Alby Hamid

Albert George Hamid was born on 19 April 1928 and spent his early years in Footscray where he played football for Victor Social. He took up umpiring aged 22 when he joined the VFL Reserve Grade as a field umpire in 1950.

He spent five seasons on the Reserve Grade list before being promoted to the seniors in 1955.

During his ten years as a VFL umpire he traveled all across Victoria and Southern NSW with his contemporaries. While he never made it to the VFL Reserve Grade competition he regularly umpired country finals every year from 1956 until his retirement in 1964. His most successful season was 1957 when he umpired finals in the Barellan, Alberton and Glenelg District leagues and finished the season with Grand Finals in the South Gippsland and North Central Football Leagues at Leongatha and Charlton respectively.

After completing ten seasons in 1964 Alby was rewarded with Life Membership of the Association at the 1965 Annual General Meeting. He retired from umpiring at the same time but for nine years drove umpires to Northern District Football League.

Alby passed away on 5 October 2007.