Legend of Hockey died in june 1915

[Laurent]

Hi, i am looking for information about great hockey canadian player: ALLAN SCOTTY DAVIDSON died 6 june 1915 at Givenchy. Thank you.

[Tim Godden]

Did you mean the 16th?

If so:

Name: DAVIDSON, ALLAN McLEAN

Initials: A M

Nationality: Canadian

Rank: Lance Corporal

Regiment: Canadian Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regt.)

Unit Text: "E" Coy. 2nd Bn.

Age: 24

Date of Death: 16/06/1915

Service No: 8088

Additional information: Son of John Davidson, of Portsmouth, Ontario.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Cemetery: VIMY MEMORIAL

all the best,

Tim

[Canadawwi]

Hi! Scotty Davidson has come up a few times in my research, and I am certain that I have a few newspaper clippings for him that I will post here as soon as I locate them. I was preparing them to donate to the Canadian Virtual Memorial, but as I had a few I put them aside so that I could work on a special layout. He is the individual mentioned in the posting above.

The following article appeared in the Toronto Star on April 27th, 2004.

AS COURAGEOUS ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE AS ON THE ICE

Hockey hero won Toronto's first Stanley Cup

But WWI cut short career, writes Eric Zweig

Ninety years ago this spring, Toronto fell behind in another hockey playoff and came back to win, securing the city its first Stanley Cup. But if history repeats itself in 2004, it will be under very different circumstances.

Hockey in 1914 was a time not only of train travel, 20-game schedules and minimal salaries, but also one when players with the Toronto Blueshirts and Canada's other professional teams were being exhorted to "exchange stick and puck for a rifle and bayonet."

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president James T. Sutherland made the plea following the outbreak of World War I, which came only 5 months after Toronto's Stanley Cup celebration.

Unlike the Leafs of today or of 1967 (the last time Toronto won the cup), the Blueshirts were a young team. Player/manager Jack Marshall was 37, but he had surrounded himself with plenty of youthful talent. In fact, seven players, including all six of the Blueshirts starters (goalie Hap Holmes, defencemen Marshal and Harry Cameron, plus forwards Frank Foyston, Jack Walker and Allan (Scotty) Davidson) were future hall of famers.

Davidson was the Blueshirts captain. More than any current Toronto player, Davidson resembles former Leafs leader and fellow Kingston native Doug Gilmour. Like Gilmour, Davidson was a two-way talent. He led the 1913-14 Blueshirts with 23 goals and scored three more in four playoff games while battling flu. But he was also a strong backchecker with a temper. In 1925, a Maclean's magazine poll named Davidson the right winger on its all-time all-star team.

While today's Leafs must win four rounds and 16 games to end their 37-year Cup drought, the Toronto Blueshirts of 1914 needed just five playoff games to claim their title. After a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on March 7, Toronto bounced back four nights later to take the total-goals series with a 6-0 victory.

They followed up with three straight wins in a best-of-five series with the Victoria Aristocrats. There were just 11 men on the triumphant team, with starters expected to play a full 60 minutes. Even at that, the team's top stars would have considered themselves lucky to earn $2,000 for the National Hockey Association regular season. Their Stanley Cup share was $297.

Davidson, again like Gilmour, joined the pro ranks after a stellar junior career, leading the Kingston Frotenacs to back-to-back titles in 1910 and 1911. Sutherland coached Davidson in Kingston.

According to Jason Wilson, who has an MA in history from the University of Guelph and has done extensive research on hockey players and World War 1, Sutherland filled his players with a patriotic fervour that is difficult to comprehend today. "These players had a true reverance for King and Empire," he says.

Though Davidson was at the height of his game in 1914, he was eager to do his part once war was declared on Aug. 5. A mere three weeks later, he was at the Canadian army camp in Valcartier, Que., where he was declared "fit" on his medical examination.

It was a decision not unlike that of former NFLer Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan last week after prematurely ending his football career. And like Tillman, Davidson represented his country heroically.

"There is much to suggest," writes Wilson, "that Davidson was as courageous on the field of battle as he had been on the ice. One Canadian soldier wrote to his father describing Davidson's heroics. The letter, later reprinteed in the Star (June 21, 1915), relates how Davidson, along with only two other comrades, held a trench from the Germans. Although he was recommended for the Distinguished Service Medal, the characteristically modest Davidson fails to mention the event to his father in his own letter home.

Tragically, Davidson already lay dead on the fields of France by the time the Star ran its story. He had died a hero's death at Givenchy on June 16, trying to rescue a fellow officer. As hockey journalist Baz O'Meara recalled, Davidson "was discovered lugging the officer back to his own line and German machine guns snugged out his life."

For his military service, Davidson simply received the standard medals presented to those who served.

But, of course, he was also a Stanley Cup champion. Part of Toronto's very first Stanley Cup team.

(article by Eric Zweig for the Toronto Star)

[Canadawwi]

Here's one article where "Scotty" comments on the weight of his equipment!

Article dated June 8th, 1915 (Toronto Star).

"Scotty" Davidson, of Kingston, the former Toronto hockey star, writing to friends in the Limestone City, intimates that he is enjoying life to the fullest. He is one of the bomb-throwers, and carries a special harness to hold the bombs. He also carries 200 rounds of ammunition in his cartridge belt, a rifle, a spade and handle, and as "Scotty" puts it, a pair of those d____ heavy English boots, which weigh five pounds. "A fat chance to get out of any German's way have I!" writes the husky hockey lad. "Scotty" was in the Langemarck affair, and came through without a scratch.

********************

Article dated July 5th, 1915 (Toronto Star).

HOW SCOTTY DAVIDSON DIED

Killed in Trench by One of Canadians' Own Shells.

Special to the Star.

Montreal, July 5 - A letter received from Major E. Williams, of Toronto, to a friend here, says:

"Poor Scotty Davidson was killed by the accidental discharge of one of our shells in the trenches the other night, when the German lines were being heavily shelled by Canadian artillery. He was in the bomb-throwing section of his regiment, and the shell struck the bombs and started them going.

"His officers say he was the most fearless of all their bomb-throwers, and was always looking for work. A good man has been lost by his untimely death."

[Canadawwi]

Here is the June 21st, 1915 article:

[Laurent]

Thank you for this reply, i think he was kill near this point (Givenchy battlefield).