On completion of the 1914-15 football season, Jimmy Speirs, Captain of Leeds City FC, exchanged the blue and gold of "the peacocks" for the uniform of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders.

He returned to Glasgow, where Bessie and the children were now living at Darnley Road, Pollokshields – mid-way between Jimmy’s old house in Cathcart Road and Bessie’s former family home at Moss Side Road. On 17 May 1915 Jimmy reported to a Glasgow recruiting office and volunteered to enlist. (Click on the images left and below, right to view Jimmy's enlistment papers).  Conscription was still over a year away, and even then, Jimmy would have been exempted on the grounds of being married with two young children. Son Jimmy was just seven years old, whilst daughter Elizabeth was not yet three years of age.

Jimmy was examined and passed fit by Dr William Hansen, took the oath, and was approved by Captain W Ross for appointment to the Cameron Highlanders. There had always been confusion as to the spelling of Jimmy’s surname and sure enough, the British Army got it wrong….Spiers (not the correct Speirs) being the spelling which they adopted (at least most of the time).  

At twenty-nine years and two months old, Private S/18170 Speirs (left, click on thumbnail to enlarge) was older than most of his fellow recruits to the Cameron Highlanders at that time. Standing 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighing 11 stone 8 pounds on enlisting, he was also above average height for the time and must have cut an imposing figure in his uniform.

A week after enlisting, on 22 May 1915, Jimmy was posted to the 3^rd Battalion for training. This was a reserve Battalion which supplied troops to the Battalions in action overseas.

Like just about every military establishment or regiment the 3rd Battalion Cameron Highlanders had a football team. The following is extracted from the battalion notes sent to the Regimental magazine the "79th News":-

Jimmy’s leadership qualities had already been evidenced in his football career, and on 29 July 1915, it appears that the military authorities had also recognised these strengths - Jimmy being promoted to (unpaid) Lance Corporal.

Unfortunately, heavy casualties at the front meant that men from the reserve Battalion were soon posted overseas, and on 29 March 1916 Jimmy left Scotland to join the 7^th Battalion of the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, "somewhere in France".

The 7th Battalion The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders was part of the 44^th Brigade, attached to the 15^th (Scottish) Division. The Division was formed at Aldershot in September 1914 as part of the "Second New Army", and arrived in France in July 1915. The Division served in France and Flanders until the Armistice.

Promotion…and wounded

On 19 July 1916, just a year after being appointed an unpaid Lance Corporal, and a few months after joining the 7^th Battalion in France, Jimmy Speirs was officially promoted to Corporal.

The Battalion’s optimum strength was around 15 Officers and 600 "other ranks", but the level of casualties saw a great turnover (and occasional shortages) in the numbers. The Battalion’s War Diary does not name individual casualties from the "other ranks", but a newspaper report suggested that Jimmy "…was wounded in the heavy fighting of Autumn 1916, but was not fortunate enough to be sent to a home hospital. He rejoined his Regiment after convalescence". 

Jimmy's service record (left, click on thumbnail to view) details "g.s.w. elbow L 8.9.16".  "g.s.w." was the abbreviation for gunshot wounds (although it was also used for shrapnel injuries), so it seems that Jimmy was shot, or received shrapnel wounds, to his left elbow.

On 21 November 1916 Jimmy sent a postcard (below, click to view) to wife Bessie, in Glasgow.  The sentiments expressed were no doubt replicated in thousands of other cards sent back from the Front.  "Until the end" is embroidered on the postcard, and Jimmy has written on the reverse "and I hope it will not be long".

Military Medal

In April 1917, The Battalion was involved in the Second Battle of Arras, moving out of billets at Arras and relieving the 8/10th Gordon Highlanders in the Front Line trenches on Sunday 22 April. At 10.30pm on the evening of Friday 27 April, the Battalion was in turn relieved at the front line by the 8th Seaforth Highlanders, and moved back to the support line. The following day, at 9.30 pm, the Battalion was relieved in the support line by the 3rd London Regiment and withdrew to billets at Grand Place, Arras.

The Regimental War Diary for 28 April lists the following casualties for the attack over those few days in April, the numbers being typical of other actions involving the Battalion during its time at the Front:-

The next few days were spent burying the dead, cleaning equipment and clothing, and training. The Battalion moved to Simincourt and later to Grand Rullecourt where, over the early days of May it regrouped, and additional Officers and Other Ranks were "taken on strength".

Whilst at Grand Rullecourt on 19 May 1917, the Battalion War Diary (click on thumbnail to view) records the Corps Commander (Lt Col Norman MacLeod, DSO) having recommended the award of Military Medals to six men – the first on the list being "S/18170 Cpl J Spiers". Just what deed Jimmy Speirs was responsible for, to earn this award for "bravery in the field", is not recorded.

Unfortunately, the citation which would have accompanied the award of Jimmy's Military Medal has not survived. Jimmy’s honour was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette of 9 July 1917, but – as was often the case – no detail of the act of bravery was given. There were newspaper reports (left, click on images to enlarge) - but again, no detail of the act is given.  

"A Gallant Sergeant" reads the headline of this report (left, click to enlarge), and the reporter describes Jimmy as "an old friend of mine, for whom I have always had the highest regard.  Both on and off the field Jimmy Speirs is a gentleman and there are few I would place before him in this respect".  The report also talks of Jimmy "a few weeks ago coming through a big engagement unscathed".  This was presumably Arras.

News of Jimmy's exploits also reached his Masonic Lodge in Glasgow (see Early Years & Family) and the Lodge minutes record his award being conferred for "conspicuous conduct in the field".

Extract from the Lodge minutes recording Jimmy's award (by kind permission of The Lodge Saint Vincent Sandyford No 553)

In the possession of Jimmy's family are just two newspaper cuttings which describe actions by the Cameron Highlanders.  "Fighting Camerons" (right, click to enlarge) describes how a group of Camerons captured by the Germans were liberated - "we smashed into the escort and captured the whole outfit" a Tayport sergeant is reported to have said.  Instead, it was the Camerons who "roped in about 400 prisoners....capturing Camerons doesn't pay".  The cutting has had the date 14 May 1917 hand-written on the reverse.

The second cutting (left, click to view) reports "Camerons in action - thrilling charge in Arras battle".  This again describes how the Cameron Highlanders had succeeded in the face of "Hell's fury", aided by the striking up of the pipes in mid-battle...."sending an exultant thrill through our breasts".

The fact that one of these reports is clearly of Arras, and the other (if the date is accurate) is almost certainly concerning the Arras initiative is perhaps significant.  The existence of these reports and the timing of the award does strongly suggest that Jimmy's act of bravery in the field occurred during those few days at the end of April, at Arras - although research continues to try and resolve this "mystery".  

Promoted to Sergeant…and a visit home

On 1 June 1917, Cpl Speirs became acting Sgt Speirs, with Jimmy’s promotion to Sergeant being confirmed shortly afterwards.

A well-earned period of leave was then granted, and Jimmy returned to visit friends in Glasgow, Bradford and Leeds. On Monday, 2 July, Jimmy called in on old acquaintances at the Bradford Weekly Telegraph, which described him as a "welcome and unexpected visitor, looking very fit and well". Evidently, Jimmy was due to return to the Front on 7 July – it would later transpire that the build-up was now well underway for what would become the infamous Battle of Passchendaele.

On 1 August 1917 Jimmy sent a postcard home to wife Bessie.  The card, which he had apparently borrowed from a colleague, read "1917 Souvenir from France".  His message was "and may this be the last year of the War, best love, Jimmy".  

Unfortunately, for Jimmy it was indeed the last year of the War - just three weeks later he was killed in action.

Passchendaele…wounded and missing

At 6.30pm on the evening of Monday, 20 August 1917, the Battalion moved up to relieve the 8^th Battalion Worcester Regiment at Pommern Redoubt, with a strength of 15 officers and 450 other ranks. On that date, it was reported that Jimmy had written to his wife, Bessie, to say that the men would be "going over the parapet tomorrow".  (That detail conflicts by 24 hours with the War Diary, which reports "zero hour" as being 4.45 am on 22 August).  In any event, that would be the last letter which Bessie would receive from Jimmy.  

The Bradford Daily Telegraph of 8 September (right, click to view) reported that Bessie had heard from another Sergeant in the Regiment, to say that Jimmy had been wounded on 20 August, and was missing.

On 13 September, the same newspaper (left, click to view) reported that Jimmy had been "…hit in the the thigh during an advance, and managed to crawl into a shell-hole. There he was attended to for a short time, but the Cameron Highlanders did not return from their raid that way, so he was not seen again".

Another casualty of "the War to end all Wars" - officially

On 19 April 1920 The Cameron Highlanders' section of the Records Office at Perth wrote to Bessie (far left, click to enlarge) to return "articles of private property" of her late husband. Bessie's reply on 24 April (left, click to view) reveals her frustration at the lack of information surrounding Jimmy's death.

Those articles were Jimmy's Identity Tags (below, click to enlarge).  

The tags, still in the possession of Jimmy's family, were usually worn on a cord around the neck, although occasionally the eight-sided one (originally green) was worn as a bracelet on the wrist.  The circular tag started life as a red/vermillion colour, and both were made of compressed fibre, which degraded over time.  Soldiers were issued with letter punches and ordered to stamp their own tags, with details of their surname, initials (but not rank), regiment abbreviated and religion. Much of that information can still be seen on Jimmy's tags.

On 28 August 1920 the Infantry Record Office in Perth wrote to Bessie (right, click to enlarge).  Mrs Speirs was advised that a communication had been received from the War Office to the effect that her husband was now officially reported as "Killed in Action or Died of Wounds on or shortly after 20 August 1917".  So, doubt remains as to the precise date on which Jimmy died - but, for official purposes, it was recorded as 20 August.

On 14 December 1921, Jimmy's War and Victory Medals were sent to Bessie, joining his Military Medal, which had been sent previously.

Letters accompanying Jimmy's medals (click to view)

Jimmy left a wife, Bessie, son James (aged 9 years) and daughter Elizabeth (5 years).

After the Armistice, the Dochy Farm New British Cemetery was made, by the concentration of isolated graves from the battlefields of Boesinghe, St Julien, Frezenberg and Passchendaele.  Dochy Farm, which had become a German strongpoint, was taken by the 4^th New Zealand Brigade on 4 October 1917, in the Battle of Broosiende.  It lies in the commune of Langemarck (now Langmark) in West Flanders, near Ieper (formerly Ypres).

On 6 October 1921, the Infantry Record Office wrote again to Bessie (still living at Darnley Road in Pollokshields) to advise that Jimmy’s remains had been exhumed and re-interred at Dochy Farm Cemetery.

Sgt J H Speirs MM lies at rest in plot VI.E.15, one of 1,439 men buried at the Cemetery – the identities of two-thirds of whom are unknown.

There have always been errors regarding the spelling of Jimmy 's surname - starting with his original enlistment papers recording his name as "Spiers".  In November 2007, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission accepted that "Speirs" was correct,  amended their records and confirmed that Jimmy's gravestone would be corrected in due course.  I am pleased to report that the gravestone has now been corrected.

In addition to Jimmy Speirs, one other member of Bradford City's 1911 FA Cup winning team was killed in the First World War.  Robert Torrance was brought into the side at centre-half for the Final Replay at Old Trafford, and was reportedly man of the match.  Robert joined the Royal Field Artillery as a gunner, and was killed on 24 April 1918.  He has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, almost within sight of Jimmy Speirs' grave at Dochy Farm cemetery.

Although not a member of the Cup winning team, Evelyn Lintott had been a colleague of Jimmy's at the Club throughout his stay there.  Lintott, an English International, teamed up again with Jimmy at Leeds City in 1912.  Lintott, who had also been a schoolteacher, enlisted with the 15th West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) - the "Leeds Pals" - and was a Lieutenant when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.  He has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Battle of the Somme.

Jimmy Speirs had lived an eventful life, to say the least.  He had achieved success at the highest level on the football field for club and country, and he went on to display gallantry on the battlefield, where he made the ultimate sacrifice.

In 2003, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) A M Cumming OBE of the Regimental Headquarters, The Highlanders (into which the The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders has been absorbed) wrote of Jimmy:-