Alastair Campbell
Personal information
Full name Alastair Keyon Campbell
Date of birth (1890-05-29)29 May 1890
Place of birth Southampton, England
Date of death 16 June 1943(1943-06-16) (aged 53)
Place of death Cosham, England
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1]
Position(s) Centre-half
Youth career
King Edward VI School
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1908–1909 Southampton 3 (0)
1909–1914 Glossop North End 10 (0)
1919–1926 Southampton 196 (15)
1926–1927 Poole Town
International career
England amateur 1 (0)
Managerial career
1927 Chesterfield
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
Cricket information
BattingRight-handed
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1908–1909Hampshire
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 7
Runs scored 91
Batting average 9.10
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 21
Catches/stumpings 1/–
Source: Cricinfo

Alastair Keyon "Alec" Campbell (29 May 1890 – 16 June 1943)[1] was a professional cricketer and footballer who played (as a centre-half) nearly 200 games for Southampton in the first quarter of the twentieth century, before briefly becoming manager at Chesterfield.

Early life

Campbell was born at South Stoneham to Scottish parents and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Southampton, where he was captain of both the football and cricket elevens. While at school he played for England at the amateur level in an international against Netherlands, the only known occasion that a schoolboy has represented his country at that level.[1]

Career

Before embarking on his career as a footballer, Campbell played professional cricket.

Cricketer

Campbell was a right-handed batsman. He made his first-class debut for Hampshire in the 1908 County Championship against Northamptonshire.[2] In the 1908 season, Campbell played in two championship matches, the second being against Gloucestershire. Campbell made five further first-class appearances for Hampshire in the 1909 County Championship, with his final first-class appearance coming against Northamptonshire.[3]

Footballer

Southampton

He was soon spotted by Southampton Football Club and joined them in 1908, making his professional debut in a Southern League match at Millwall on 27 February 1909, as a replacement for Bert Trueman. He "quickly emerged as one of the club's brightest-ever prospects".[4] In September 1909 he (together with several other amateur internationals) was persuaded to join Samuel Hill-Wood's team at Glossop North End.

Wartime football

He remained at Glossop until January 1914, before returning to The Dell. He had failed to break back into the first team before the outbreak of World War I interrupted his career. During the war he guested for West Ham United as well as turning out regularly for Southampton. Although he was offered terms to join West Ham at the end of the war, he decided to stay in Southampton where he had been offered a directorship with a firm of fruit importers.

Return to Southampton

After regular football had restarted in 1919, he lost his place to George Bradburn, before regaining it in March for the remainder of the season, becoming team captain. At 6 ft 2 in he was a distinctive figure on the pitch with his "telescopic legs". According to Holley & Chalk's "Alphabet of the Saints" he was "undoubtedly one of the club's best-ever centre-halves"[4] and led the team to many fine performances. Under manager Jimmy McIntyre Saints were admitted into Division 3 of the Football League in 1920, and just missed out on promotion in their first season, but a year later McIntyre had successfully guided Southampton into Division Two as champions of Football League Division 3 (South).

Poole Town

Campbell remained with the Saints until the end of the 1925–26 season, when, now aged 36, he joined Poole Town. Poole had just turned professional and joined the Southern League, Eastern Division. Although only placed 14th out of 17 sides in 1926–27, the season was distinguished by an excellent FA Cup run, in which Poole beat Third Division (South) side Newport County 1–0 and met Everton in the 3rd Round proper, where they were beaten 3–1 by a Dixie Dean hat-trick at Goodison Park in front of a 65,000 crowd.

Management career

In April 1927 Campbell was appointed manager at Chesterfield, remaining only until December. In his 25 games in charge, Chesterfield picked up nine victories with eleven defeats. After leaving Chesterfield he quit football entirely.

During World War II he served as an officer in the Royal Artillery, but died of pneumonia in Cosham's Queen Alexandra Hospital in June 1943.[1] Having been cremated at Southampton Crematorium, he is commemorated on the war memorial at South Stoneham Garden of Rest.[5]

Honours

As a player for Southampton

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chalk, Gary; Holley, Duncan & Bull, David (2013). All the Saints: A Complete Players' Who's Who of Southampton FC. Southampton: Hagiology Publishing. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-9926-8640-6.
  2. ↑ Alastair Campbell at Cricinfo
  3. ↑ Alastair Campbell at CricketArchive.
  4. 1 2 Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (1992). The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3.
  5. ↑ "Casualty details: Alastair Keyon Campbell". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
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