Mike Campbell-Lamerton
Encyclopedia
Colonel Michael John "Mike" Campbell-Lamerton (1 August 1933–17 March 2005) was a British army officer
and rugby union
figure. Despite being a career soldier on active service, he would captain the Scotland rugby team
a number of times.
Richard Bath writes of him that he was:
Allan Massie
provides a more colourful description of himL
. National Service
took him to the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding)
in 1952, the start of 33 years' service in the Army during which he served in Korea and Cyprus
.
during the Battle of the Hook
in Korea
, recovering positions overrun by the Chinese offensive. Campbell-Lamerton had already escaped a life-threatening injury at school when, aged 15, he was struck on the chest by a javelin; he courted death again on foot patrol in Korea when he trod on a mine. Hearing the faint click, he remained still while the corporal with him, who fortunately had worked in bomb disposal during the Second World War, rendered it safe.
Three years later, serving in Cyprus
during the EOKA
campaign, he fell 60 ft from a helicopter in full combat gear, sustaining severe back, hip and leg injuries. That he recovered to play international sport is a tribute to his perseverance as well as his ability; He played rugby for his regiment (The 'Dukes'), the Army
and Combined Services, and club rugby with Halifax
, Blackheath Rugby Club and London Scottish RFC. He eventually rose to the rank of Colonel before leaving the army.
, he was 32, no longer captain of his country and the leadership was expected go to Alun Pask
, the outstanding Welsh No. 8; Massie says that "You would have had no doubt that he [Mike Campbell-Lamerton] could push in the scrum, and with him and Frans Ten Bos
together it achieved a solidity and power that had long been lacking." However, he also says that Lamerton was not a good national captain, "he was perhaps over-conscientious and a worrier, and hardly spoke the same language as many of the team; it affected his play." In terms of sheer entertainment value, Massie says "I doubt if any other Scottish lock forward has given so much fun, not even Alastair McHarg
."
beat in successive internationals, the New Zealand section of the tour was marred by ill feeling. After the game with Canterbury
, the Lions captain for the day, Jim Telfer
, said at the after match function: "I would not describe today's game as dirty because all our games in New Zealand have been dirty." Understandably this caused a furore but it was the backdrop against which Campbell-Lamerton had to keep his players united.
Campbell-Lamerton, in fact, would not have been out of place in the modern game: he was a big man, at 6 feet 5 inches, weighing more than 17 stone, yet athletic enough to play No. 8 as well as his accustomed position in the second row. But the qualities which served him best on the difficult tour of New Zealand as captain of the 1966 Lions were his commitment and willingness which did so much to sustain a struggling tour party.
At one stage the manager, Des O'Brien left the party for a reconnaissance mission to Fiji
(where a final tour game was to be played), and the coach, John Robins
, was in hospital with damaged ankle ligaments, leaving Campbell-Lamerton with far greater responsibilities than any modern equivalent would face. Yet in a squad which he had not been expected to captain, his players still speak warmly of the example he set after a tour in which the Lions lost all four internationals against the All Blacks
. The recurrence of an ankle injury which caused his withdrawal from the second game against New Zealand, did not help and he also missed the final international. "Mike was a decent man and much-maligned", Brian Price, his second-row partner in three of the tour internationals, said. "We knew how hard he was working and it was because we respected his efforts, we stuck together."
After the tour he retired from rugby but in his military career, he rose to the rank of colonel
, led him to the command of a battalion
in Northern Ireland
, thence to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where he was commander of Old College and Victory College.
at Balliol College, Oxford
, later being elected an Emeritus Fellow of the college. He also took a close interest in the fortunes of the university rugby club, whose president he eventually became. He was elected a Knight of Malta, the organisation which raises funds for Catholic charities. In 2001 prostate cancer
was diagnosed, an illness he endured with great fortitude until his death on March 17, 2005, aged 71.
, and by three sons (one of whom, Jeremy
,(born 1957) also played lock
for Scotland, five times in the 1986-7 season), Micheal (born 1958), Ian (born 1962) and a daughter Clare (born 1961)
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
figure. Despite being a career soldier on active service, he would captain the Scotland rugby team
Scotland national rugby union team
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...
a number of times.
Richard Bath writes of him that he was:
- "A strong scrummager who held his own in the at the line-out and was a considerable presence in the loose, Campbell-Lamerton excelled in the second row for Scotland from his first cap in 1961 until his 23rd in 1966."
Allan Massie
Allan Massie
Allan Massie is a well-known Scottish journalist, sports writer and novelist.-Early life:Born in 1938 in Singapore, where his father was a rubber planter for Sime Darby, Massie spent his childhood in Aberdeenshire...
provides a more colourful description of himL
- "The sight of captain M.J. Campbell-Lamerton of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment surging round the tail of a line-out like an enraged hippopotamus was one of the most stirring spectacles in Scottish Rugby. A huge man, 6 feet 5 inches and often over 17 stones, he made an abrupt and unheralded entry into top-class Rugby for a Combined Services team against a Scottish Select at MurrayfieldMurrayfield StadiumMurrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...
in December 1960. The game was played in a thick haarFogFog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
, and almost the only impression spectators retained of it was of this man-mountain surging out of mist as a mastodonMastodonMastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
from a primeval swamp. It took him into the Scottish team and he stayed there til 1966 to win twenty-three caps."
Early life
Campbell-Lamerton was born in Valletta, Malta, the elder of two sons of Lieutenant-Commander Robert Campbell-Lamerton, and his wife, Margaret. His father was killed in action in 1943 on North Atlantic convoy duty, he was educated at Ottershaw School near WindsorWindsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
. National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
took him to the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding)
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King's Division.In 1702 Colonel George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, was authorised to raise a new regiment, which he did in and around the city of Gloucester. As was the custom in those days...
in 1952, the start of 33 years' service in the Army during which he served in Korea and Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
.
Army career
He and his lifelong friend, David Gilbert-Smith, led two platoons of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding)Duke of Wellington's Regiment
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King's Division.In 1702 Colonel George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, was authorised to raise a new regiment, which he did in and around the city of Gloucester. As was the custom in those days...
during the Battle of the Hook
Battle of the Hook
The third Battle of the Hook was a battle of the Korean War that took place between a United Nations force, consisting mostly of British troops, supported on their flanks by American and Turkish artillery units against a predominantly Chinese force...
in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, recovering positions overrun by the Chinese offensive. Campbell-Lamerton had already escaped a life-threatening injury at school when, aged 15, he was struck on the chest by a javelin; he courted death again on foot patrol in Korea when he trod on a mine. Hearing the faint click, he remained still while the corporal with him, who fortunately had worked in bomb disposal during the Second World War, rendered it safe.
Three years later, serving in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
during the EOKA
EOKA
EOKA was an anticolonial, antiimperialist nationalist organisation with the ultimate goal of "The liberation of Cyprus from the British yoke". Although not stated in its initial declaration of existence which was printed and distributed on the 1st of April 1955, EOKA also had a target of achieving...
campaign, he fell 60 ft from a helicopter in full combat gear, sustaining severe back, hip and leg injuries. That he recovered to play international sport is a tribute to his perseverance as well as his ability; He played rugby for his regiment (The 'Dukes'), the Army
Army Rugby Union
The Army Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in the British Army and a constituent body of the Rugby Football Union . The ARU was formed on 31 December 1906 and marked the fulfilment of Lieutenant J.E.C...
and Combined Services, and club rugby with Halifax
Halifax RUFC
Halifax RUFC is a rugby union club founded in 1919, after the 1st World War, when the British Expeditionary Force returned home victorious from France. Halifax RUFC holds the record for the most wins in the Yorkshire Challenge Cup, having carried off the ancient trophy thirteen times including...
, Blackheath Rugby Club and London Scottish RFC. He eventually rose to the rank of Colonel before leaving the army.
Rugby
The first of his 23 Scotland caps came against France in 1961, as he appeared in the next five seasons, twice as captain in 1965. He was picked for the Lions tour to South Africa in 1962, playing all four internationals at number eight. But when the Lions team was selected for the 1966 tour1966 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand
In 1966 the British Lions toured Australia and New Zealand. The Lions won the two test matches against but lost all four internationals against the All Blacks....
, he was 32, no longer captain of his country and the leadership was expected go to Alun Pask
Alun Pask
Alun Edward Islwyn Pask was a international rugby union player and captain.Pask was capped twenty-six times by Wales between 1961 and 1967, twenty-three times as a flanker and three times as at number eight. He scored two tries for Wales, the first on his international debut and toured South...
, the outstanding Welsh No. 8; Massie says that "You would have had no doubt that he [Mike Campbell-Lamerton] could push in the scrum, and with him and Frans Ten Bos
Frans ten Bos
Frans Herman ten Bos was an English-born rugby union footballer, of Dutch ancestry. He played for as a lock in the 1960s, and was capped seventeen times...
together it achieved a solidity and power that had long been lacking." However, he also says that Lamerton was not a good national captain, "he was perhaps over-conscientious and a worrier, and hardly spoke the same language as many of the team; it affected his play." In terms of sheer entertainment value, Massie says "I doubt if any other Scottish lock forward has given so much fun, not even Alastair McHarg
Alastair McHarg
Alastair McHarg was a lock for the Scotland national rugby union team, 1968-79. He won 44 caps for Scotland...
."
Lions in New Zealand (1966)
Though the LionsBritish and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
beat in successive internationals, the New Zealand section of the tour was marred by ill feeling. After the game with Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, the Lions captain for the day, Jim Telfer
Jim Telfer
James "Jim" Telfer is a Scottish rugby union coach and a former rugby player. A former headmaster at Hawick High School and chemistry teacher, he has won fame as a Scottish forwards coach who gave punishing training sessions to his players...
, said at the after match function: "I would not describe today's game as dirty because all our games in New Zealand have been dirty." Understandably this caused a furore but it was the backdrop against which Campbell-Lamerton had to keep his players united.
Campbell-Lamerton, in fact, would not have been out of place in the modern game: he was a big man, at 6 feet 5 inches, weighing more than 17 stone, yet athletic enough to play No. 8 as well as his accustomed position in the second row. But the qualities which served him best on the difficult tour of New Zealand as captain of the 1966 Lions were his commitment and willingness which did so much to sustain a struggling tour party.
At one stage the manager, Des O'Brien left the party for a reconnaissance mission to Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
(where a final tour game was to be played), and the coach, John Robins
John Robins
John Robins , was an international rugby union player who attained 11 caps for Wales between 1950 and 1953. A prop, he toured New Zealand and Australia with the British and Irish Lions in 1950 and became the first Lions coach, on the 1966 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand.Robins was...
, was in hospital with damaged ankle ligaments, leaving Campbell-Lamerton with far greater responsibilities than any modern equivalent would face. Yet in a squad which he had not been expected to captain, his players still speak warmly of the example he set after a tour in which the Lions lost all four internationals against the All Blacks
All Blacks
The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....
. The recurrence of an ankle injury which caused his withdrawal from the second game against New Zealand, did not help and he also missed the final international. "Mike was a decent man and much-maligned", Brian Price, his second-row partner in three of the tour internationals, said. "We knew how hard he was working and it was because we respected his efforts, we stuck together."
After the tour he retired from rugby but in his military career, he rose to the rank of colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, led him to the command of a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, thence to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where he was commander of Old College and Victory College.
Oxford University
He left the Army in 1985 and became bursarBursar
A bursar is a senior professional financial administrator in a school or university.Billing of student tuition accounts are the responsibility of the Office of the Bursar. This involves sending bills and making payment plans with the ultimate goal of getting the student accounts paid off...
at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, later being elected an Emeritus Fellow of the college. He also took a close interest in the fortunes of the university rugby club, whose president he eventually became. He was elected a Knight of Malta, the organisation which raises funds for Catholic charities. In 2001 prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
was diagnosed, an illness he endured with great fortitude until his death on March 17, 2005, aged 71.
Family
He is survived by his wife Marie-Christine (née Cottrell), whom he met and married in 1956 while stationed in GibraltarGibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, and by three sons (one of whom, Jeremy
Jeremy Campbell-Lamerton
Jeremy Robert Edward Campbell-Lamerton is a former Scottish rugby union lock. He played 3 times for the Scottish national team in the 1986-7 season.He is the son of Mike Campbell-Lamerton, the noted rugby player....
,(born 1957) also played lock
Rugby union positions
In the game rugby union, there are fifteen players on each team, comprising eight forwards and seven backs . Depending upon the competition, there may be up to eight replacement players. Early games consisted primarily of forwards that attacked plus a handful of "tends" that played back in defence...
for Scotland, five times in the 1986-7 season), Micheal (born 1958), Ian (born 1962) and a daughter Clare (born 1961)
Sources
- Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1 86200 013 3)
- Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0 904919 84 6)
External links
- Obituary by Allan MassieAllan MassieAllan Massie is a well-known Scottish journalist, sports writer and novelist.-Early life:Born in 1938 in Singapore, where his father was a rubber planter for Sime Darby, Massie spent his childhood in Aberdeenshire...
in The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanThe Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s.... - Ottershaw School