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Arbroath footballer’s account of First World War Christmas truce emerges

Jack Peters, second from right in the back row, enjoyed a successful couple of seasons with Arbroath prior to the war.
Jack Peters, second from right in the back row, enjoyed a successful couple of seasons with Arbroath prior to the war.

An incredible account of the Christmas truce of the First World War has emerged.

Letters from Dundee soldier Jack Peters have been uncovered, which detail the events of December 25 1914.

The Arbroath FC player sent regular correspondence to the club’s match secretary and later manager Bob McGlashan during his time on the frontline.

He was called up to serve with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders following the outbreak of the war and was posted to the Western Front on the border with France and Belgium.

In a letter, dated December 27 1914, he told his friend about the day the guns went quiet.

Mr Peters wrote: “A very funny thing happened on Christmas Day.

“The Germans were shouting ‘Merry Christmas’ to our chaps and asking where we came from.

“One of our men replied ‘Glasgow’ and then a German, who had spent four years in Glasgow and could speak very good English, asked him to come unarmed and alone and would shake hands with him.

“Our chap took the German on his honour and they met.”

This led to a flood of soldiers crossing the battlefield to shake hands with their enemies and pass on their messages of goodwill.

The letter continued: “An officer asked one of our officers to play a football match on Boxing Day, but our officer said he could not.

“They met between the barbed wire entanglements of their respective trenches and after wishing each other a Merry Christmas, went back to their own trenches as if nothing had happened.

“And the sniping again started.

“It was worth seeing, I can assure you.”

Mr Peters, who hailed from Lochee, signed off by expressing his wish to return home in time to help Arbroath secure victory in the Central League.

Unfortunately, it is not known if he ever made a triumphant return to the football pitch as no records exist of the soldier after October 1915, when he was brought back to Britain after being wounded.