Heart of Midlothian F.C. and World War I

Between August and November 1914, sixteen Heart of Midlothian Football Club players enlisted to fight in World War I. In doing so, they became the first British team to sign up en masse. The majority joined the 16th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Scots, otherwise known as McCrae's Battalion. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the British Army lost nearly 20,000 men, including three of Hearts footballers who had signed up.^[1] The war ended up claiming the lives of seven of the Hearts players who had enlisted, with several others returning so severely wounded they were unable to play football again.

A memorial was erected in Edinburgh in 1922 to honour these men and the many others who fought in the two world wars. It is presently situated in the Haymarket, near the offices where the main batch of players enlisted.