Hampshire has become home to many important sportsmen and women, but how many people know of the connection between Selborne and FC Barcelona?

In 1899, Swiss businessman Hans-Max Gamper visited his uncle in Barcelona and loved the city so much that he decided to stay, writes Jane Hurst.

He had already formed football clubs in Switzerland, and he and a friend, Gustavus Walter Wild – known as Walter – put out an advert calling for potential players.

Replies were received from many nationalities and the first match was against a group of expatriate English players – who won 1-0.

Walter had also been born in Switzerland and was an engineer. He became the first president of the new club, FC Barcelona, and was re-elected three times, serving for 513 days between December 1899 and December 1900 and playing in 10 matches.

He later resigned because of work commitments but was made an honorary president.

Walter seems to have moved first to London, but after his sister married and went to Dundee, he also settled there.

The Scottish city was famous for “Jute, Jam and Journalism”, and Walter worked for a company producing jute, a natural fibre used to make products such as sacking and rope.

In 1928, he applied for naturalisation and became a British citizen a year later. He married Ethel Muriel Barrow in 1935 and the couple made their home in Dundee.

Walter did not return to Barcelona until 1949, when it is recorded that he visited for the first and only time as a special guest at the club's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Nothing more can then be found about Walter until a death announcement in the Alton Gazette of December 25, 1953, which said: “On December 16, at Silver Ley, Selborne, Walter, dearly-loved husband of Muriel. Cremated Brookwood, December 21.”

Walter was 81 years old. What is not known is when he and his wife moved south, or why they chose Selborne and Silver Ley in Gracious Street.

Ethel died almost exactly 10 years later, having moved to nearby Farringdon.