FIRST World War commemorations have been much in the news over the past few months.

And next Tuesday in Greenock, one of the most heartwarming events of that terrible conflict will be re-enacted at Cappielow during a carol service.

Representatives from The Haven in Kilmacolm and Territorial Army in Port Glasgow and Gourock will play the parts of German and British soldiers who climbed out of the trenches to play a football match.

Many will have seen this memorable Christmas truce being depicted on TV in a supermarket advert produced in association with the Royal British Legion.

Hundreds of complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Authority by people who thought it was distasteful.

That was my initial reaction until I saw it was made in co-operation with the Legion, which does so much every year to raise money through the poppy appeal to pay for welfare work with serving service personnel, veterans, and their families.

The Cappielow service will include Silent Night being sung in English and German, and the reading out of names of Morton personnel who served in a fighting or non-combatant role during 1914-18.

Morton’s near-neighbours, Barnard’s Court Mission, played a key role in organising the carol service — an event which shows yet again how important the football club is to this community.

It will be an emotional experience for everyone involved, and especially those whose families lost loved ones in the ‘war to end all wars’.