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Mccrae's Battalion: The Story of the 16th Royal Scots
 
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Mccrae's Battalion: The Story of the 16th Royal Scots (Hardcover)
by Jack Alexander (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 8 customer reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details
  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing (23 Oct 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1840187077
  • ISBN-13: 978-1840187076
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 335,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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  • Other Editions: Paperback (New Ed) |  All Editions

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Product Description
The Times
The best football related book this year

The Times
'Magnificent, compelling, quite simply the best football related book of the year.'

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Customer Reviews
8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly good, 24 Nov 2003
By A Customer
This is a stunningly good book. It is part football story, part social history, part military history, part political history. However categorised, it is superbly well written, with intelligence and a nice dry sense of humour. There is also just the occasional "Edinburgh-ism" in the language which natives will enjoy.

The football story is the birth of Heart of Midlothian football club and the first forty years of its life, leading to the famous (in Edinburgh at least) voluntary (although as the book shows not quite spontaneous) mass enlistment of the players into the army in 1914. There is a fine description of how manager John McCartney in a couple of years turned a bottom half of the league side into championship contenders.

There is also a wonderful evocation of the social and political life of Edinburgh of the time and of the complex and intimate relationship between the classes.

It is also a military history of the Western Front, a new slant on a familiar story made more poignant and tragic by the link to the rich civilian life portrayed beforehand.

It is far from a simple tale of heroes, and deals with the complexity of the emotions of and influences on those who rose to do their patriotic duty but before doing so were pursued by the proffering of white feathers by those who never had and never would fight for their country.

The complexity is hinted at by a quote from Pat Crossan, one of the players who volunteered. For a long time he was apparently remembered fondly in Edinburgh for turning, during one of a sequence of recruiting marches and events around Edinburgh, and saying to a potential recruit "Have you got bairns? Well then, dinnae be sae daft", thus incurring the displeasure of Colonel George McCrae.

I have not even mentioned McCrae, a fascinating man himself. But I would reserve the title of hero of this book for all of those whom John McCartney described as he saw them leave Waverley Station for the unimaginable horrors ahead as "the finest men I have known".

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Military/Social History book, 1 Oct 2004
This is an excellent account of a long forgotten story and particulary odd behaviour by some sections of society during the Great War. Behaviour now largely forgotten. Who would know a stopper now!! This book is superbly written and a joy to read. Jack deserves a bestseller with this and anyone interested in the Great War, social history, military history or football have just got to read it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The common man and uncommon situations, 19 Dec 2003
As one who has a great interest in the Great War as well as the Heart of Midlothian Football Club I waited earnestly for this books publication. It was worth the wait!
Not only does Jack Alexander give the background to the Hearts mobilisation, but he relates a story of Edinburgh life in 1914.
The social rise of McCrae himself, from poverty to knighthood. The footballers on the verge of a championship, the mass of others, students, artisans, fans etc who put aside their hopes and fears and laid their lives on the line are covered in excellent detail by Alexander.
A wealth of detail, from a decade of research, put together with a readable, and very enjoyable narrative leaves us with a book that is hard to put down!
This however is a book that rings true throughout the UK. It reflects the lives of ordinary men from all walks of life who went of to serve in a cause greater than anything else in their own individual lives.
A Great Book for the Great War reader. A must read!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable
I'm not much given to superlatives but this has to be the best Great War Unit history I've ever read, and I've read hundreds!! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. M. T. Mcneela

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful thought provoking and moving piece of work
This book should be academic text for both universities and schools and I say this as a history graduate. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Ally

5.0 out of 5 stars A fitting tribute
As someone that found through tracing my family tree that I had distant relations who fought and died with the 16th Royal Scots, I was rather humbled by reading this book. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2004 by benthespaniel

5.0 out of 5 stars A very readable battalion history
In recent years a number of books have been written about particular battalions raised during the First World War. Read more
Published on 15 May 2004 by Mike Armitage

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account
A really enjoyable and well researched account of the raising of the 16thRoyal Scots, and more generally about the controversial topic of footballduring the First World War. Read more
Published on 20 April 2004 by Mr. Ja Burton

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