Pompey are mourning the death of Jimmy Elder, who has passed away at the age of 94.
The wing-half only made one Blues appearance, featuring in a 2-2 draw with Sunderland at Fratton Park on November 26 1949.
However, his significance to the club’s history comes with the fact he was, more than likely, the last player from the top-flight title-winning years still alive.
With his passing, a direct link with those teams that dominated the domestic game in 1948/49 and 1949/50 is finally broken.
Born in Scone on March 5 in 1928, Elder was signed from Scottish junior outfit Jeanfield Swifts in 1947.
He was a regular in the reserves and made his senior debut, but chances of first team action were hampered significantly by the fact Jimmy Dickinson on the left and Jimmy Scoular on the right were the players he was trying to dislodge.
In the forthcoming book ‘POMPEY Champions of England’ – due out in October – Elder, who was interviewed in 2019 by the Pompey History Society for the Heritage Fund-supported project, explained his problem.
He said: “I just wasn’t a good enough player for the first team, simple as that. We won the London Combination when I was there and we had reasonable crowds.
“I only played a few games in the first team as Scoular never got hurt. I was his understudy. Him and Dickinson – and in those days they were the two best wing-halves in English football.”
Colin Farmery, chair of the Pompey History Society, said: “This is really sad news and truly it feels like the end of an era.
“I had the great pleasure of interviewing Jimmy at his residential home in Wakefield and his recollections of the championship era were still sharp as a tack.”
Elder left Pompey in the summer of 1950 and signed for Colchester, where he made more than 200 league and cup appearances, scoring 17 goals.