A bricklayer by trade and a prolific goalscorer in local football, Don Slade was whisked away, from under Southampton’s nose, by Blackpool, to the Football League’s Division II. He was soon signed on pro terms but, despite their struggles, Blackpool never gave him a run-out in their first team. So he promptly came home, signed for the Saints and got among the goals for the Reserves. Towards the end of his first season back home – 1910-11 – he made his Southern League debut at inside-left. Come October of the following season, he made his third and final appearance at that level. He continued to score freely for the Reserves that season, after which he wanted away.

The Board refused to let him go, but Don appealed successfully to the FA, whereupon he was able to join Lincoln City, newly re-elected to the Second Division, on a free transfer. He kept moving within that division, next with Arsenal and then with Fulham, averaging a goal in every three games, until “official” football was suspended in 1915.

Returning to Southampton for the duration of the War, Don worked in Harland and Wolff’s rolling mills, maintaining the brick linings of the furnaces. He turned out for their formidable works-team and guested also for the Saints and Arsenal. On the resumption of competitive football in 1919, Don became a pub manager of the Thrums Bar in Kirriemuir, while playing in the Scottish First Division with Dundee and then Ayr United.

After which, he concentrated on his pub for a while. Then, in 1927, he returned to the south of England, where he ran a succession of pubs: The Lion in Reading; the Green Dragon in Flackwell Heath, Bucks; and The Swan at Beaconsfield.

He initially retired to Marlow, but later settled, back in Southampton, at West End. In the 1939 registration process he described himself as a bricklayer and rather strangely a postmaster based in Wycombe.