Cub Chaplin Kenneth Howles spoke these words at the grave side:
Robert Crompton was born in Blackburn on the 26th of September 1879
He lived with his three brothers and his parents Robert and Alice in his fathers pub The Rose and Thistle
He attended Moss St Board School and left to become a plumber
He was one of those players who spent his whole career playing for Blackburn Rovers his hometown club.
His first game was a friendly against Darwen on the 3rd of April 1897 when he was aged 17 and a half.
The following year he was made captain aged just 19.
He also represented England on 41 occasions, captaining them 22 times. He gained his first cap in 1902 aged 22 as a right back and this was a position he held for the next twelve years.
Indeed, he was the first professional to Captain England and he was Captain for 11 years I don’t think that has ever been equalled.
I’m pretty sure that his playing career was brought to an end by the war.
He spent his entire career at full-back for Blackburn Rovers, playing 528 games between 1896 and 1920. He won the league twice as captain of the team in 1912 and 1914.
He was often referred too by his peers as the outstanding full-back of his time.
Some would say that he was the best kicker of a football of his time.
After his playing career ended he went on to manage Blackburn between 1926 and 1930, leading them to the FA Cup victory over Huddersfield Town in 1928. After a spell managing Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, He returned to Rovers as manager in the late 1930s to guide them to the Second Division championship.
Very sadly Mr Crompton had a heart attack in 1941 while watching Blackburn play Burnley, while he was still in charge of Blackburn.
His team had just won the match 3–2.
He died that evening.
He was 61 years of age and had been a Rover for 45 of those years.
The word legend is banded about a lot today.
But here we stand at the final resting place of a true legend and Rover through and through.
A man who’s portrait stands proudly in the F A Headquarters at Lancaster Gate and believe me that’s no mean fete.
Kenneth Howles