| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Bernard Battles | ||
| Date of birth | 13 January 1875 | ||
| Place of birth | Springburn, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 9 February 1905(1905-02-09) (aged 30) | ||
| Place of death | Glasgow, Scotland | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1] | ||
| Position(s) | Full-back Wing half | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Linlithgow Juniors | |||
| Broxburn | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1893–1894 | Bathgate | ||
| 1894–1895 | Heart of Midlothian | 16 | (0) |
| 1895–1897 | Celtic | 28 | (3) |
| 1896 | →Liverpool (loan) | 2 | (0) |
| 1897–1898 | Dundee | 15 | (2) |
| 1898 | →Liverpool (loan) | 1 | (0) |
| 1898–1904 | Celtic | 81 | (3) |
| 1904–1905 | Kilmarnock | 23 | (0) |
| International career | |||
| 1899–1902[2] | Scottish League XI | 2 | (0) |
| 1901[3] | Scotland | 3 | (0) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Bernard Battles (13 January 1875 – 9 February 1905) was a Scottish footballer, whose clubs includedHeart of Midlothian,Celtic,Liverpool,Dundee andKilmarnock before his death aged 30.[4]
Battles was born inSpringburn,Glasgow, he moved toMidlothian when still a boy and played his early football withBroxburn andBathgate, before joiningHearts in 1894, winning theScottish Football League title the following year and then moving on toCeltic. He made his Celtic debut in the 2–1 away league win overDundee on 10 August 1895 and won a League championship badge plus theGlasgow Cup in his maiden campaign.
Late in the 1895–96 season, after Celtic had won the championship, he left on loan for English clubLiverpool, where he played in two league fixtures and three'test' matches (effectively promotion/relegation playoffs) for them.[5] Back at Celtic, he was suspended by the club in November 1896 and did not feature again during 1896–97, after he – plusPeter Meechan andJohn Divers – refused to take the field for a game due to being insulted by the presence of a journalist who had been highly critical of the team in their previous match (a loss toRangers in the Glasgow Cup final).[6][7]
Battles joinedDundee in April 1897 and would make 19 total appearances with 2 goals during the1897–98 season,[8] then played another League match for Liverpool in March 1898. He rejoined Celtic the following October, shortly after John Divers also returned; despite the pair's past indiscretion, the team's results had noticeably worsened in their absence.[7] He remained in Glasgow for the next six years, with no further League titles but four consecutive appearances inScottish Cup Finals, winning the first two in1899 and1900, and losing the others in1901 (to former employers Hearts) and1902.[9]
He impressedScottish selectors with his consistent performances and in 1901 he started all threeHome International matches, his only fullcaps. Battles had already played for theScottish League XI in 1899 and was selected again in 1902, and also turned out for theGlasgow Association againstSheffield in the same year.
After leaving Celtic he subsequently moved toKilmarnock[10] before his death frompneumonia on 9 February 1905, at the age of 30, two weeks after falling ill following a match on 21 January. A reported 40,000 people lined the route toDalbeth cemetery in Glasgow's East End on the day of Battles' funeral. The monies taken from the stand at the 1905 Scotland vIreland match atCeltic Park were donated by host club Celtic to the grieving Battles family in tribute to their former player.[11]
Battles died before the birth of his son,Barney Battles Jr., who was named in his memory and would also go on to be a Scottish international, playing as aforward.[12]