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Details
Ref: Wall collapse at game led to the death of one young child, RIP.
Location: Shawfield Stadium
Match: 1957-12-14: Clyde 3-6 Celtic, League Division 1
Date: 14 Dec 1957
Review
On the 14th December 1957, Celtic were due to play Clyde at Shawfield Stadium.
The ground was not opened till 2:00 pm when the Celtic party turned up. It was a foggy and grey cold day for the game but a good turn out saw the ground packed out. In order to avoid the crush in the terraces many young boys had made their way to the front and were sitting beyond the four foot high boundary wall on the edge of the track or actually sitting on the wall, as was common and regular practise at the time. The match report states that the ground was ‘…bursting at the seams‘.
After three minutes, a good move involving Neil Mochan saw him pass across to an unmarked Billy McPhail who took a step to the left and hit a rocket into the net from 10 yards. The crowd surged forward in celebration of the goal but then a 50 yard section of the brick boundary wall collapsed forward on top of, and burying the boys that had been sat on the far side of it.
The game was immediately stopped. The Fire Brigade was called.
All available ambulances in the Glasgow area were directed to the ground and spectators immediately began to try to lift sections of the wall off of those buried and trapped.
After about twenty minutes, with the police, firemen and spectators all doing their best to clear casualties, order gradually prevailed. Unbelievably the decision was taken to continue the game though clearly some of the players would have been affected by what they had seen. The match page gives details of the game, which in fact turned out to be an excellent game despite the shock that would have been prevailing and the disaster that had taken place.
The Monday papers told of the death of a boy aged 9, James Ryan of 113 Green Street, Bridgeton. Twelve boys and an adult still remained in hospital. The hospitalised were:-
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Arthur O’Neil, 14, of 30 Pleasance Street, Pollokshaws, Glasgow
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Henry Toner, 52, of 20 Hillside Road, Neilston
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John Smyth, 14, of 264 Thistle Street, Gorbals, Glasgow
- Alexander Brown, 10 , of 103 Paisley Road West, Glasgow
- James Lang, 15, of 29 Carrick Road, Rutherglen
- Peter Tomasso, 9 , of 25 Mossgiel Crescent, Busby
- Victor Thomson, 9 , 21 Southview Avenue, Busby
- William Fay, 13 , of 272 Bellrock Street, Glasgow
- Thomas Sutherland, 10 , of 3 Avenue Street, Rutherglen
- Lewis Rodgers, 12 , of 27 Craigie Street, Glasgow
- John Mowen, 11 , 127 Dormanside Road, Glasgow
- James Buchanan, 14 , of 42 Main Street, Cowdenbeath
A further 24 boys and 12 adults had been treated for minor injuries and released from hospital.
Rutherglen Police immediately began an investigation and report into the collapse of the wall for submission to the Crown Authorities who would determine whether a fatal accident inquiry would take place. It emerged through the report that 95% of the Shawfield ground was in Lanarkshire with the only part of the ground within the Glasgow boundaries being the turnstiles. As such the Lanarkshire police supplied the manpower to cover the game. However magistrates made a strong case for the report to be heard by the Glasgow Magistrates.
On the Sunday a test had been carried out on part of the wall still standing. Eighteen policemen stood on a 10 yard stretch of the wall without problems but when they closed in to 2 yards the wall shook and parts of it trembled. When the game had been halted the fog had been so bad that those on the side of the ground furthest from the collapse had no idea what was going on.
It was only when police failed to remove those that had encroached onto the dog track and playing surface that people started to realise that something serious had happened. During the first few minutes those unaware in the stand had been shouting for the game to be restarted but as the injured started to be carried to the stand, from which the calls had emerged, these were quietened. The attendance said to be 26,500 was several thousand short of the record attendance for the ground and almost 10,000 less than the figure given authoritatively given as the maximum for the ground.
The fact that almost all the victims were young boys raised calls for special sections of grounds to be set aside for children, though this would have run against the common practise of lifting the boys over the turnstiles.
The hospitalised were visited by players of both teams and the funeral of James Ryan was attended by officials from both clubs.
Fatal Accident Inquiry
The Fatal Accident Inquiry went ahead on 27th February 1958 and statements were taken in open court. The jury returned a formal verdict that the accident had occurred through the actions of an unruly element in the crowd.
Evening Times 27/2/58
