Over the last couple of years I have been assiduously tracking down Scotland players - the men from the early days of the game whose identities have been lost. It has become something of a mission, as if someone was good enough to play for their country, they deserve to be celebrated by more than just a footnote in the reference books.
   A major breakthrough recently was establishing the first name of J McAdam of Third Lanark, capped against Wales in 1880. This was one of the longest pieces of research I have done. The clue came as a few years later he was reported in an SFA annual as "J McAdam of Third Lanark fame" playing for Cumbrae in the Buteshire Cup. I found him in an 1883 directory as J McAdam, a teacher at Cumbrae Public School, but despite trawling through microfilm of the Largs and Millport Gazette at the National Library of Scotland, he was only ever referred to by his initial J. It took a trip to Glasgow's Mitchell Library where I read the handwritten minute book of the Cumbrae School Board, and to my delight they recorded the appointment on 4 September 1881 of Mr James McAdam as Assistant Master at a salary of £70 per annum. And it even gave his home address in Glasgow, which in turn allowed me to establish his birth in Thornliebank on 30 March 1860.
   I am at the stage now where the end is in sight for this body of research, with just 12 'open cases'. There are two players whose identity I have not confirmed, William Gibb of Clydesdale (v England 1873) and Robert McPherson of Arthurlie (v England 1882) but I have leads to follow for both.
   More frustratingly, there are ten players whose birth and career details are known but thereafter they vanished into the ether. Some emigrated, some had such common names that there are too many possibilities, one seems to have deliberately erased his tracks; but with increasing numbers of records coming on line, I am hopeful that I will eventually find a date and place of death for them all. For the record, the 'missing ten' are:
   William Anderson (Queen's Park, capped 1882-86). The 'demon dodger' went to Chicago where he married in 1890 but then returned to the UK and was last recorded working in insurance in 1911.
   Tom Brandon (Blackburn Rovers, capped 1896). He got into marital difficulties and was taken to court by his ex-wife in 1900, by which time he was playing for St Mirren. He reportedly emigrated to the USA with his new wife and son but there is no record of him there and I think he probably changed his identity.
   John Gilchrist (Celtic, capped 1922). Wrongly identified in most reference books as John Wotherspoon Gilchrist born 1899, he has no middle name and was born in Kirkintilloch in 1900. He spent time in the USA but is last recorded as a wartime Royal Navy stoker in 1940.
   Alex Graham (Arsenal, capped 1921). Another one often wrongly identified (with an additional first name of John), he was born in Galston in 1889 and last reported as manager of Folkestone FC in 1927.
   James McAdam (Third Lanark, capped 1880). As reported above, recently identified but tracking his later life in the USA has so far proved elusive.
   John Smith (Ayr United, capped 1924). A difficult name to research, 'Fermer Jock' appears to have retired to a farm in Scotland but no death record has been found.
   Bob Thomson (Falkirk, capped 1927). A strange tale as he was born in 1903 but claimed to be two years younger throughout his career. He coached Ajax in the 1950s, returned to London and is last found there in the electoral rolls of the 1960s.
   William Thomson (Dumbarton, 4 caps 1892-98). Lived in Dumbarton High Street for decades up to the 1911 census, but no record found after then.
   William Wilson Watt (Queen's Park, capped 1887). Married twice, moved to England, and last recorded on his son's marriage certificate in 1918.
   David Wilson (Oldham Athletic, capped 1913). Born into a footballing family - his elder brother Andrew was also a Scotland cap - he had a long career but I can find no record of him after he worked as a stockbroker in Blackpool in 1928.
   Of course, if anyone can provide any clues or details of these players, it would be much appreciated.

A unique collection of Scottish curling club medals which were last seen over 60 years ago and were thought lost have been sold at a local auction house.
   The 25 medals of the Bridge of Allan Curling Club, most from the 19th century and dating back to 1851, were mounted on a velvet waistcoat, as seen in the above photo of the club in 1895. They were worn by the club president on special occasions, but were stored away in a bank vault in the 1950s. By the time the club, one of the oldest in the country, published its bicentenary history in 1990, they were lost, and the author made a plaintive appeal: 'Where did the medals go - does anyone know?'
   The medals were mostly silver competition prizes but included a number of special presentation items and one gold medal presented in 1865 by Lord Abercromby.
   Today they resurfaced at local auctioneers Robertson's of Kinbuck, and despite a bland catalogue entry that read simply 'Selection of silver medals' and no reserve price, there was immediate interest within the local community as Kinbuck is just five miles north of Bridge of Allan. After intense competition at the auction, the hammer price was over £1,000 plus commission. The identity of the purchaser is presently unknown.

While the story of the Hearts footballers who went to war in 1914 is well known, and rightly so, another important side to the City of Edinburgh's support for football during the First World War has received little publicity.
   In this centenary year, I have digitised The Sport in War, an account of the extraordinary campaign which raised enough money to send 1,700 footballs to British soldiers, sailors and prisoners of war. This little-known booklet was published in 1930 by John McCartney, who was manager of Hearts throughout the conflict. Having retired the previous year, he turned his hand to writing and also compiled a history of the Scottish Football League.

You can read the booklet in full on my Sporting Anthology page, but it is worth pointing out some key elements. The story began early in the war when Heart of Midlothian FC received some letters from troops requesting footballs for their free time. The club could not cope with the demand so a charitable campaign was set up by the Edinburgh Evening News to raise money for balls, which could be sent on request to anyone in the armed forces, whether serving or imprisoned.
   No doubt some of these footballs were kicked during the famous Christmas truce of 1914, and the campaign continued throughout the war, battling at times against bureaucracy but managing to reach some extraordinary places, as far away as Mesopotamia and Palestine. There are quotes from letters of thanks, not just from ordinary servicemen but from Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, General Joseph Joffre and other high-ranking soldiers - all testament to the boost to morale that a football could bring.
   There were players from Hearts and Hibs among the many recipients, and a Sgt McCready of the RAF summed up the mood when he wrote "Our English mates can't understand how you not only send footballs, let alone of such quality. Their clubs don't respond. I told them they could expect nothing else from the Capital of Scotland. We were very tired when the ball came, but it was just the thing to brighten and revive us."
   McCartney said: "We set out to prove generally that the spirit of sport in the Soldiers and Sailors of the Allied Forces brought about the downfall of the Central Powers. We claim to have succeeded, even although a great part of our story is bound up in and around the City of Edinburgh."

   John McCartney spent a lifetime in football. From humble origins in Glasgow, where he was born in 1866, he had a fairly unremarkable playing career with Cartvale, Glasgow Thistle, Rangers, Cowlairs, Newton Heath, Luton Town and Barnsley. At Oakwell he stepped up in 1901 to become secretary/manager and found his metier. He joined St Mirren in 1904 and took them to their first Scottish Cup final, then joined Hearts in 1910, spending a decade at Tynecastle. He went south in 1920 to Portsmouth, taking them from the Southern League to the First Division, and concluded with two years at Luton where he fought back from a leg amputation before ill health ultimately forced his retiral. He died in Edinburgh in 1933.

Postscript: the story of the footballs has been picked up by the Evening News.

One of the most poignant ceremonies to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War will be in Edinburgh on Sunday for the annual Heart of Midlothian FC remembrance service.
   The sacrifice of the Hearts players is well known thanks to Jack Alexander's excellent book McCrae's Battalion, and I was delighted that the Battalion, the 16th Royal Scots, has just been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. I recently re-read Jack's book, and it brought home to me what a magnificent piece of research it was, particularly as he did most of it before the internet revolutionised modern history with the wealth of digitised records. His book remains the outstanding classic of First World War sporting literature.
   I recently came across a tribute of another kind to the Hearts players. In 1923 the resident poet of the Edinburgh Evening News, J. Aitken Brown, brought out a little volume entitled Football in Verse, and it is no surprise that he devoted several poems to the club and its sacrifice. 
   In this emotive piece written during the War he put into context the club's agonising failure to take the Scottish League championship in 1914-15, when the remaining players were simply too exhausted from military training to win matches after leading the race for so long.

   The distinctive clock tower was recently restored to near its original position after Edinburgh's notorious tramworks were completed. A big crowd is expected this weekend at Haymarket (details on the Hearts website) but when it was unveiled in April 1922 by the Secretary of State for Scotland an extraordinary 50,000 people were in attendance. This is how Aitken Brown viewed the memorial:

   Football in Verse is a flimsy book and few copies have survived, but I will try and digitise my copy at some stage. Meanwhile, it is available in the National Library of Scotland.