Arthur Blackburn (1876–1938) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a full-back with

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

around the turn of the 20th century. He was the elder brother of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international footballer,

Fred Blackburn Fred Blackburn (29 July 1902 – 1 May 1990) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stalybridge and Hyde from the 1951 general election until 1970. Early life Blackburn was educated at Queen Elizabe ...

Football career

Blackburn was born in the village of

Billington, Lancashire Billington is a village in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It lies between the villages of Whalley and Langho. It forms part of the Billington and Langho civil parish and contains the schools St Augustine's RC High School, ...

and first joined his local club,

, in March 1895. After three years of reserve-team football, he spent the 1898–99 season with

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

club

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a large market and commuter town in the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, 65 miles from London and from Northampton on the north side of the River Nen ...

playing in the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

. He returned to Blackburn in the summer of 1899; by now his brother

Fred Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...

had become established at

outside-left Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. Arthur once again spent most of his time at

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facili ...

playing in Rovers' reserve team while keeping fit by voluntarily working on the renovation of a church, and only managed two first-team appearances in the 1899–1900 season. In May 1900, Blackburn was persuaded to move to the

south coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

to join

in the Southern League. Blackburn Rovers were reluctant to part company with him, but the financial inducements offered by Southampton persuaded him to try his luck in the south. Described as "''strongly built''", Blackburn "''never gave less than 100%, but at time his play was too impetuous to be reliable''". He made his "Saints" debut at

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

in the opening match of the 1900–01 season, a 4–3 victory at

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

and played in nine of the first ten games of the season until a serious ankle injury put him out of the side, with

Bertram Sharp Bertram Sharp (8 January 1876 – 2 November 1949) was an English footballer who played as a full-back with Aston Villa, Everton and Southampton around the turn of the 20th century. He was the elder brother of England international footballer ...

taking over. Blackburn was unable to regain his place and in the summer of 1901 he returned to his home-town club where he made two further appearances in the 1901–02 season.

Later career

Blackburn is known to have coached subsequently in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

in the Netherlands, before returning to Blackburn, where he ran a retail tobacconist shop.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburn, Arthur 1876 births 1938 deaths Footballers from Blackburn English men's footballers English Football League players Southern Football League players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Wellingborough Town F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Men's association football fullbacks