A service of thanksgiving for the life and work of former Football Writers Association chairman Reg Drury will be held at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, on Thursday, 11 September, at 11.45am.
He died at the age of 74 when he was struck by a car as he was crossing a road near his home in Finchley, North London. Tributes poured in from football and journalism for the former News of the World football correspondent of nearly 30 years.
His old paper, from which he retired 10 years ago, labelled him “a legend” while The Times devoted a full column to “a football writer who kept ahead of the game for 50 years”.
More than 200 attended the funeral at Hendon Cemetery. A second chapel was used to relay the service.
Drury’s close friend for more than 40 years and former FWA chairman and secretary, Dennis Signy, paid tribute.
He said that Drury knew and was friendly with the footballing legends of the post-war era from Sir Tom Finney and Sir Stanley Matthews to Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best and Jimmy Greaves to Pat Jennings, Liam Brady and Gary Lineker.
England’s World Cup-winning hattrick hero Sir Geoff Hurst was present to remember “a friend” and Tottenham players from the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies and Eighties and former manager Peter Shreeves turned out in respect for a man who began his football writing career in the press box at White Hart Lane at the age of 16.
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