In 1900 Dorset-born Bert Lee was registered with Poole in the Dorset League but when Bristol Rovers and Saints expressed an interest in him signing Southern League (SL) forms the latter were indebted to the Poole Town secretary who, mindful Saints had just won the League three times in a row, told him a move to Hampshire would be more beneficial.

A versatile half-back of inexhaustible energy

Southampton had many reasons to be grateful to the secretary as Bert would play more SL matches than any other player (albeit in two stints separated by a fling in Scotland). His initial six-year stint bought him many honours: SL championship medals in 1901, 1903 and 1904 and a FA Cup runners-up medal in 1902. In November 1904 he won an England Cap v Wales (at Wrexham D 2-2) (see image below) and twelve months later he was awarded a benefit v Chelsea (W5-2) which netted him £125.

While at Dundee (1906-11) he played in every defensive position including goalkeeper and captained them when they beat Clyde in the 1910 Cup Final, becoming the first Englishman to skipper a Scottish Cup-winning side. He returned to The Dell to feature in three more seasons, becoming player/trainer the year War broke out. During the conflict he remained in that position but made only 21 appearances in war-time competitions owing to his enlistment in February 1917. He started his military service in the Hampshire Regiment’s 3rd Labour Company, which would soon become part of the Labour Corps in a May 1917 restructuring.

Following the Armistice, his services were required in Germany, where the British Army was establishing its zone of occupation in Cologne. On 7 January 1919, he was posted to the 17th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers stationed at Refrath, near Cologne. On the same day, however, he was admitted to the Casualty Clearing Station at Duren, midway between Cologne and Germany’s Belgian border, seemingly with a chest problem. But he would be transferred on 23 February to the No 55 East General Hospital in Wimereux on the Atlantic coast en route, without stopping, to the No 1 East General Hospital back home in Cambridge, with a diagnosis of pneumonia, which was probably more likely to have been “Spanish Flu”. He remained hospitalised for six weeks.

Aged 40 when “official” football resumed in August 1919, the no-nonsense Bert or ‘Gypsy’ – as he was known – soon took over 1^st team trainer responsibilities and in December 1923 was awarded another benefit (v Portsmouth L 0-2). In 1935 he retired to become a salesman in his son’s Southampton radio business. .