Matthew Walthert is both a hockey fan and a history buff. For his first book, he decided to combine both of his passions to write about a former professional hockey player who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the First World War.

Scotty Davidson: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Death of Canada’s Forgotten Hockey Hero tells the story of a hard-living, hard-punching hockey player who captained the Toronto Hockey Club Blueshirts to the 1914 Stanley Cup in only his second season with the club.

After war was declared in July 1914, Davidson volunteered to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, becoming the first professional hockey player to do so.
He was killed in action on June 16, 1915, while fighting in France. A military record reports that he was “killed instantly by a shell which exploded near him in the trench.”

Why he was in the trench when the shell struck is a matter of debate. At least one report claims he was killed after single-handedly attacking a German trench with multiple grenades after several of his comrades had already retreated.

According to the account told to a paper back home by a friend and fellow soldier, he was discovered, surrounded and ordered to surrender. Davidson refused and crashed his last hand grenade against the body of a German officer, killing them both instantly.

“We found Scotty’s body the next morning, riddled with bullets and jabbed with bayonets,” the friend recounted.

Another report claimed that he was shot in the back and killed while attempting to carry an injured soldier to safety.

Still another version of Davidson’s death, as reported in the August 18, 1915 issue of the Calgary Daily Herald, claimed that he was sitting in the trenches playing cards with four other soldiers when a shell dropped in the midst of the party killing Davidson and his friends.

Which version of Davidson’s death is true has been buried with the passage of time.

He was only 24 when he died and was hailed as one of the best all-around players in the old National Hockey Association, which pre-dated the NHL.

Davidson’s name can be found on the Vimy Memorial in France and he was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950.

Walthert first came across Davidson’s name more than 10 years ago when he was looking for professional hockey players who had served in the First World War for a story that was published in The Athletic and was shortlisted for the Professional Writers Association of Canada’s best feature article award.

After the story was published, Walthert continued to dig into Davidson’s life and death and a bigger story began to emerge.

Walthert spent the next seven years combing through the various archives and newspaper accounts of Davidson’s playing career, military service and subsequent death, He even managed to track down several grand-nephews and -nieces, one of whom provided Walthert with a number of old photos that made it into the book.

Scotty Davidson: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Death of Canada’s Forgotten Hockey Hero is available through Sutherland House Books at https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/product/scotty-davidson/.