This memory is one recollected by my mother-in-law Barbara who is now in her 80''s.
Barbara and Ivor Wiliams married in the city of Swansea in 1953. Ivor worked in the steel works and they could not afford to go on honeymoon. Ivor was a good local footballer with potential to go on further but an industrial injury prevented this.
Growing up Ivor's best friend and then best man at his wedding was the Welsh maestro Ivor John Allchurch MBE. They grew up playing together and the families remained firm friends into later life. As Ivor and Babs could not afford a honeymoon, Mr Allchurch arranged for them to travel on the Swansea team coach to West Brom and watch the team and Ivor play, coming back home on the team coach as well.
After Ivor Allchurch's passing, my father-in-law was interviewed by the author of IA biography and told the story and others to him. My mother-in-law's memory is fading and the specific details are now lost but I question whether we would today see a premiership side doing the same as what my father and mother-in-law experienced.
My wife and I were also very happy that Ivor Allchurch and his wife, Esme, could attend our wedding celebrations and a more modest man you could not wish to meet. Clearly, a memory from a different era when football players were truly 'men of the people'
Memory added on April 4, 2014
Comments (Add your voice)
No comments have yet been added to this memory.
