Contalmaison 7th November 2004

The Videos

Scottish football has enjoyed many significant victories overseas, but to that number and those names we remember, now add Contalmaison. The unveiling of the cairn commemorating the sacrifices by the 'Footballer's Batallion' of the 16th Royal Scots, was attended by men and women representing Heart of Midlothian and a number of other Scottish football clubs, notably Hibernian, Dundee and Raith Rovers. On a cold sunny November morning we remembered the dead, surrounded by the dead-quiet rolling green fields where ninety years ago 60,000 men died in a single morning.

The pictures will tell the story. But the story is also told, not only in Jack Alexander's 'McCrae's Batallion', but now Craig Herbertson's 'Hearts of Glory', which he sang at the dinner the night before and the small commemorative reception in the local village hall after the service. It is now available on compact disc. Half of the proceeds will go to the Great War Memorial Fund, which still has a shortfall from its target. Anyone reading this is urged to buy the cd, both for the song itself but also for the cause it supports.

Next July we will be visiting the Contalmaison Cairn on the Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme: hopefully with everyone's support the Fund will have met its target by then. Sir George McCrae once said about the attempts to erect the memorial "It has been going on too long, now". We may say it is finally over, and those Hearts players we can all name, and also the many other brave men whom we do not know, are properly and fittingly remembered.

London Hearts 8th November 2004

They shall grow not old,
as those that are left grow old,
age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn,
for, at the going down of the sun,
and in the morning,
we shall remember them.