Although he was born in a Southern India hill station, David Chadwick’s upbringing took place in Southern Hampshire as his father, a colonel in the British Army, had duly retired to Lymington. He was only two months past his 16^th birthday when

he made headlines in the Football Echo on 31 October 1959 by becoming the youngest player, up to then, to play for the Reserves.

He had been due to turn out for his school, Priestlands on a Saturday morning but “was excused when news came of his selection”. His debut for the first team was still two years off, however, and even then appearances were sporadic – and the goals even more so – as he found himself in the shadow of Terry Paine and to a lesser extent, John Sydenham. Ted Bates tried hard to accommodate him, even playing him at outside-right and switching Paine elsewhere, but ‘Chaddy’ eventually left after the 1965-66 promotion season to play a further 278 League games for his next four clubs, including a very successful first season at Middlesbrough where he was voted their “Fooballer of the Year” (see scrapbook section). He then moved to the USA, initially to play but soon to coach a succession of NFL clubs.

While working as a salesman of hotel wall claddings and assisting in coaching the national team, his principal football appointment in recent years has been with AFC Lightning in Atlanta, a prestigious youth soccer club where he trained and coached among others, Ricardo Clark, the US midfielder who faced England in the 2010 World Cup finals. David came back to visit some of his old New Forest haunts in the summer of 2018 and revealed he was still coaching despite being in his mid-70s.