BY IAIN COLLIN – @CCP_sport
TWO players killed in the First World War will be inducted into Raith Rovers’ hall of fame – 100 years on from their deaths.
Forwards Jimmy Todd and Jimmy Scott were two of seven Rovers players who volunteered for the famous McCrae’s Battalion to fight alongside players from Hearts, Hibernian, Falkirk, Dunfermline, East Fife and St Bernard’s.
The pair both lost their lives with what became known as the ‘Sportsman’s Battalion’, with Todd becoming the first of the professional footballers to be killed in March 1916. Scott died in July the same year.
They were nominated by Ally Gourlay, hall of fame organiser and Rovers’ media officer, club historian and chairman of the Former Players’ Association, who himself died earlier this year after a long battle with cancer.
Raith paid tribute to their fallen heroes in 2014 when they launched an away kit in the green and black colours of the Royal Scots Regiment and emblazoned with the message ‘Remember’ to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I.
Hall of fame committee member Alistair Cameron commented: “They absolutely deserve their inductions.
“It was actually Ally Gourlay who pushed this through before he passed away and really it’s just a continuation of what the club did with the ‘Remember’ jerseys back in 2014.”
George McLay, another Raith player who lost his life in the Great War, is set to be inducted into the hall of fame next year on the 100th anniversary of his death.
