Your questions answered:
Many years ago I found myself, as a member of the ship’s crew, in the hospital of the TSS Empire Halladale.
Luckily, I only had a touch of food poisoning, but the man in the next bed to me wasn’t so lucky.
He was Harold Davis, who I was so saddened to hear died earlier this year. He had been badly wounded in the Korean War, yet went on to play football for Rangers.
Can you tell me more about this remarkable man and his career? –G.
Harold was indeed a remarkable man.
Born in 1933, he signed up for the Black Watch for his National Service.
In May 1953, Harold came under heavy enemy machine gun fire, and was hit three times. He spent 10 days unconscious in a Japanese hospital, only to be told by the surgeon that he would be able to walk again – but that being a footballer was definitely be out.
However, on return to Britain, his determination to fight back to fitness was noticed by a hospital physio, former Rangers player David Kinnear, who recommended him to Rangers manager Scot Symon.
Harold was duly signed and went on to win four League Championships, two League Cups, a Scottish Cup and a runners-up medal in the 1961 European Cup Winners’ Cup, in his eight-year spell with the Light Blues.
Of his fight back to fitness, he later said that his insides were “like a plumbing system that had undergone piecemeal repairs”.
A member of the Ibrox Hall Of Fame, Harold died in June this year at the age of 85.