Commemoration of the Centenary of the Armistice

This Sunday, 11 November, marks the centenary of the Armistice that caused the guns of the Great War to cease after four long years of conflict. In commemorating that event it is important to remember all those whose lives were impacted by the war and the very many - far too many - who paid the ultimate price of the war.

Part of Raeburn Place's history is a long roll call of rugby-playing Academicals who made the final sacrifice between 1914 and 1918. More than 1,000 Academicals went to war, of whom 303 did not return. According to research carried out by EAFC, 108 of these were rugby players, in other words, those who chose to play rugby for love of the game, rather than those who merely played because it was compulsory at school.

Of those 108 Academicals, there were six Oxford Blues, three Cambridge Blues, five Scotland internationalists and one England internationalist. The latter, James Henry Digby Watson, known as 'Bungy', captained EAFC in the 1912-13 season and had actually been a reserve for the Scotland team. He almost earned his Scotland cap on that occasion, as one of the Scotland squad arrived late and it looked like Bungy would have to play instead. However, the missing player turned up in the nick of time and Bungy went on to play for England instead.

The errant Scottish player was Ronald Francis Simson, generally known as Ronnie, who went to Sandhurst on leaving school and played for the Army and London Scottish, as well as Scotland. Unfortunately he became the first Home Nations international rugby player to die in the War, killed in action on 15 September 1914 during the Battle of the Aisne, where he was serving with the 16th Battery, Royal Field Artillery.

In Remembrance 1914-1918
Ronald ‘Bunnie’ Forrester ADDIS, 1896-1916
John Malcolm AITKEN, 1899-1918
James Stanley ALLAN, 1890-1916
George Hely-Hutchison ALMOND, 1878-1918
Edward Darnley ANDERSON, 1890-1917
Francis ‘Frank’ ANDERSON, 1881-1917
Robert Ballantine ANDERSON, 1890-1917
Archibald ‘Archie’ Wilson ANGUS, 1897-1914
David MacLaren BAIN, 1891-1915 – Oxford Blue; Scotland
Charles Gordon BEATTIE, 1896-1918
William ‘Willie’ Macmillan BLACK, 1883-1914
Andrew Blyth McCulloch BOGLE, 1897-1916
James Donaldson BOSWALL, 1870-1915
Noel BRICKMAN, 1895-1916
James Macpherson Gordon BROWN, 1888-1915
Ian Gilmour CAMERON, 1897-1916
Robert Charles Cowburn CAMPBELL, 1889-1915 – Cambridge Blue
George Edward ‘Teddie’ Forman CAMPBELL, 1893-1915
Robert ‘Bobbie’ CARLYLE, 1892-1915
Harry CHEYNE, 1882-1917 – Oxford Blue
Frederick John ‘Jack’ CHRISTISON, 1894-1915
Richard CLARK, 1893-1916
Denis COTTERILL, 1881-1918
Robert Craig COWAN, 1894-1914
William Geoffrey Langley CULLEN, 1894-1915
Ronald Ogilvie Blair CUNYNGHAME, 1887-1915
Reginald Vaux CUTHBERT, 1880-1917
Alexander ‘Alec’ DEWAR, 1885-1914
Charles Kenelm DIGBY JONES, 1873-1918
Norman Ferguson DIXON, 1895-1917
Archibald ‘Archie’ Halliday DOUGLAS, 1895-1916
Ronald Gibson Stewart DURWARD, 1894-1918
George Douglas FERGUSON, DSO, 1890-1917
Stanley McEwan FERGUSON, 1897-1918
David Victor FOOT, 1897-1917
William St John FRASER, 1883-1915
Ian ‘John’ GALLETLY, 1869-1916
Allan GILMOUR, 1889-1917 – Oxford Blue
Reginald Glegg GORDON, DSO, 1878-1918
John Hamilton Thom GRAHAM, 1892-1916
Walter ‘Wattie’ HADDON, 1887-1915
William ‘Willie’ Harrison, 1896-1916
Thomas Anderson HERDMAN, 1897-1918
James ‘Govan’ Argyll HEWAT, 1897-1918
Robert Patrick HORSBURGH, 1860-1914
William Douglas Campbell HUTTON, 1899-1919
Thomas Christian KENNEDY, 1896-1915
Alexander Duncan ‘Campbell’ KING, 1886-1915
Alexander ‘Alick’ James Jopp LATTA, 1895-1916
Arthur Creswell LAWSON, 1896-1916
William ‘Willie’ LIDDLE, 1887-1918
James Bannerman ‘JB’ LORIMER, 1879-1917
Robert Charles LUNDIE, DSO, 1885-1917
Evan Ronald Horatio Keith MACDONALD, 1893-1914
John ‘Jack’ Doran MACDONALD, 1867-1916
Alastair Hunter MACFARLANE, 1894-1915
James McLAREN, 1895-1917
William ‘Willie’ Somerville McLAREN, 1898-1917
Robert MAULE, 1885-1915
Robert ‘Bobby’ Cowper King MILL, 1896-1916
Archibald William Buchanan MILLER, 1895-1917
Thomas Alexander Grant MILLER, 1893-1915
Henry ‘Buggy’ William Watson MILLER, 1896-1916
James Henry ‘Harry’ ‘Snowy’ MILLIGAN, 1886-1915
John ‘Jack’ Richard MILLIGAN, 1889-1916
William ‘Weary’ MILNE, MC, 1889-1917
James Thomson Rankin MITCHELL, DSO, 1888-1918
Archibald ‘Gifford’ MOIR, 1890-1915
Hugh MOSMAN, 1860-1916
John ‘Jack’ Wallace MUIR, 1899-1918
John Congreave MURRAY, 1882-1917
Thomas ‘Tommy’ Arthur NELSON, 1876-1917 – Oxford Blue; Scotland
Evelyn William Medows NORIE, 1862-1915
William ‘Graham’ NOTMAN, 1897-1916
William ‘Willie’ Paterson PATERSON, 1895-1916
William Guthrie PORTER, DSO, 1878-1917
Arthur Stanley ‘Touzie’ PRINGLE, 1877-1915 – Cambridge Blue
John PROSSER, 1889-1918
Thomas Arthur RITCHIE, 1896-1916
William ‘Willie’ Hugh ROBERTSON-DURHAM, 1889-1915
Frederick ‘Fred’ Borthwick SANDERSON, 1889-1916
Thomas SCOTT, MC, 1894-1917
John Eric SHENNAN, 1887-1918
Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Francis SIMSON, 1890-1914 - Scotland
Thomas ‘Ian’ Thomson SLOAN, 1897-1917
Robert Dennistoun ‘Dennis’ STEVENSON, 1896-1916
Charles ‘Charlie’ Edward STEWART, MC, 1887-1917
James Aitchison STEWART, 1890-1916
Stephen Sebastian Lombard STEYN, 1890-1917 – Oxford Blue; Scotland
Francis Geoffrey THATCHER, MC, 1890-1918
Arthur John Gordon THOMAS, 1895-1916
Alan ‘Graham’ THOMSON, 1892-1917
Francis ‘Frank’ Wishart THOMSON, 1891-1915 – Oxford Blue
Eric James ‘Jim’ THOMSON, 1893-1915
John Harvey THOMSON, 1898-1918
Kenneth Douglas THOMSON, 1886-1917
William Elliot TURNBULL, 1888-1915
Daniel Christopher ‘Kit’ VERESMITH, 1894-1917
William Middleton WALLACE, 1892-1915 – Cambridge Blue; Scotland
James Henry Digby ‘Bungy’ WATSON, 1890-1914 - England
Tom WELSH, MC, 1884-1917
William ‘Kenneth’ WHITE, 1893-1917
Robert Sym WILSON, 1876-1914
John George WOOD, MC, 1895-1917
Russell Elliot WOOD, 1885-1917
Alexander ‘Alec’ ‘Puppy’ WYLLIE, 1884-1917
James ‘Gifford’ YORSTON, 1896-1916
Norman Mitchell YOUNG, 1890-1915