Rest in Peace – Everton FC Heritage Society

Neil Robinson (1957-2022)

2 CommentsLatest, Mike Royden, Obituary, Players, Rest in Peace, Rob Sawyer

A Tribute The sudden, unexpected, passing of Neil Robinson, at the age of sixty-five, has come as a shock to Everton FC Heritage Society members and the fanbases of his former clubs. Neil had the Bluest of credentials. Born into a family of Evertonians, he spent his early years round the corner from Goodison Park on Spellow Lane. His father, Jim, had been head barman at the Winslow Hotel on Goodison Road in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sadly Jim was paralysed in an industrial accident when Neil was a child. The Robinson family in 1957, Neil the infant…

Remembrance at Goodison Park and the Fallen of Everton F.C.

0 Comments1910-1919, 1940-1949, Articles, Events, Mike Royden, Rest in Peace, WW1, WW2

The Everton FC Remembrance service is held every 11 November at the memorial wall near the Park End Stand. Organised by Everton FC Heritage Society (Paul Kelly supported by other members), and attended by representatives of the Club, plus participation by the local ministry, Everton in the Community, Everton Community School, aided by a piper and vocalist before members of the public. Memorial Plaque and Current List of the FallenIn 2011 a plaque in memory of men associated with the Everton clubs of England and Chile who lost their lives in both World Wars was erected near the Park End…

Lest We Forget

0 Comments1910-1919, Articles, History, Latest, Players, Rest in Peace, Tony Wainwright, WW1

NB This article was due to appear in the Everton v Tottenham Hotspur Remembrance Day fixture of 7 November 2021. Unfortunately, due to the sad death of former manager Walter Smith, it was held over for his memorial article due to lack of space. It is reprinted in full below. Corporal 19024 Tom Gracie, 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Edinburgh) The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) The Life of Tom Gracie Among the names of the Fallen of Everton FC featured on the panels by the Dixie Dean statue is Tom Gracie. Born in Glasgow in 1899, he was a qualified bookkeeper,…

A Final Farewell to Jimmy Harris

0 Comments1950-1959, 2020-2029, Articles, History, Players, Rest in Peace, Rob Sawyer

Thursday 26 May 2022 was the day of Jimmy Harris’s final farewell. In the mid-afternoon, the cortège transported the 88-year-old former Toffees striker past the stadium he had graced. A number of supporters had come out to applaud as the hearse drove slowly along Goodison Road. I chatted to an 81-year-old supporter from West Derby, who recalled watching Jimmy in his 1950s heyday. He told me of Jimmy’s quicksilver movement around the pitch and his rasping shot. He fondly recalled a smartly struck Harris goal against the Busby Babes. Another supporter had come all the way from Doncaster to stand…

Car-Shares and Cemeteries: A Tribute to Jeremiah Kelly, EFC 1927-28

0 Comments1920-1929, Articles, Contributor (non member), Rest in Peace, Tony I'Anson

By Tony I'Anson 10/05/2016 The Everton Heritage Society does a fantastic job uncovering and preserving the history that we Evertonians hold dear. So I was delighted last Friday 6 May 2016, to once again have the opportunity to lend some support to their work in Scotland by joining Paul Wharton at the unveiling of a gravestone commissioned by the Everton Heritage society to honour Jeremiah ('Jerry') Kelly, a member of Everton's championship winning team of 1927-28 season. The ceremony at St Peter's cemetery, just along the road from Celtic Park, also marked a personal reunion with members of the Kelly…

Stevenson of Kilmarnock

0 Comments1878-1889, Articles, History, Members Work, Rest in Peace, Tony OnslowEverton FC, Kilmarnock

The Final Journey of an Everton Blue Signed during the pre-Football League era, Robert Stevenson returned eventually to live in his native Scotland but spent the last days of his life in Liverpool. He was born January 1861, at 34 Ardeer Square in the Ayrshire coastal town of Stevenson and was the seventh child of George, a coal miner, and his wife Margaret. The 1881 census found the family living in Kilmarnock at 52 Low Glencairn Street. Robert was employed as a grocery assistant. It is around this time that he began serving an apprenticeship as an engine fitter and…

The Life of Charlie Parry

0 Comments1890-1899, Articles, Members Work, Rest in Peace, Rob SawyerCharlie Parry

Charlie Parry, 1894, care of Colorsport A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Witness the photo of Charlie Parry posing in his Everton kit in 1894: sleeves rolled up, right fist clenched at his side, ball clasped in his left hand, a hint of a sneer on his lips. Here was a footballer you’d want to play alongside rather than against. Charlie enjoyed 6 years with Everton, over two spells, winning the first Football League title to come to Anfield and becoming only the third Everton player to represent Wales (after Job Wildling and Joe Davies). Perhaps in…

The Charlie Parry Grave Event – 1st March 2019

1 Comment1890-1899, Articles, History, Members Work, Players, Rest in Peace, Rob Sawyer

An unprepossessing road in the shadow of Goodison Park, is named Salop Street. Salop, or Shropshire as it is more commonly known, might not, at a first glance, be awash with Everton links but that can be misleading. In fact the, largely rural, county has a loyal Blues following (the Shropshire Blues is the local official supporters club branch). Oswestry, 50 miles from Goodison, has several connections links to Everton that go back to the earliest days of the club. George Farmer, a son of the town and a Welsh international footballer, was a key player in the club’s early…

Andrew Hannah, The only man to Captain Everton & Liverpool

0 Comments1890-1899, Articles, David Prentice, History, Members Work, Rest in PeaceAndrew Hannah

Everton Heritage Society and Everton Football Club rededicate grave of important football figure The only man in history to captain Everton and Liverpool lies in a marked grave for the first time thanks to the efforts of the Everton Heritage Society and Everton Football Club. Andrew Hannah, who captained Everton to their first League Championship success in 1891, then led Liverpool to Lancashire League and Football League Division Two titles, had lain in an unmarked grave at Kilbowie Cemetery in Clydebank since his untimely passing in 1940. On Saturday Everton Heritage Society Chairman Brendan Connolly and former Echo Sports Editor Ken…

In Search of the First Everton Stalwart

0 Comments1878-1889, Articles, History, Members Work, Rest in Peace, Tony Onslow

Rain was falling heavily as I left the train at New Brighton railway station in search of a former Everton captain who I had discovered was buried in Rake Lane cemetery, Wallasey. The person, whose last resting place I was searching for, was George Dobson. I knew he had died in 1941 but, as I had no grave number, I searched for over an hour without success before, wet through, I started to head for home. However, as I passed through the main gate, I noticed the resident stonemason's office and knocked at the door. My luck was in. I…