​Hearts plan for ‘Maroon Mile’ - Angus Robertson

​Every Armistice Day commemoration is special, but the wreath laying ceremony at Haymarket in Edinburgh is one of a kind. Every year the public, supporters, players and staff of Heart of Midlothian FC gather around the memorial, which commemorates the sacrifice of Hearts players and other sportsmen in the Great War.

The Heart of Midlothian Football Club Haymarket Memorial

At the start of the First World War, 16 Hearts players signed up together along with 500 supporters. They joined the 16th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Scots together with players and 150 supporters of Hibernian, seven Raith Rovers players and a number of professional footballers from Falkirk, Dunfermline Athletic, East Fife and St Bernard’s as well as rugby players, athletes and a variety of other sportsmen. Seventeen of them died in France and Belgium and a larger number were wounded.

The sacrifice of those players was movingly narrated by Scottish Sports Chaplain Mark Fleming who also spoke about the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and as the chairman of Scottish Football for Rwanda also spoke about the power of sport to overcome the horrors of genocide in the African country.

Hearts FC have been working on plans to enhance the memorial at Haymarket and create a “Maroon Mile” which will run from the monument to Tynecastle Park. The plans form part of series of special events running up to the 150th anniversary marking when Heart of Midlothian Football Club was initially established in 1874.