Walter Ralph Sampson played for Port Adelaide from 1910 to 1914, featuring in their back-to-back title winning sides in 1911-1912. A clerk from Hull, he seems to have been – to use the expression of the day – a crack player who caught the eye of the local football reporters. Partnering Bill Sheppard in an attacking midfield, he was described as “running rings around opponents”. Later he dropped back into a more defensive role, in which he became “a terror for work … and tackles all the way”. He was Jock Wallace’s vice captain in 1913-1914.
Sampson was just one of many “cracks” who arrived in Adelaide from Britain just before the war, helping to raise the standard of the local game. He was unlucky not to win a cap for the state, but so few interstate games were played in that period that many missed out.
He married Theresa Valentine in September 1914, and did not enlist until February 14th 1916. Arriving in France with the 43rd Battalion in November 1916, Sampson served at the front but was soon overtaken by numerous mysterious ailments – which are not fully detailed on his surprisingly short service records. These resulted in his hospitalization and return to England, where he was placed on the supernumerary list in July 1917.
He was returned to Australia in March 1918 and discharged two months later with the rank of corporal. Walter Sampson died at Hindmarsh in 1964 at the age of 76.