James Hamilton Speirs MM

22 March 1886 - 20 August 1917

This site is dedicated to James Hamilton Speirs - Jimmy Speirs - professional footballer and, ultimately, war hero.

Jimmy's football career began with juvenile club Annandale, near his Govanhill home.  He moved into junior football with Maryhill (Glasgow), and progressed to the senior game with Rangers, Clyde, Bradford City and Leeds City.  He became a full Scottish International and, whilst with Bradford City, captained his team to victory in the FA Cup Final of 1911, when he scored the winning goal.

Jimmy played his final game as a professional at the end of the 1914-15 season, and then volunteered to enlist in the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders.  He was posted to France in March 1916, won the Military Medal for bravery in the field, and was promoted to Sergeant.  Jimmy died from wounds received on 20 August 1917 at Passchendaele and is buried at Dochy Farm New British Cemetery near Ieper (Ypres), Belgium.

Such a brief summary does not do justice to a man who will be forever remembered by supporters of Bradford City FC, in particular, and who tragically gave his life for King and country on the battlefields of Flanders.

The full story of Jimmy's life contained in these pages has been constructed with the invaluable co-operation and help of Jimmy's grand-daughter, Connie, and some of the images and documents reproduced are from the Speirs family's collection.

Research into Jimmy's life is ongoing.  This site will be updated as new facts come to light and I would be delighted to receive any information which is relevant to Jimmy's story.  Please contact me at editor@jimmy-speirs.co.uk

The site follows Jimmy's story in chronological sequence, starting with his family background and early days in Glasgow, moving through his various football clubs, and finishing at his final resting place in Belgium.

Although it is 90 years since Jimmy Speirs died, developments affecting his story continue to the present day - read about them on the Postscript page.  New items of interest have continued to come to light since this site was first set up in May 2004, and many of the pages have been updated subsequently, most recently in March 2008.  To that date there had been over 18,000 visitors to the site, from 68 countries around the world.

Researching Jimmy's life has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience, largely due to the support which I have been given by many people along the way.  I hope that you find as much interest and enjoyment in reading Jimmy's story.

Andrew Pickles

Acknowledgements

In addition to the contribution of Connie and my colleague, Jake Piergies, sincere thanks are recorded to the following:-

Chris Ambler - for his invaluable help on all aspects of Jimmy's life and career

Brian Reilly - for his significant contributions to the sections on Jimmy's time at Annandale, Maryhill and Clyde

Dave Pendleton - for his help with the sections on Bradford City and the Cameron Highlanders - particularly for his photographs of Dochy Farm Cemetery

Mark Neale and Richard Carney - for their support and information, particularly on "Glorious 1911" 

Andy George - for allowing me to draw on his knowledge and memorabilia relating to Crystal Palace FA Cup Finals, and pre-WW1 football in general

John Ashton - for his technical guidance and support with the Bradford City page

Quenton Martin and Dave Twydell - for their support with the Leeds City section

Michael Callaghan (Bradford Industrial Museum) and Tony Lofthouse - for their involvement with the Postscript page

Lt Col (Ret'd) A M Cumming OBE  (The Highlanders Regimental Headquarters), Neil Young (Imperial War Museum), and Chris Bate - for their help with Jimmy's military career

Jan Van der Fraenen (Memorial Museum Passchendaele) for his research into Jimmy's death at the Battle of Passchendaele

David Mason (Club Historian, The Rangers Football Club, Glasgow) for his support with the Rangers page

Robin Shields (The Lodge Saint Vincent Sandyford No 553) for his help and information relating to Jimmy's involvement in freemasonry

Copyright

Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions to use material included in this site.

However,  if copyright has been inadvertently infringed in the use of any of the site's content, please contact me.

This site is itself protected by UK copyright law, and I would ask that permission is obtained  to use the material contained for other than private research or study.  

Please use the buttons at the top of the page, or the hyperlinked words in the text,  to navigate around the site

If you wish to use any of the content of this site - other than for private research or study - please contact me

Site last updated March 2008