Corporal Thomas Gracie
19024, 16th Battalion, Royal Scots
Tom Gracie travelled with the Scotland team to play against England at Goodison in 1911, and although the Morton forward was not capped, he signed for Everton immediately after the game. Gracie made 19 appearances before moving to Liverpool, and then on to Heart of Midlothian, where he was the Scottish League’s joint top scorer in the 1914-15 season.
In 1914, Gracie and his Hearts team-mates enlisted en masse in the 16th (McCrae’s) Royal Scots – the first of the
footballers’ battalions. However, he did not have a chance to serve overseas as he was diagnosed with leukaemia in March 1915. He passed away aged twenty-six in Glasgow on 23 October, less than a month after his brother John was killed in France. Thomas was laid to rest in Glasgow’s Craigton cemetery.