War Years (1914-1945)

War Years (1914-1945)

Football During the Great War

“FORMER DUNDEE FOOTBALLER IS PRISONER IN GERMANY

‘I am a prisoner, but am keeping well and in good health. I will be released after the war, which I hope won’t be long. Give this to mother, as I have only one postcard’” The Courier, Dec 8th 1914.

The players who had signed on for the 1914-15 season were informed by the club’s directors that training would start on Tuesday, 28th July. Little did they know that seven days later Britain would declare war on Germany. The conflict touched upon every aspect of life. By December 1914 it was reported, in the Courier, that one of the club’s players, Danny Cameron (who mainly played in the reserves after a stint at St Josephs, but had turned out for the first team on several occasions) was a prisoner of war in Germany.

During the war years the club kept playing, mainly with a young, inexperienced squad and the league placings reflected the team’s greenness. In the first three seasons of war the club finished 15th, 8th and 16th places respectively. 

For 1917-18 Dundee competed in the more pedestrian confines of the Eastern League, securing the championship. The club also added the Eastern Cup (shared with Dundee Hibs), the Penman Cup and the Loftus Cup to their burgeoning list of (minor) honours that season. 

Inter War Years

Dundee F.C.’s first home game, after four, long hard years of war, was against Third Lanark on the 23rd August 1919. A crowd of 20,000 turned out to watch the new line-up (Capper, Raitt, Thomson, McIntosh, Nicoll, Hutcheson, D. McDonald. Buchan, D. Brown, W. Brown & Troup) secure a 3-1 win.

The team grabbed a creditable 4th place in Division 1 in the 1919-20 and at the start of the new decade Dundee maintained 4th place for the first couple of seasons, attracting an average home crowd of between 15,000-15,300. Any thoughts of a dawning of a new era were rapidly dispelled as the second half of the 1920’s saw a gradual decline in league placing, the worst season being 1928-29 when the club finished in 18th position, with an average home attendance of 8,700 reflecting the decline. Nevertheless, the decade produced some players whose names still reverberate down the years as club legends, for example: Alec Troup, Napper Thomson, Sam Irving, Davie Halliday, Jock Gilmour, Willie Cook and Bill Marsh.

“El Barcelona derrota nuevamente al Dundee por 3 a 1”

El Mundo Deportivo, 4th June 1923

The early 20’s saw the Dark Blues head overseas on summer tours of Spain, where they gave very creditable performances, before large crowds, to defeat the cream of Spanish football, including Barcelona, although the Dark Blues would have to wait until 1924 to overcome the Catalans. In 1923 Barcelona, as El Mundo Deportivo’s headline above states, the legendary Josep Samitier’s Barça defeated Dundee 3-1 and 2-0. 

Another bright spot for the fans and the city was the club’s run to the Scottish Cup final in 1925. Such was the jubilation that the returning heroes were greeted by a over excited crowd numbering some 6,000 at Tay Bridge Station, ecstatic at the semi-final win over Hamilton. David Halliday was carried shoulder high as far as Union Street before the centre forward broke free fleeing up Tally Street and across the Overgate. Halliday finally slipped his happy pursuers when he bolted down Reform Street, past the Post Office and into the darkness of the ‘brae’. 

The final itself also provided for a sublimely ridiculous moment when Celtic’s Patsy Gallacher, after negotiating his way into a packed Dundee box, somersaulted into the goal with his ball clamped between his feet. The Scottish Cup’s eagerly anticipated return to Dens would just have to wait.

The 1930’s plodded along in much the same way as the 1920’s, although still maintaining a place in Division 1, they didn’t manage to achieve a better finish than 8th. It was a time of turmoil. Supporters felt the directors were out of touch. Managers came and went. Jimmy Bissett, Billy McCandless and Andy Cunningham, all tried to revive the club but with little success. Player’s felt aggrieved with the way they were treated, some applying for “dole” money, after rejecting the terms offered to them. 1937-38 saw Dundee’s worst season in ten years. They finished in 19th place and were relegated to the 2nd Division. This had implications on the club’s finances, their A.G.M., in the Mather’s Hotel, revealed a total income of £16,202, with an expenditure of £14,504, which left a profit of £1,698.

In 1939 a new Chairman was elected, Mr Arthur Galloway, a jute trader, who had joined the board in 1936, after returning to the city of Dundee from Calcutta. As a youth he had been an amateur player with the club, playing under an assumed name (as his father didn’t approve of his son’s footballing ambitions). Perhaps, with his experience of having played the game, he might help bridge the gap between the directors and supporters in the coming years.