The tragic death of Peter Scarff in December 1933 has possibly tended to hide just what a good player he was.

He joined the club from Linwood in 1928 and was freely compared as an inside forward to Jimmy McMenemy, soon becoming part of the great forward line of R Thomson, A Thomson, McGrory, Scarff and Napier which won the Scottish Cup in those epic finals of 1931 against Motherwell and then went on that triumphant tour of the USA and Canada.

Photograph taken in Detroit while on their visit to play Michigan all Stars who they beat 5-0 at the University of Detroit Stadium. While in the city they were given a tour of the famous Ford Motor Works.

Scarff was a visionary inside forward with tremendous passing ability, and as whole hearted a Celt as one was ever likely to see. He played once for Scotland.

September 1931, of course, saw the tragedy of John Thomson, and that was only one of the tragedies of that year, for Peter Scarff began to show signs of exhaustion at training sessions and occasionally coughed up blood.

Just before Christmas 1931, he played his last game for Celtic but left the field early clearly unwell, and then in January he was admitted to hospital where pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed. TB was, of course, the scourge of the age caused by inadequate housing and poor air quality, and there was no real cure.

There were occasionally some periods of remission, but Peter never played again. He died in December 1933, but not before the tearful Willie Maley had brought the Scottish Cup, won in April of that year, to the Bridge of Weir Sanatorium to show to one of his greatest players.

At his funeral, Maley threw the green and white jersey on to the coffin as it was lowered.

David Potter

God bless the Peter Scarff 🍀 pic.twitter.com/4vz4Cfvunt

— Peter Scarff (@PeterScarffCSC) April 15, 2023

HUGE SAVINGS IN THE CELTIC STAR’S SUMMER SALE!

The Celtic Star’s Father’s Day Promotion has been so successful, with hundreds of books at great prices being posted to Celtic fans all over the world, that we’ve decided to continue with the sale until the end of July. We’ve reduced all six books currently available from their usual retail price of £20 and prices are as low as £6 (see below).

All books are high quality hardback, with some signed by the author. And it’s also worth noting that you only pay postage on one book, so it’s free for the second, third and so on. ORDER HERE or click on The Celtic Star image above…this is how it feels to be Celtic!