Season 1916-1917

The pre-season club sports days were very successful during World War One and always attracted decent attendances as well as the best athletes. In August The Scotsman reported that Roderick Walker, the former Heart of Midlothian full-back was awarded the Military Medal. He enlisted alongside his two brothers, John and Murray. Murray was killed in action and John was wounded. Rod Walker was a native of Buckhaven and made his mark in Fife junior football, and after Hearts he played with Portsmouth. Before the league matches began there were two matches played under the auspices of the "Ayrshire Red Cross Central Funds" on 12 August when Kilmarnock drew 1-1 with Queen’s Park and Rangers won 2-1 at Ayr United. The following Saturday Celtic began the season with a convincing 5-1 victory over St Mirren at Paisley with Patsy Gallagher scoring four of the goals. Rangers also had a decent start, winning 3-0 against Dundee.

On 23 September Celtic reached the Cup Final with a convincing 3-0 win over Rangers at in front of a massive 50,000 crowd. Clyde also booked their place in the final that same day with a 4-0 victory over The . Third Lanark at .

A close fought final was won 3-2 by Celtic. By the end of September Celtic led the table with full points from six games, with Rangers two points behind them but with a game in hand.

Sad news arrived for Hibernian when their winger Robert Alexander had his career ended in an unfortunate work accident in October as his arm had to be amputated after he caught it in machinery. Alexander had made a decent start to the season scoring six times in 13 league outings. Morton and Airdrieonians led the table on 4 November after the Greenock side had defeated Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox. Morton would be consistent throughout the season, and Bob Cochrane’s side finished in second place.

Celtic player Patsy Gallagher landed in trouble when the Glasgow Munitions Court fined him £3 for being off work at a Clyde Shipbuilding Yard on four successive Saturdays. He pleaded by letter saying he had an injured knee, but still managed to play for Celtic on the four Saturdays that he missed his work! During the conflict several other players would appear before courts for various reasons. Over the previous ten years or so Third Lanark had traditionally played Dundee at Cathkin Park on Christmas Day, but the SFA refused their request for this to be played in 1916.

The reason being that all matches had to be played on a Saturday, other than at the January holidays and local holidays.

By the turn of the year 1916, Celtic held a two point lead over Morton with 32 and 30 points respectively.

But Celtic did have two games in hand over the Greenock side. A team representing "Home Scots" took on an "Anglo Scots" side on 3 January 1917 at .

A 12,000 crowd watched the Home Scots side leading 2-1 when referee Tom Robertson abandoned the match after around 30 minutes of the second half. On 20 January 1917, Rangers, in their league match with Partick Thistle sportingly allowed the Firhill side to field a substitute after Morrison was injured, and McIntyre took his place. Presumably the referee A Kirkland (Glasgow) agreed to this as well! Incidently, recent research has uncovered the first every substitute in the Scottish league. On 16 March 1895 in the match between Leith Athletic and Celtic, the Leith player John Marshall had a leg break and with Celtic’s consent a player called Hamilton was allowed to take his place. As Leith had two players with the surname Hamilton, it is not known if it was T or W Hamilton that replaced Marshall. On the note of subs, another was allowed in season 1916/17 in the Falkirk v St Mirren match in December, but this time it was the referee Alex Jackson. The Glasgow ref was hit on the back of the head with the ball, and had to be replaced by one of the linesmen for the remainder of the match due to concussion.

With their 3-1 away win at Dumbarton on 7 April, Celtic were confirmed champions for the fourteenth time. As Rangers had suffered a 2-0 defeat at home to Third Lanark, Celtic had won the title with four games to spare. Morton eventually finished in second place a point ahead of Rangers. In these days before the , it was still possible for the Glasgow clubs to win a domestic 'treble' - the league championship, Glasgow Cup and Glasgow Charity Cup. Celtic achieved this feat in 1916/17 defeating Clyde 3-2 to take the Glasgow Cup and Queen’s Park 1-0 in the Charity Cup. In Edinburgh the annual match between Hearts and Hibernian on 1 January for the Wilson Cup was won by Hibernian, who had a convincing 3-0 victory at . Hearts fared better in the Rosebery Charity Cup in May, defeating Hibernian 3-0 in the semi- finals before winning 5-3 against Armadale.

There was a real concern that some of the clubs would be unable to finish their league fixtures on time, so the unusual step was taken to allow those clubs to play two games in the one day. Clyde played twice on 14 April, Queen’s Park and Rangers played twice on 21 April. After the charity matches had been played a Scottish League side took on an Army Select side at . A 5,000 crowd watched the Army Select side win narrowly by 4-3 with goals coming from Denyer, Mercer, Croot and Hilsdon. Malcolm McPhail of Kilmarnock scored the Scottish League Select's three goals.

Herbert George Yarnall – commonly known as Bert – came from nowhere to become the Scottish league top goalscorer in season 1916/17 with an outstanding strike rate of 39 goals in 33 league matches for Airdrie. Born in Goole in 1892, he spent season 1914/15 with Blackpool, making nine appearances (one goal). He married Jane Dawson in Glasgow on 4 August 1916. By trade Yarnall was a Tubeworker and was a Private in the 3/1st Shropshire Yeomanry, living at 16 Station Road, Coatdyke, Coatbridge. Following his above mentioned season with Airdrie, he made a further 13 league appearances for the Broomfield club, scoring six goals in 1917/18 before joining Clydebank on loan in the same season (13 appearances/5 goals). He probably worked at the Clydebank shipyards so this could explain his choice of club. He spent the 1918/19 season not too far along the Clyde from Clydebank with Dumbarton, where he played in 14 league matches, scoring six times. Yarnall went back down south and played three times for Reading in season 1920/21 before ending his playing career with Oswestry Town. He died in Oswestry on 1 October 1943. Bert Yarnall’s scoring record of 39 goals in a season was not surpassed until season 1920/21 when Hugh Ferguson of Motherwell fame bagged 43 league goals.

A record £655 in gate receipts (30,000 crowd) was taken at the Final replay at Firhill Park on 9 June as St Mirren Juniors defeated Renfrew in an all Renfrewshire final. A 0-0 draw the previous week preceded a 1-0 win for St Mirren Juniors, with Durward scoring the only goal of the game. Saints lined up:

Hart; McLeod, McQuade; Hayman, McDaid, Peters; Rogers, Lauder, Leitch, Howie, Durward.

For Aberdeen, Dundee and Raith Rovers season 1916/17 was their last in league football until the resumption of peace time football in season 1919/20. It was proving ever harder for opposition teams to travel to their grounds with players having to work a half day in shipbuilding, mining and other industries on a Saturday before playing for their clubs.

America declared war on Germany in 1917, the result of Germany’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare. 1917 also saw the start of the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres. David Lloyd George became the British Prime Minister on 7 December 1916. The new War Cabinet organized Great Britain for total war.