two. Ronald had Malcolm MacIntosh’s name on his jersey and Savio had John G MacPherson’s name on his. It was a very poignant day.
“Although John Macpherson – who appears in the 1914 winning photo – did not play on the day due to injury, the
club always treat him the same as the other five who never returned.
“The names of those who did return were also placed on the shirts. Many of these men suffered the effects of war for the rest of their lives – after being gassed, shot and wounded or, in some cases, severe mental stress that was not recognised then as it is now.”
The Somme and Shinty’s Heroes event takes place at Stirling Castle on October 29.
Last year, Russell travelled to France to visit the war cemeteries and pay tribute to Kingussie’s fallen.
He said: “During my trip to the battlefields and cemeteries, I located 16 of the 60 Kingussie men who died in World War I. Of those 16, only one had a grave – the rest were just names on the walls of the graveyards as their bodies were never recovered.
“I left a shinty ball with the inscription ‘Always remembered, forever a boy of the Dell,’ beside John G MacPherson’s name on a memorial at Arras cemetery.
“If we take a moment to look at war memorials in all shinty communities, you will see the price the players paid in the war. On the turf as under the turf – all men are equal.”
The casualty list and the impact on the shinty communities was just horrendous