David Lapsley (7 April 1924 – 15 January 2001) was a Scottish
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 ...
.
Schoolboy career and World War II
Bainsford School in
Falkirk
Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...
were first to be rewarded with Lapsley's footballing talents and the highlight of this stage of his early football days was the trial with the Scottish schoolboys side. He went on to play with
Bonnyrigg Rose
Bonnyrigg Rose Football Club is a Scottish football club from the town of Bonnyrigg. Formed in 1881 and nicknamed ''the Rose'', the team plays in the , having been relegated in 2024–25.
Their home ground is New Dundas Park, and they have ...
at a juvenile level before, in 1940, taking the junior route to Bathgate Thistle.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
prevented any further advance in Lapsley's career as he was called up for service with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
, stationed initially at
Birkenhead
Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...
then
Hayling Island
Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth.
History
An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island, later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st cent ...
. During the war he was involved in the
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
landings, stationed on a converted
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...
barge to ferry ammunition across the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
.David Lapsley ''
Herald Scotland
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...
'', 20 January 2001 By Alastair MacLachlan.
St Mirren
Lapsey started his senior footballing career with
Tranmere Rovers
Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system.
Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...
after returning home from service in the
Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Lapsley signed for St Mirren in the summer of 1946 almost by accident; he was visiting Scotland when the St Mirren manager at the time, Bobby Rankin, invited him for a trial, although he was due to join Everton on a months trial on his return to England. The trial consisted of him taking penalty kicks against a young goalkeeper, Gordon Rennie, and on the basis of this he was invited to the boardroom to sign right away. He made his first team debut on 4 September that year against
Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...
.The rock of Love Street's golden age ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
'', 20 January 2001 By David Ferguson. Lapsley was originally signed as a
centre forward
In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...
but quickly established himself as a
right back
In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Defenders fall into four main categ ...
and was well known in Paisley for his strong, committed approach to the game, and was more recently compared to modern-day footballer
Jörg Albertz
Jörg Albertz (; born 29 January 1971) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Between 1996 and 1998, he played three international games for the Germany national team.
Career
As both a youth player and apprentice ...
penalty
Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to:
Sports
* Foul (sports)
** Penalty (golf)
** Penalty (gridiron football)
** Penalty (ice hockey)
** Penalty (rugby)
** Penalty (rugby union)
** Penalty kick (assoc ...
, Lapsley would get one of his strikers to place the ball on the spot before he would start his 30 or 40-yard run-up to strike the ball with blistering power.
During his time with the Paisley club he captained them to an historic 1959 Scottish Cup Final win, the team defeating
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
3–1 in front of 108,951 supporters and after the final whistle his teammates carried him shoulder high from the pitch. Along with his 1959
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Football Museum
The Scottish Football Museum is Scotland’s national museum of association football, located in Hampden Park in Glasgow.
The museum was established in 1994 being first located in a small section of Glasgow’s Museum of Transport. It was reloc ...
at
Hampden Park
Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...
, there is also footage of Lapsley after the 1959
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,BP, and although he vowed to retire after the 1959 Scottish Cup, he did play one more match at the beginning of the following season when they beat
Greenock Morton
Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...
in the
Renfrewshire Cup
The Renfrewshire Cup was an annual association football competition between teams in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The final was generally a Renfrewshire derby contested between the two largest team ...
Final.
Legacy
In 2005, St Mirren officially inducted David Lapsley into their hall of fame. Lapsley was further honoured in 2008 when local councillor
George Adam
George James Adam (born 8 June 1969) is a Scottish politician who served as the Minister for Parliamentary Business from 2021 to 2024. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for P ...
, who is a Saints supporter, elected to name a new street in his ward after the St Mirren legend, and as a result Lapsley Avenue was commissioned.
Lapsley was also chosen to represent the
Scottish Football League XI
The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...
twice, playing against the
Irish League XI
The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland.
The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 ...
and the (English)
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
select team, getting on the scoresheet in a 3–0 win against the former. He was also selected by
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
on more than twenty occasions as understudy to
Rangers
A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
captain
George Young
George Young may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* George Young (filmmaker), Australian stage manager and film director in the silent era
* George Young (rock musician) (1946–2017), Australian musician, songwriter, and record producer
* G ...
, but Lapsley never played for his country. Following Lapsley's death, a one-minute silence was held in his memory at the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Motherwell
Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...
on 27 January 2001. His ashes were ceremoniously buried under the penalty spot at the home end of
Love Street
"Love Street" is a song performed by the American rock band the Doors. Sequenced as the second album track on ''Waiting for the Sun'' (1968), its lyrics were written by lead singer Jim Morrison and as with other songs, it was dedicated to his gir ...
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...