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Famous Scots - Peter Scarff
Peter Scarff was born in 1908 and played alongside Charles Napier in the early 1930s, when they were both considered highly talented young forwards. He was in the team that beat Rangers for the 1930 Glasgow Cup, and won the 1931 Scottish Cup final against Motherwell in a replay. The legend James McGrory considered this Celtic team the best he played with, and Scarff was an important and quickly improving part of it.
Scarff went on the 1931 tour of America with Celtic, where funnily he scored five goals against Montreal Carsteel while wearing a green dress shirt because there weren't enough hooped strips to go around. This was Celtic's first ever tour of the USA and it was during the Great Depression, so times where hard.
He played in the match where John Thompson was killed in his prime.
Following a game against Leith Athletic in December 1931, Scarff began to cough up blood. He took unwell and was admitted to the Bridge of Weir sanatorium. Despite hopes of a respite giving chance of recovery, it was announced on July 19th 1933 that his football career was at an end. Exactly two years later, at the age of only 25, he died of tuberculosis.
At his funeral in Kilbarchan Cemetery Willie Maley laid a Celtic jersey on Peter's coffin before internment.
During his career Scarff won one cap for Scotland, in a 1931 draw against Northern Ireland. He will always be remembered as a talented and promising young man, who was sadly to join the list of men who died while young and still on the books at Celtic.
Headstone Photograph
Further Information
Firstname: PETER
LastName: SCARFF
Date of Death: 9th Dec 1933
Age at Death: 24
Cemetery: Kilbarchan Cemetery
Bridge of Weir Road
Town: Brookfield
Region: Glasgow and Clyde Valley
Country: Scotland
Please Note, the marker on this map indicates the Cemetery location, not the location of a particular grave.