The impact of the Great War on Cartha, let alone society in general, is writ large if not at particularly great length in the minutes of the Club. Although the incidence of committee meetings was sparse and irregular, and business minimal, the record for the period appears complete.

The first record of what was to come is in the minutes for 12 August 1914 where it is recorded that ’In view of the present European Crisis there was no business to be done’.

On 9 September 1914 it was resolved to maintain a list of members on active service while also attempting to maintain the winter sections which, as it turned out, was a fond hope. Only the tennis section, and then mainly ladies, apparently managed to persist in any active way through the War.

By 14 April 1916 it was noted that, since ‘110 members of the Club were serving with the Colours’, the annual business meeting would be ‘inadvisable’. Casualties, it is recorded, would be inevitable.

The Club War Memorial on display in the clubhouse records the names of those who died in the conflict.

They gave their lives in the Somme, in India, in Gallipoli, in Belgium, and through illness at a training camp. They included ex-President James Howatt, hockey international goalkeeper Dean Farquhar, William Gow who had taken up as Secretary of the Club in March 1915, and Calum McNaughton, Secretary in 1913 and 1914.

The discussion and fund-raising for the erection of a War Memorial formed much of the content of the minutes for several years. Most notably, the honours won by members to be shown on the Memorial was a matter of contention.

At first, all honours were to be included, but then it was proposed that there should be none. Finally it was agreed by the narrowest of margins that the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Sgt. James Youll Turnbull should be the sole honour .

Thus the heroism of Lt. Col. Gavin L Wilson DSO MC and Capt. J H Logan MC, to name only two of those whose details are in the minutes, goes unrecorded on the War Memorial.

The cost of the War Memorial was limited to £40-£50 and in due course it was obtained. The plaque was unveiled on 21 April 1923 by the President, Robert Liston, and the Rev. S J Ramsay Sibbald.

It is difficult to build up a picture of the level of Club activity, but it was undoubtedly much reduced.

Insurance was taken out against attack by ‘hostile aircraft’ in May 1916, followed by ‘Zeppelin insurance’ a year later.

Fund-raising for a variety of causes was a major exercise: overseas soldiers were entertained; money was given to the South Side War Hospital Supply Depot in St. John’s Road; the Belgian Relief Fund and Red Cross appeal were beneficiaries.