Mike Campbell-Lamerton
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Colonel Michael John Campbell-Lamerton (1 August 1933–17 March 2005) was a British army officer and rugby union figure.
The distinguishing feature of rugby union, it used to be said, was its ability to draw together so many diverse characters for the purpose of amateur sport. So it was that a career soldier, Mike Campbell-Lamerton, who had cheated death on active service more than once, came to lead both his country, Scotland, and the British Isles alongside the rich variety of individuals which the professional game will never see.
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[edit] Early life
Campbell-Lamerton was born in Valletta, Malta, the elder of two sons of Lieutenant-Commander Robert and Margaret Campbell-Lamerton. His father was killed in action in 1943 on North Atlantic convoy duty, he was educated at Ottershaw School near Windsor. 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.
[edit] Army career
He and his lifelong friend, David Gilbert-Smith, led two platoons 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. 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 60ft 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 Army and Combined Services, and club rugby with Halifax, Blackheath Rugby Club and London Scottish.
[edit] 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 in 1966, he was 32, no longer captain of his country and the leadership was expected go to Alun Pask, the outstanding Welsh No. 8.
[edit] Lions in New Zealand (1966)
Though the Lions beat Australia 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.
[edit] Oxford University
He left the Army in 1985 and became bursar 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.
[edit] Family
He is survived by his wife Marie-Christine, whom he met and married in 1956 while stationed in Gibraltar, and by three sons (one of whom, Jeremy, also played lock for Scotland) and a daughter.
[edit] External links
- Obituary by Allan Massie in The Scotsman
