William Smith Cameron (2 December 1883 – 14 October 1958) was a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

whose position was mainly as an

inside forward 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 ...

, though he was versatile and also played in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, on the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

and at half back during his career.

Playing career

Cameron's playing career, during which he acquired the nickname 'Kilty', was largely characterised by short periods at several clubs in northern England and south-west Scotland. Born at

Mossend Mossend is a small town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, located on the A775 road to the immediate east of its 'sister town' Bellshill, west of the villages of Holytown and New Stevenston, north of the larger town of Motherwell and south of the E ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

, though much of his early life was spent in

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as ...

where his father worked in the local ironworks,Cameron, Kilty (1916)
Hamilton Academical Memory Bank he moved to

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

owing to that town's connections to heavy industry, having initially moved south to play for

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is located east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of the county town, Matlock. Glossop lies near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Manches ...

. His longest spell was at

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 ...

, where he spent five seasons and was part of the squad that won the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

championship in 1911–12, alongside the likes of fellow Scots

Walter Aitkenhead Walter Campbell Allison Aitkenhead (21 May 1887 – 19 July 1966) was a Scottish footballer who played for Partick Thistle, Blackburn Rovers and the Scotland national team. Aitkenhead was born in Maryhill, Glasgow and played just 4 matches fo ...

, Johnny Orr and

Jock Simpson John Robert Simpson (25 December 1886 – 4 January 1959) was a footballer who played as an outside right in the 1900s and 1910s. Career Club Simpson's footballing career began with Laurieston Villa, and after a trial with Rangers, he signed f ...

; he was not an undisputed regular in the team 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 ...

, but his ability to fill in at several positions meant he was often called upon.Player Archive William Smith "Kilty" Cameron
BRFCS.com On paper, he was also contracted to

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

for five years, but in reality he only played there for 18 months before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

led to the cancellation of official competitions in English football; he had a number of short loans at clubs in the

Greater Glasgow Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...

area (the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

continued) and served in the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

during the conflict.89 William Cameron
On Cloud Seven At representative level, he appeared in the

Home Scots v Anglo-Scots Home Scots v Anglo-Scots was an annual association football trial match organised by the Scottish Football Association between the 1890s and 1920s to examine the abilities of possible players for upcoming full British Home Championship internationa ...

annual trial match in 1909 but did not gain any full

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Managerial career

In 1919, Cameron became player-manager of

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

and spent four seasons in charge of the ''Shakers'' before being issued with a life ban in 1923 following an investigation into an incident three years earlier when Bury were found to have accepted payments from

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

officials to deliberately lose their end-of-season fixture and save Coventry from relegation at the expense of Lincoln City (the extent of his involvement in the incident is not clear).Coventry Match-Fixing Scandal Relegates Imps
The Stacey West, 17 November 2017 Cameron's ban was eventually lifted in 1929 and he managed

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

for the unsuccessful 1930–31 season when they had to seek re-election to the

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

, and the first half of 1931–32 which was equally poor and eventually ended with the same outcome.

Later life

Cameron settled with his family in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, where by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1939 he was working at the

de Havilland Propellers de Havilland Propellers was established in 1935, as a division of the de Havilland Aircraft company when that company acquired a licence from the Hamilton Standard company of America for the manufacture of variable-pitch propellers at a cost ...

factory. He was not related to

Jock Cameron Jock Cameron (born Horace Brakenridge Cameron and often known as "Herbie" Cameron; 5 July 1905 – 2 November 1935) was a South African cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s. A tragic figure owing to his premature death when probably the best wick ...

, another Blackburn Rovers player of the era who also grew up in the Coatbridge area and settled in Lancashire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Willie 1883 births 1958 deaths Footballers from Coatbridge Scottish men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards English Football League players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Burnbank Athletic F.C. players Albion Rovers F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Bury F.C. players Glossop North End A.F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Clydebank F.C. (1914) players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Renton F.C. players Vale of Leven F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Third Lanark A.C. players British Army personnel of World War I Scottish football managers Rochdale A.F.C. managers Bury F.C. managers Royal Army Ordnance Corps soldiers