Articles

Bill Kenwright CBE 1945-2023

Bill Kenwright CBE 1945-2023

Our condolences go to Bill Kenwright’s family and loved ones, plus all those affected by his recent passing. Ken Rogers, Chairman of Everton FC Heritage Society, spoke to Paul Salt of Radio Merseyside Sport about his time spent with the late Everton chairman when working at the Echo: (22 mins in): Below is the official statement released by the club on the Chairman's passing; RIP, Chairman Bill Kenwright CBE
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Richard ‘Dickie’ Boyle

Richard ‘Dickie’ Boyle

By Rob Sawyer [Above photo: Dickie Boyle of Everton c.1894(colourised by George Chilvers) ] Everton was awash with Sons of the Rock in the early years of the Football League: fellow Dumbarton-raised John Bell, and the long-serving Jack Taylor, the latter being the captain of Everton’s first victorious FA Cup side in 1906. No less vital and dedicated to the Toffees cause in the last years of the nineteenth century was Richard Hill Boyle. Commonly known as Dickie (or Dicky), he was one of those indomitable Everton servants, like Peter Farrell and Mike Lyons, who never earned the silverware he…
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A Remembrance Day visit to Chile, November 2011

A Remembrance Day visit to Chile, November 2011

John Shearon (The Ruleteros) The Background to the Everton FC War Memorial Plaques When Dr. David France first started the search for the Everton players who had given their lives in the two World Wars, who would have thought the net would have fallen as far as South America? While Paul Wharton, Dr. John Rowlands and Dr. France set about identifying the Goodison fallen, Frank Gorman and Linda Lines from the Ruleteros Society were busy tracking down the details of two ex-pats, Frank Boundy and Malcolm Fraser. These co-founders of Everton Football Club in Chile both died on the Somme…
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Tammy Burgess in conversation with Rob Sawyer

Tammy Burgess in conversation with Rob Sawyer

Tammy Byrne (now Burgess) was one of the emerging talents in the Everton Ladies squad which won, to date, the club’s only league title. Not a follower of a particular club, or football in general, as a child, the course of her life was changed by an encounter at Moss Farm in the mid-1990s. Here, Tammy describes the transformative impact on her of football and her Everton clubmates. I had older brothers and played football in my area, Croxteth, with the likes of Francis Jeffers. I hadn’t played football in a team, so I didn’t actually know how good I…
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Bobby Irvine – The Prince of Dribblers

Bobby Irvine – The Prince of Dribblers

Bobby Irvine, the Everton forward whose threepenny-bit dribbles used to have the million-pound note look. (Ranger – Liverpool Echo, 1954) Rob Sawyer Bobby posing in a Belfast studio in the early 1920s Hard as it is to imagine, forty years before George Best was thrilling football supporters up and down the land, Northern Ireland possessed a forward of similar talents - who played for Everton, rather than Manchester United.   Born on 29 April 1900, and raised on Low Road in Lisburn, Robert W. Irvine (always known as Bobby) made his name as a skilful and versatile forward, with a…
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John Turner – from a Ram to Japan

John Turner – from a Ram to Japan

Steve Zocek  The name of John Turner would not be particularly familiar to most Evertonians, whatever their age. It would be a stiff challenge in a pub quiz to guess his connection to Everton in relation to the pre-season tour of Japan under manager Howard Kendall in 1981. A Geordie by birth, he never hid the fact that he was a fanatical Sunderland supporter who would go along with his father to watch his heroes –notably Charlie Hurley, Len Ashurst, Martin Harvey, Brian Clough and Ernie Taylor – at the famous old Roker Park in the early 1960s. A former…
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The Story of The Bullens

The Story of The Bullens

Rob Sawyer Perhaps the key motif for Goodison Park is the Archibald Leitch-designed cross-braced panels - as seen at the front of the Bullens Road stand balcony. The oldest stand and the only extant one to bear witness to Dixie’s glorious 60th League goal in 1928. Now giving faithful service into its 97th year, it will be robbed of reaching its century by the impending move to Bramley Moore Dock. The new stadium will pay a respectful nod to its predecessor with the Leitch lattice pattern incorporated into brickwork. After moving to Goodison Park, Everton had a Bullens Road stand…
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Tommy White – A Player of Many Parts

Tommy White – A Player of Many Parts

by Rob Sawyer I have played in almost every forward and half-back position for Everton. That versatility helped me more than once to get a first team place. On the other hand, for a time I was regarded as nothing but a sub for other players. When they were ready for the first team again, I was out. That’s how it has been all through my football career. Shocks and pleasant surprises always round the corner. I never knew which I would meet. Tom White (June 1937) Born at Goulden Street, in Weaste, Salford, on 29 July 1908, Tom Angus…
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Everton v Keflavik – European Cup, Sept 1970

Everton v Keflavik – European Cup, Sept 1970

In the week commencing 14 September 1970, Edward Heath was in residence in 10 Downing Street, Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles was top of the charts, back and white television sets were still in higher demand than the newly introduced colour sets, and one hundred pounds back then would now (in 2023) have the purchasing power of around £1,900. Meanwhile, the newspapers rocked the music scene with reports of the shocking death of the brilliant young guitarist Jimi Hendrix, as a result of a barbiturate overdose on 18 September 1970. The 'Twenty-Seven Club' had claimed…
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Gordon Watson, One of Us ….

Gordon Watson, One of Us ….

Dr David France OBE (Founder of Everton FC Heritage Society and Life President) Everton F.C. League Champions 1939 (Gordon Watson back row, third from right. Photo - The Everton Collection) Something of a raconteur, Gwladys Street Hall of Famer Gordon Watson loved to share tales of his life at Goodison and he once spoke passionately about his team-mates from the side he regarded as ‘The Forgotten Champions of 1939’ ‘Gordon Watson? Never heard of him.’ Well, the Geordie (from the same neck of the woods as Howard Kendall) played alongside Dixie Dean in Everton’s Central League-winning side in 1938, helped…
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