Charles Campbell

Who was Charles Campbell?

Charles Campbell was a Scottish footballer of the 1870s and 1880s who played for, and captained, Queen's Park and the Scotland national team.

Campbell, a former pupil of the Edinburgh Academy, joined Queen's Park, Scotland's oldest football club, in 1870. He won 8 Scottish Cup winners medals with the club and was runner-up in the 1884 and 1885 FA Cup finals. He was also a member of the famous English amateur side Corinthians.

Campbell earned 13 caps for Scotland between 1874 and 1886, captaining them on nine occasions. He scored his only Scotland goal in a 2–0 win over Wales in March 1877 and lost only one match while playing for his country.

Campbell, a keen orator, was also an important football bureaucrat, serving on the Queens Park committee between 1874 and 1890 and holding the position of club president in 1879–80. He was elected President of the Scottish Football Association for the 1889–90 season. Campbell also served as match official for the 1889 Scottish Cup Final.

Campbell died in Ireland, to which he had strong family connections, in 1927. He was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2005.