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 lea ...

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 level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

and

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

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

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 Schoo ...

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 Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

club

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene. Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...

playing in the

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

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

Fred Fred or 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), Fred ...

had become established at outside-left. Arthur once again spent most of his time at

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a Association football, football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the English Football League, Football League and Premier League, who have played there since ...

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 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 player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

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, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

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 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 ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

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