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1850 The Gymnasts - Campbell and Stephen |
Dalmahoy (Dal.) Campbell was born on the Isle of Skye off the coast of Scotland in 1811.
His parents migrated to Australia about twelve years after his birth, meaning he was educated in both Britain and Australia.
Campbell was the driving force behind a major sporting event held in 1850 and again in 1851, the Melbourne Gymnastic Games.
Both of these Games featured football as events with prize money allocated, and, if nothing else, they provided both advance notice and a continuity of matches for which players could prepare.
The football from the first Games was cancelled for reasons unknown, but Campbell and his rival captain in the abandoned game, Frank Stephen, re-organized the match a fortnight late, strongly indicating that they were keen to see football of whatever hybrid code it was at the time established on a regular basis
Campbell and Stephen were part of the organizers for the second Gymnastic Games in 1851, again with football as part of the advertised program and Campbell captaining one of the sides. He was a prominent stock and estate agent, and a member (described as "conservative-pastoral") of the first Council following the declaration of Melbourne as a city.
In his role as a stock agent, Campbell was known as an expert judge of fat cattle and also as a connoisseur taster of Scotch whisky.
Campbell was prominent in the formation of the Australasian League, the first movement to pressure the British Government for the abolition of the transportation of criminals to the colonies. In the first games, Campbell won the 22 lb. Shot Put and donated the £5 prize back for a footrace on the second day. He also finished second in the hammer throw :
"At the second throw, Mr. D. Campbell let the hammer slip through his fingers and fell flat on his back, where he was lifted from the ground by four strapping fellows and carried off amidst the loud cheering of the spectators."
The cheering was probably all the louder the following year when it was reported Campbell had donated a barrel of porter for the refreshment of the spectators.
By 1860, when a unique Australian code had developed, a few suburban teams were starting to appear and one of the earliest was Collingwood, captained by none other than Dal. Campbell.
After playing irregularly with Collingwood (who as a junior club only played a handful of games each season), Campbell vanished from sight, possibly because of all his other interests and commitments.
Suddenly in 1865, he re-appeared playing for Melbourne in a couple of challenge matches for the Athletic Sports Committee Cup, the trophy awarded for that season.
Campbell played in challenge matches again the following year, and despite being 45 years of age, was prominent enough to be named in the northern half of the "North v. South" representative match that season. He was also regarded as the best hand-ball player in the colony.
In considering Dalmahoy Campbell's contributions to the game, it is as well to note a similar name prominent in Melbourne's early sporting life, Daniel Samuel Campbell.
Usually known as "D. S", Daniel was one of Melbourne's earliest cricketers, having played for a "Married" team of Melbourne Cricket Club members against the "Singles" XI in 1837, one of the earliest noted intra-club matches.
He was elected to the first formal committee of the M.C.C. in 1841, and served as club president from 1855 to 1859, the years that saw the formation of the Melbourne Football Club.
Daniel Campbell was one of Melbourne's earliest wine merchants, establishing a store in Elizabeth Street, and was also prominent in the affairs of several of the early charitable institutions of Melbourne.
Frank Stephen was Dal. Campbell's co-organizer and fellow captain in the first Gymnastic Games. Stephen was a leading and outspoken figure in legal circles and the son of one of Melbourne's earliest solicitors.
Stephen was born in St. Kitts in the West Indies and like Campbell was educated in both Britain and Australia. He appeared in several athletics events in the second Games, but did not play in the football match, perhaps because he had assumed a position as the first City Solicitor of Melbourne, a role akin to that of today's Attorney-General. He also claimed amongst his acquaintances that he had invented an unsinkable lifeboat, but little history remains of the fate of that venture.
In November 1850, between the two games, Victoria celebrated its Separation from New South Wales, part of the revelry being a massive sports carnival that featured a often-mentioned game of football for £15.
Stephen and Campbell applied for a grant of £100 to fund the Games, but thye general Rejoicing Committee rejected that application, suggesting that the "games were only of interest to the lower classes".. Campbell, Stephen and four other sportsmen eventually put up all the prize money for the carnival; relying on the interest of the public to help defray their outlay.
Again Campbell played in the football match, but Stephen restricted his activity to the running track.
Stephen was still involved in professional running when one of the early champions of our game, Henry Harrison was at his peak in the early 1860s :
"Another time, Frank Stephen and Farquharson, the opera singer, had a match, which the former also won. This took place at Mordialloc, so I did not see it." H. C. A. Harrison "The Story of an Athlete", 1928
Any rules established for the Gymnastic Games have been lost or perhaps never established in writing at the time.
Both Campbell and Stephen spent their early educational years overseas, but their secondary schooling was in Australia, therefore they would have had little exposure to the various rules used in the English Public School system.
Stephen took a cynical view of the politicians of the time. He made an attempt to join the new City Council, but contemporary reports suggest he did it for the entertainment value in seeing how other candidates reacted. Stephen was credited with inventing the term "Old Hat", to describe politicians who voted automatically without thinking; the term survives today, although slightly modified in meaning to "something assumed taken for granted."
Both Campbell and Stephen tried their luck in the gold rushes in 1848.
Campbell as a stock and cattle agent was prominent around the diggings, while Stephen seems to have provided something of a legal service "on wheels" around many of the small settlements that had sprung up.
Stephen died in 1888. The date of Campbell's demise is not known, but he was still active in the year of Stephen's passing.
Less is known of George Were, the other captain in the match at the second games, other than he was a leading public speaker of his time, a son of J.B. Were, Melbourne's first stockbroker and like Campbell was in the forefront of the anti-transportation movement.
The 1847 Port Phillip Directory, an early census, lists Were as a merchant, but of what goods is not revealed. Were was prominent in the earliest days of the Melbourne Cricket Club, being part of the committee in 1841, just three years after the club was first established.
"… these gardens had rather a sinister reputation as a haunt of footpads, and there were many stories of disagreeable adventure connected with them. One, I especially remember, was that in which Mr. Dalmahoy Campbell, the wellknown stock and station agent, figured".
He was a heavily built man, and was justly regarded as one of the most powerful men in the colony. On this particular occasion, he was riding along quietly when he was set upon by three men. One seized the bridle and the others each caught hold of one of his legs, and tried to pull him off his horse".
But, before they had time to do so, he gave the man holding the bridle such a blow with his hunting crop that he fell to the ground, stunned. Campbell then leant over, seized one of the others by the scruff of the neck and slung him across the front of the saddle. By this time, the third man was so frightened that he hurriedly made off! "
"Campbell calmly continued his way till he reached the police station, where he gave his prisoner in charge"
"The Story of an Athlete",
H.A.C. Harrison