Tag: Remembrance Day

Hockey Star Scotty Davidson And The First World War

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Library and Archives Canada Blog

By Ellen Bond

In the early 1900s, playing hockey could lead to fighting for your country. The skills that made you a good hockey player—strength, endurance, patience, toughness—were desirable to the army. In its rough-and-tumble way, hockey was seen as a way to prepare yourself for war. The best soldiers were often hockey players and many players volunteered to fight in the First World War.

Allan McLean “Scotty” Davidson was one of those volunteers. Born on March 6, 1891, in Kingston, Ontario, Davidson began playing hockey with the Kingston Junior Frontenacs. As their captain, he helped the team win the Ontario Hockey Association Junior Championship in 1910 and 1911. The next year, Davidson moved to Calgary to play for the Calgary Athletics’ senior team. They won the Alberta Cup in 1911–1912 but lost their challenge to the Winnipeg Victorias for the Allan Cup (Canadian Senior Championship).

In 1912, Davidson started playing professionally for the Toronto Blueshirts (now Toronto Maple Leafs) in the National Hockey Association. Davidson was the team’s captain and leading goal scorer the next year and helped win Toronto’s first Stanley Cup in 1914. In his two seasons with the Blueshirts, Davidson scored 46 goals in 44 games. He could skate backwards faster than most players could skate forwards, according to Edward Allan, a hockey writer for the Toronto Mail and Empire newspaper.

As a star hockey player, Davidson had all the skills the army was looking for. He may have been the first professional hockey player to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (CEF), joining in September 1914. Scotty volunteered to be a “bomb thrower”, lobbing grenades at enemy troops. Some newspapers carried stories about Davidson in the army and described his bravery in the face of danger.

Scotty Davidson died in the field on June 16, 1915. His CEF service file states that Davidson “was killed instantly by a shell falling in the trench. He was practically blown to pieces.” A newspaper account of his death claimed that Davidson would have earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal or the Victoria Cross if he had survived the battle. Fellow soldier and Kingston resident, Captain George Richardson said Davidson was one of the bravest men in his company. He was fearless, willing and ready to save his comrades at every opportunity. Davidson’s name is memorialized on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France.

Scotty Davidson sounds like the type of athlete I would have loved to watch play hockey. He was a smooth skater, a goal scorer and a leader. In 1925, Maclean’s magazine named Scotty the top right-winger in its all-star team of the best hockey players. An opposing coach, Ernie Hamilton, said about Scotty’s shot, “I never saw such hard shooting.” The roots of our freedom are founded on the lives of people such as Scotty. He was a glorious athlete whose life was cut far too short.

Scotty Davidson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950. Scotty’s sacrifice is honoured by the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Ellen Bond is a project assistant with the Online Content Team at Library and Archives Canada

Remembering Hockey Players Who Served in War

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PETER MUGGERIDGE Zoomer

CANADA – DECEMBER 23: Stafford Smythe in the Navy. The fine looking young fellow on the RIGHT of the picture is Ordinary Seaman Stafford Smythe; son of Major Conn Smythe; 30th Battery; LEFT. The lad is a chip off the old block. Craving action he signed on the dotted line and says; There’s nothing like the life of a sailor. (Photo by Toronto Star Archives/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

On the two occasions last century when world war broke out, prominent Canadian hockey players answered the call to arms, trading in their sticks and skates for guns and boots, and putting their careers on hold in order to help Britain in her fight against the mighty German armies.

World War I

It stands to reason that the sport hockey – which sometimes resembles armed conflict on ice – would produce so many soldiers, pilots and seaman. This fact was noted by James T. Sutherland, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, and captain of the 146th Overseas Battalion. In 1915, Sutherland issued a recruiting message that called on hockey players to join the war effort.

“It takes nerve and gameness to play the game of hockey. The same qualities are necessary in the greater game that is now being played in France and on the other fighting fronts.” 

Many people connected with the game responded to Sutherland’s message, including Toronto Maple Leaf owner Conn Smythe, who joined the air force and was shot down over Germany, spending over two years in a Prisoner of War camp.

Perhaps the most famous hockey player to serve overseas in World War I was the legendary Frank McGee, one of the game’s pre-NHL greats, who won the Stanley Cup four times while playing for the Ottawa Silver Seven. (He famously scored 14 goals against the Dawson City Nuggets in a Stanley Cup-winning game.)

After his career, McGee sought glory on the battlefield, joining the 43rd Regiment – despite the fact he only had one eye. He was killed during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the huge numbers lost in the Somme Offensive. Along with over 11,000 of his fellow Canadians, McGee’s body was never recovered.

NEXT: WORLD WAR II

World War II

With another long and devastating war underway, hockey players again joined up in droves. NHL lineups were stripped of talent as Hall-of-Fame caliber players like Sid Abel, Syl Apps, Doug Harvey, Hap Day, Tiny Thompson and many others served overseas. This meant the quality of hockey fell off greatly during the early 1040s until the players started returning after the war.

The Boston Bruins, for example, lost their top-scoring trio, as the fabled Kraut Line (Woody Dumart, Bobby Bauer and Milt Schmidt) all enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Howie Meeker, who would play and coach the Leafs before embarking on a long career as a TV commentator, was injured when a grenade exploded nearby. And Ken Reardon, stalwart defenceman for the Montreal Canadiens, was awarded Field Marshall Montgomery’s Certificate of Merit for acts of bravery during battle.

Even the old World War I vet and hard-core patriot Conn Smythe, at age 45 put his hockey management duties aside and signed on for another tour of duty, this time forming an anti-aircraft battery. He was wounded in France in 1944. Recuperating in a hospital, Smythe created controversy at home with his Globe and Mail article headlined: “Untrained Troops a Hazard at the Front,” which bemoaned the lack of trained recruits the Canada was producing.

Hockey goes global

Not all Canadian hockey stars who signed up ever saw battle action. Many players were simply enlisted to improve morale, which they accomplished by playing hockey games for the troops overseas.

And because so many good players were available, these games were top-notch, not only entertaining Canadian troops but also introducing Europeans to this fast-paced sport on ice.