Barclay Chalmers, an amateur, was an Exeter City reserve team player when the club rejoined the Western League in 1972/73. A civil engineer by profession, previously on the books of Stranraer, he later became involved in the reconstruction of football grounds including Home Park. 

Based on research (for a 2006 programme article) by Pete Martin, who briefly worked with Barclay during the early 1970s, we gain a picture of a young engineer from Scotland working and living in Exeter between 1971 and  1973 who was a keen footballer having been on the books of Stranraer.

Although his name is not included in the list of those who have played in the Scottish League for the Wigtownshire club, he nonetheless started training with Exeter City and made a number of appearances when the reserves re-entered the Western League in 1972/73.

Soon leaving Exeter to work elsewhere he eventually became managing director of Barr Construction, an Ayrshire company, in 1995. With opportunities arising as a result of the post-Hillsborough Taylor Report, Barr became involved in both the rebuilding of existing football grounds as well as the construction of new facilities with contracts at grounds such as Celtic, Southampton, Bristol City and, in the early 2000s, for the rebuilding of three sides of Home Park, Plymouth.

John Barclay Chalmers died aged sixty-eight on 6 March 2019 and is buried at Portpatrick.