Able to spend time in a sanatorium close to home and taking the Ayrshire sea-air there would be some improvement. But it was not sustained; there was renewed deterioration to the point that in December 1933, aged just twenty-four, he died.

His passing would be in Linwood, in Renfrewshire, close to where he had been born and grown up, the son of an Irish mother and a Scots-Irish father, and where with St. Convals he had first played the game. His burial in neighbouring Kilbarchan was attended by the full Celtic team. It was the second in short order for a Bhoy losing his life too young. The death of John Thomson's had been over two years earlier, Scarff having been on the field that day. Thousands of fans also paid their respects.