Bassendean Caledonians SFC

Eventually most of the Caledonian soccer team's players and officials enlisted in the Australian Forces in the 1914–18 War.

Brown W. Earnshaw R. McKinnon G. Brown J. Gourley A. McPherson D. Cameron C. Grieve C. Monteath J. Chalmers D. Henry D.Reid W. Chalmers R. Leonard J. Simpson A. Cowan F. Lyon J. Thompson In addition, the West Australian of 14 May 1915 mentions a Callies player, Wilkie, as ‘being in Khaki’, and later references were made by Alec Marr to ‘wee McGregor’ serving at the front.

When the Society organised a welcome home function for the Caledonian recruits four years later only five of the 14 attended, the rest having been killed, wounded or otherwise traumatised by the conflict.

[3] On the first of August 1919, the Fremantle Herald reported that the Caledonian Society held a minute silence in remembrance of their fallen comrades in the soccer team.

The same newspaper later recorded that at its 11th Annual General Meeting on 4 June 1920 the Society had erected a large plaque inscribed with the names of the 106 members who had served in the Anzac forces.