July 2026 Newsletter

July Newsletter

We have heard recently about the passing of ex-player Peter Higham. Peter was the last surviving link with the title winning teams of 1949 and 1950, joining the club from the Royal Marines. Peter’s funeral was in Southport this week and committee member Graham Dubber attended on our behalf. Speaking with Peter’s family afterwards they told Graham how thrilled Peter had been to attend the Pompey Hall of Fame dinner and the Former Players’ Day at Fratton Park last year. Apparently he spoke of little else for weeks afterwards! The family asked Graham to pass on their grateful thanks to the ‘Pompey family’ for making Peter so welcome. Thanks for attending, Graham.

Since our last newsletter we have had the superb evening with Alan Biley. Thank you so much to all those who attended and contributed to the charity collections and the auction. We raised £350 for Rowans Hospice and £300 for the 'Walk The Island' charities such as the Southsea Lifeguards. Alan told us that he had a wonderful time and we will consider using the main Victory lounge for our larger events in the future as it all worked really well.

Regarding forthcoming events, now that the fixtures are out we can start to plan. We are still working with the club on a suitable date for the Hall of Fame dinner due to waiting for Sky to finally tell us what fixtures they are taking and when. Which they can do up to the end of July. We have though arranged one of our “Memory Mornings”, this time with John McLaughlin. John played for us from 1979 to 1984 and helped us to win promotion twice during that time after being transferred in from Swindon. The morning will start at 10.30am in the Legends Lounge on Thursday 20th August and John will be telling us all about playing under Frank Burrows and Bobby Campbell during his 170 games for the club. Tickets are free for members and the link to get your tickets follows:

Other things to mention are:-

Membership

Membership secretary Richard Wilson reports that the number of fully paid members is holding up at a pleasing 250 BUT there are around 90 memberships due for renewal through July and August. We’re pleased that for 2006/7 we are keeping the fee at only £10 for the year and if you are one of those due for renewal then you will receive an email reminding you. It's really easy to renew from that email but please do remember to tick the “Gift Aid” box on the on-line form before you pay your tenner. As Richard told us last month, "membership underpins all we do as we push forward with our plans and activities outlined elsewhere in the newsletters.  We greatly value all the support we receive via the membership scheme and we thank everyone who supports us in this way."

Fundraising

The fundraising campaign for the Women’s National League South trophy has finished and the order for the replica trophy has been sent to the manufacturers. As soon as we get it, we will let you know and send out some pictures.

Stadium Tours

Now that the new season will soon be upon us the club are starting to schedule tours and will publish some dates soon starting with the 27th August school holiday tours. Do look out for those and of course there will be the usual pre-match tours when games start - we are very privileged in that the club allow us to take guests into the changing rooms before the game and see everything laid out ready for the match. Most clubs don't allow that so a tour would make a great present for family and friends. Bookings are taken through the club website alongside the ticket for the match concerned and parking or through the “stadium tours” tab in the tickets section. 

Past Chimes

Our radio show on Express FM in May saw Colin Farmery interviewing Johnny Moore. We had a break in June as Colin is still standing in for Richard Atkins-Greig but we hear that Richard is recovering well and will be back later this year. It is definitely worth an hour of your time to have a listen on catch up with the link as follows:-

Thats all for now. 

Play Up Pompey!

Pompey History Society