AS the pipers marched away, playing a lament, the small group of Bradfordians at Dochy Farm New British Cemetery in Belgium reflected that more than a decade of celebrating the life of Jimmy Speirs had reached its fruition.

Dignitaries from the Scottish government, local politicians from the Belgian district of West Flanders, Glasgow Rangers legend ‘Wee’ Willie Henderson and high-ranking representatives of various Scottish regiments rubbed shoulders with a group of 28 Bradford City fans.

They were all there to commemorate the centenary of the death, at the Battle of Passchendaele, of Bradford City legend Jimmy Speirs, the man who had captained and scored the winning goal in the 1911 FA Cup Final when City defeated Newcastle United 1-0.

Twenty years ago Dr David Pendleton cycled the Belgian countryside, struggling to even find Dochy Farm Cemetery. When he eventually did, the cemetery was deserted and appeared to have few visitors. He left a note in the cemetery register to inform visitors that the man who had captained Bradford City in the 1911 FA Cup Final, and scored the winning goal, was buried at the cemetery.

Here Dr Pendleton writes about what happened more than a century later, when Speirs was at the centre of commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele, fought between July 31 and November 10, 1917.

“That terrible battle saw around 250,000 British and Commonwealth troops killed or wounded as they fought their way up the mud choked Passchendaele Ridge. Canadian soldiers eventually took the village of Passchendaele after three months of bitter fighting in terrible weather conditions.

Given the scale of the losses it is perhaps understandable that the story of Jimmy Speirs had been lost among the carnage of a battle that, alongside the Somme and Verdun, has come to epitomise the almost unimaginable horror of the Great War.

However, Speirs had always been remembered among Bradford City supporters due to his central role in winning the FA Cup. Speaking to the gathering at Dochy Farm, I said: “The stark contrast between Jimmy Speirs parading the FA Cup in the city centre in 1911 in front of 100,000 people, a third of the entire population of Bradford at that time, to his death in a muddy shell hole just six years later makes his story all the more compelling. It’s a story that resonates with the football club’s history, and that of the wider city, as the FA Cup itself had been made by the Bradford jewellers Fattorini’s and therefore represented the economic might of Edwardian Bradford.”

But most of all the story of Jimmy Speirs is a human one. He was a husband and father. Although his story attracts a wide audience, it should be remembered that his death left behind a grieving family and one who emigrated to Canada to find a new life away from the streets of Glasgow where perhaps too many painful memories lingered.

A decade ago Bradford City’s former bantamspast museum loaned a life sized cut out figure of Speirs to the Passchendaele Memorial Museum to help mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele. When I went to bring the cut out back to Bradford I struck up a friendship with museum employee Frank Depoorter.

In 2011 the centenary of Bradford City’s FA Cup victory was celebrated, Mr Depoorter played a central part in organising a tour of the graves of nine City players killed in the Great War, including Jimmy Speirs. Those trips have become an annual pilgrimage and Mr Depoorter still helps organise the itineraries and has himself become a City supporter making several trips to Valley Parade and away games in south east England.

The story of Jimmy Speirs was central to a weekend of commemorations organised by the Passchendale Memorial Museum, Legion Scotland, Genootschap Passchendaele Society 1917 and Field Marshal Haig’s Own Pipes & Drums. Scottish regiments were central to the fighting in the early stages of the Battle of Passchendaele.

To mark the centenary a group of silhouettes of marching soldiers were unveiled at Frezenberg Ridge on Saturday, August 19. One of the silhouettes represents Jimmy Speirs. It was unveiled by Speirs’ great Grandson Stefan Godden. Guests at the ceremony included the British and South African ambassadors to Belgium.

The following day, Sunday, August 20, attention switched to Dochy Farm and the grave of Jimmy Speirs. Field Marshal Haig’s Own Pipes & Drums made an imposing sight as they marched to Speirs’ graveside playing ‘On the Road to Passchendaele’ composed by Scottish folksinger Alan Brydon, formerly a resident of Baildon. Mr Brydon then played a specially composed song ‘Sing for the Boys (Jimmy’s Song)’. Speakers included Lieutenant General Sir Alistair Stuart Hastings Irwin, KCB, CBE, ‘Wee’ Willie Henderson of Glasgow Rangers and I representing Bradford City.

Wreaths were then laid and the scarfs of Bradford City and Glasgow Rangers were intertwined on Speirs’ headstone to represent Speirs’ home city and Bradford where he won lasting fame as captain and goalscorer in the 1911 FA Cup Final.”