February 2026 Newsletter

February Newsletter

As this is our first newsletter of 2026, can we start by wishing you a belated “happy new year”. We might not have sent out a January newsletter but we have still been busy! Having achieved our Peter Harris medal appeal target, the medals are now in the club’s trophy cabinet so if you come on a stadium tour you’ll be able to see them. In March they will go to the City Museum as part of the Peter Harris exhibition. See more details below.

We ended last year with membership topping 250, which was a fantastic achievement and for which we thank each and every one of you for your magnificent support.  

We worked hard last year to put on a series of events on a regular basis, by which to justify your membership subscription of only £10.  The almost bi-monthly 'Meeting with ... ' former players and prominent figures around the club saw very well attended meetings and much positive feedback.  The new magazine is for members and well received. The Hall of Fame dinner was fully subscribed and again received favourable comment with PHS members getting the chance to buy tickets at a discount. The meeting with renowned football stadium author, Simon Inglis, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the South Stand last Autumn, was a sell-out with Simon much impressed by the level of interest his talk generated and the vibrant atmosphere in the room.  And elsewhere in this message you will find details of our publishing activities  - books and newsletters - the former of which are often offered to members at a discounted price.  We must also mention the super interaction between members at meetings and otherwise and are grateful to those who have taken an active role in the society since joining.  We still have space for more!    

Membership subscriptions principally go towards meeting the increasing fixed costs of running the society and a number of members are still to renew their membership due at the end of January. Renewal notices were sent out early in January for those expiring at the end of that month. A reminder followed so we would ask anyone who is due to renew to do so as soon as possible, as we want to build upon the successes of last year.

With that in mind, our first event for 2026 is on the 25th February at 7pm in the Legends Lounge. The bar will be open from 6.45pm, the event starts at 7pm and our guest is a favourite player of ours, Paul Wood, who played for us in the eighties and the nineties. It will be really interesting to listen to him with the interviewing from either Johnny Moore or Colin Farmery. Because the bar is open, tickets are £6 for non-members and £3 for members, and this is the link to get your tickets:

here 

Other items to mention are:-

Gift Aid

We would like to be able to claim some money back from HMRC via gift aid. One item we can claim for is gift aid on your annual subscription but in order to do that we need your approval via your details on the membership site. Under “your details” there is a box that says “gift aid” and then "yes or no". Would you please go to that membership details page via this link and check that the box is set to “yes” please. Thanks a lot in advance:

Pompey History Society

Our Activities and Fundraising for 2026

Having had a rest from fundraising for six weeks, we will soon be agreeing what item/s we raise funds for in 2026. For example, there are a few trophies missing from the trophy cabinet as no replicas were given to the club to keep at the time; the Third Division (South) shield from 1924, the Southern League Shield that we won twice, and the trophy won recently by the women’s team, the Premier League Southern Division. If anyone has any preferences or other ideas then please do let us know on history@pompeyfc.co.uk as usual. And this year will be as busy as the last with many of our activities ongoing. Stadium tours and book sales will continue to be important to us, to get the funds we need to secure items of memorabilia that come along occasionally. One exciting project underway is to make more use of the top floor of the City Museum, see below, and this will be a great showcase of the items that you have seen us purchase in recent years, enabling far more members and fans in general to see more of the club history. If you fancy getting involved in the museum project in 2026 then please contact Mick Comben on the email address quoted above.

Magazine

Following the success of the November edition, our next magazine is due out in a couple of months time so if you want to see any particular article, or want to submit one for inclusion, then please tell us on history@pompeyfc.co.uk

Steve Tovey’s Memories Project

Committee member Steve Tovey has been recording fans memories and has asked us to say that he is still catching up with the large number of responses and if you have not heard from him yet then he will be in touch after March 4th when he is back from his holiday.

Past Chimes Programme on Express FM

Richard Atkins-Greig, our presenter of Past Chimes, the programme that brings you interviews with people special to the club (and some good music!), ended up in hospital in January and is now convalescing at home. We miss you Richard, get well soon! Colin Farmery has stepped into the breach and interviewed Barry Harris in the show released straight after the Southampton game. It’s worth listening to and can still be listened to on Express FM catch-up. Guests have been lined up already for February and March.

Hall of Fame Dinner - a date for your diary

We have submitted our nominations for the 2026 Hall of Fame and the dinner will be held on Easter Sunday evening, the 5th April, in the Victory Suite. More details of how to book your tickets will follow later this month but it should be a great event this year.

Peter Harris Museum Exhibition

Phil Magrath, our museum specialist, is busy putting together an exhibition of Peter Harris memorabilia to go in the PHS Museum on the top floor of the City Museum and Art Gallery in Museum Road. This will go live at the end of March and replace some of the existing display items that have been there for a while. We will send you more details next month.

Stadium Tours

Last season we took 1,700 people around the stadium and talked to them about the history of the club. To the end of 2025 we are so pleased that numbers are up by over a third on 2024. We will soon hit our thousandth guest this season and that individual will receive a year's membership to the PHS and a special badge and a 125 book. It is worth coming on a match-day tour as unlike many clubs we are privileged to be allowed to take our guests into the changing room and see all the kit laid out ready for the players. Unfortunately some customers have struggled to book as they tell us that they couldn’t find tours on the club’s website. Tickets for school holiday tours are found under “tickets” then go to "stadium tours”; tickets for the Sunday “lunch and tours” are found in the hospitality section and match-day stadium tours can be booked by going to the ticket section for that individual match where they are on sale alongside the match ticket and parking, even when the match itself has sold out. The club are looking at making the booking process simpler. 

We are in the process of putting together a walking tour of Pompey for those summer evenings when you miss a bit of info about the club! John Grant of Solent Original Walks is doing tours this year covering various aspects of the City history, all to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of Portsmouth becoming a city in 1926. So Mick Comben and Richard Barnes from PHS are working with John on a football specific one covering things like Arthur Conan Doyle (who started the second PFC) plus where ex players lived and other points of interest re Pompey around the city. We will try to let members have very early info on how to get on one of these tours.

Books

We had a good run up to Xmas and sold a number of our books. Dont forget that they are still on sale, "The Making Of A Modern Pompey" by Mick Comben, about the start of the club, is still in the club shop or you can get your member copy from us. The 125 book is still available as well and proceeds from the sale of our books help keep us in business. 

Scanning Old Sports Mails

We need to scan our collection of Sports Mails so that they are available on-line for researchers to look at quickly and easily. We have purchased a professional scanner and we now just need someone to operate it. It can be used at home and if you are interested in helping us, for example by scanning a year or two at a time then please do let us know by emailing history@pompey.co.uk

Thats all for now. We look forward to seeing you at the Paul Wood event on 25th February. We’re looking forward to it.

Play Up Pompey!

Pompey History Society