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General Category => Altrincham FC First Team => Topic started by: Brian Flynn on July 01, 2019, 01:29:27 PM
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https://www.altrinchamfc.com/news/noel-white-bem-faia-rip
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Thanks Brian,always called Noel 'Uncle Noel' as he was the uncle of one of my mates,Big BIg Shock this new is.Rip Noel and regards to all Noels family.
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This club owes so much to Noel White. May he rest in peace.
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A true titan in the annals of Altrincham FC, without whose pivotal intervention (alongside his friend and business partner the late Peter Swales) back in 1961 this club would probably not even exist.
His extensive accomplishments and professional demeanour as this club's esteemed chairman continue to dwarf those of all of his successors in that particular role.
In my encounters with him over the years, I always found him to be a gentleman, whether it was being invited to meet him in the hallowed confines of the Moss Lane boardroom to chat about the contents of a letter that my friend and I had written to him as Alty-mad 15-year-olds way back in 1979 or having the pleasure of talking with him many years later at his home in Bowdon.
My sincere condolences to his widow, daughter, other relatives and friends.
Here's a photograph of him flanked by fellow Altrincham FC luminaries Freddie Pye and Peter Swales that was taken in November 1965:
(http://i66.tinypic.com/1i29o8.jpg)
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It would be impossible to overstress what Noel and Peter Swales did for this club. As Cult says, without them we wouldn't be here.
I, too, was privileged to get a "one-on-one" with Noel when I was fed up about a perceived problem on the pitch. It wasn't - and we discussed it calmly and rationally, and shook hands on it. I can't see him ever being any other way, and his firm and fair attitude was a big factor in his going on into the higher echelons of the game where he was so respected.
In recent years, I had Noel as a passenger in my cab. Always a gentleman, always a pleasure to talk with. A sad loss. RIP Noel.
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I can't add any more to what has already been said here, except that my condolences go to his family and the many friends he will have made over the decades.
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I never had the privilege of meeting Noel White in person, but, as Cult said, I am all too aware that without his (and Peter Swales') intervention, the club might well not exist, and certainly would not have had the great days which I experienced in my youth. After his time as chairman with us, he operated at the very highest level of the domestic and international game, which shows how widely respected he was throughout football.
RIP Noel and my thoughts are with his family and friends.
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Our greatest ever clubman bar none.
He sets the bar unfeaibly high for those of us who come after.. A role model. A great man.
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Did Noel gain the positions he did with Liverpool and England off the back of his success or experience with us?
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I can only imagine how good it must have been to watch the club be dragged from death's door to safety, and then on to the great heights that we achieved. Our great club could and should be a platform for new visionaries to propel themselves forward in football, once again. RIP Noel White and thank you.
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Thanks Brian,always called Noel 'Uncle Noel' as he was the uncle of one of my mates,Big BIg Shock this new is.Rip Noel and regards to all Noels family.
Hi Harold I expect that the mate you refer to is one Nigel Tomlinson?
I did on a few occasions go to Noel's house with Nigel and Noel's son used to join us to play out together.
I had the privilege of being Altys first ever mascot about 1963 and I remember Noel as being a very nice guy who made me feel welcome at the club.
I totally agree with other forumites who say that Noel (along with Pete Swales) dragged the club back off its knees.
Very sad to hear of Noel's passing.
Condolences to his family and friends
May you Rest in Peace Sir...
Ray Sant..
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RIP Noel White.
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Very sad news. The man who was the chief Architect of the club's success and rise to the top of the non league tree through the 70s and into the 80s. Held in the highest regard throughout football. RIP Noel White.
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Kenny Dalglish pays tribute to Noel White:
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/355102-rip-noel-white-kenny-dalglish (https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/355102-rip-noel-white-kenny-dalglish)
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Hi Ray, you are correct i was referring to Nigel Tomlinson.Though i lost contact with him about 40 years ago.i think the last time i spoke with him was when Alty played at Weymouth in a league game somewhere around the 1980s.
Hashtag. after Pete Swales left to become Chairman of City Noel stayed at Alty for a few years,then moved to Liverpool as a director then chairman if my memory is still functioning correctly
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In my view Noel White should have one of our stands or terraces named after him. The man was a phenomenal chairman and being invited to join the board at Liverpool off the back of what he did at Alty speaks volumes. RIP Mr White.
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Perhaps we could re-ignite the plans for the museum in the Noel White Suite in honour of that period.
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In my view Noel White should have one of our stands or terraces named after him. The man was a phenomenal chairman and being invited to join the board at Liverpool off the back of what he did at Alty speaks volumes. RIP Mr White.
Good call fella
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Just got off the phone with GR.he told me George Smith has also Died.
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Great idea for a stand or terrace to be named in honour of Mr White
Or a Statue near the ground or in the town centre like Frank Sidebottom in
In Timperley Village
RIP Boss.
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My condolences go to Noel's family, plus my grateful thanks for putting our team where they are today.
I do remember my visit to his shop in Altrincham with my elder brother around 1964/5 I think, and hearing the latest Beatles single in one of the listening booths. I can still see the blue wall with the tiny little holes in it where you could hear the latest singles. We eventually walked out with the Rockin' Berries 'Poor man's son' if memory serves me correctly.
Great Chairman, and superb businessman. Loved visiting his shop, especially as I am now a music buff.
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Just got off the phone with GR.he told me George Smith has also Died.
Bloody hell not more sad news. Good keeper was George... RIP George.
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Just got off the phone with GR.he told me George Smith has also Died.
Bloody hell not more sad news. Good keeper was George... RIP George.
See John Laidlar's site.
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RIP George. He was at Moss Lane as recently as the Brackley game but had to leave early as he wasn’t feeling well. Don Cooke accompanied him to the game.
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Very sad news, he was a great chairman and a great man. RIP Noel.
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Here's Noel White's obituary in The Daily Telegraph (I don't know the identity of the author of this article but they have made an error in that Noel's son Ian sadly predeceased him in 2017):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/07/09/noel-white-businessman-became-chairman-liverpool-fc-helped-introduce/ (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/07/09/noel-white-businessman-became-chairman-liverpool-fc-helped-introduce/)
Noel White, businessman who became chairman of Liverpool FC and helped introduce the Premier League – obituary
The Daily Telegraph: 9th July 2019 • 6:00am
Noel White, who has died aged 89, was chairman of Liverpool FC, a founding father of the Premier League and a long-serving FA committee man.
A promising player in his youth, White joined the Liverpool board in 1986 on the strength of his achievements at Altrincham FC, which he led from near-bankruptcy to success in the non-league strata of English football.
He followed the long-serving Sir John Smith as Liverpool’s chairman in 1990 but stepped aside the following year in favour of David Moores, the club’s largest shareholder and an heir to the Littlewoods pools fortune.
During his brief tenure, however, White was one of the five directors of top clubs (the others being David Dein of Arsenal, Martin Edwards of Manchester United, Irving Scholar of Spurs and Philip Carter of Everton) who dined with Greg Dyke of London Weekend Television to plan a breakaway from the existing Football League.
That meeting led to the foundation in July 1991 of the Premier League – and radically changed the future of the game.
Noel White was born at Altrincham on December 16 1929, the son of Arthur White, a waterman, and his wife Ruth. Educated locally, Noel did National Service at the Royal Army Medical Corps depot in Hampshire, where he played centre-half alongside the future Sunderland manager, Bob Stokoe, for the Corp’s football team, which won the Army Cup in 1949.
Demobbed the following year, he signed amateur forms for Chester City FC but declined an offer of £6 a week to turn professional, preferring to train as an accountant.
In 1955 he formed a partnership with Peter Swales selling sheet music, records and musical instruments, and later television sets, in a business that grew to be a chain of 15 local shops and was eventually sold for £350,000. White went on to own the Bowdon Hotel in Altrincham while the pair acquired control of Altrincham FC – where White was chairman and later president, and which became a founder-member of the Northern Premier League and twice winner of the FA Trophy.
Swales was later chairman of Manchester City. He and White rose side by side through the hierarchy of the Football Association, White having been elected to the FA council representing Cheshire and Merseyside in 1976 and to its international committee in 1982. He followed Swales as chairman of the latter in 1994, serving until 2008, and was also a vice-chairman of the Uefa national team committee.
Kenny Dalglish, who was Liverpool’s manager from 1985 to 1991, commended White for the compassion he showed in the aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, leading the club’s involvement in the funerals of many of the 96 fans who died. But White’s 21-year tenure on the Liverpool board ended badly in 2006 when he resigned after admitting to an anonymous interview in the Daily Mirror criticising the then manager, Rafael Benitez.
The remarks that caused offence followed a 2-0 Premiership defeat by Manchester United and included the charge: “We have paid too many inflated prices and wages for players who are not doing the job … When the manager decides they are not doing the job, we cannot get rid of them because nobody wants them for the sort of money we want back.”
White and his cohort of grey-suited veterans who held sway at the FA were often criticised for “amateurism” in their administration of a sport that became fiercely commercial in the modern era – as well as for failing to appoint successful England team managers. But White was honoured as a life vice-president of the FA in 2002 and was awarded the BEM in 2013.
Noel White married Jean Taberner in 1952; she survives him with their son and daughter.
Noel White, born December 16 1929, died June 30 2019
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Splendid funeral service in Bowdon this afternoon for Noel White, including excellent eulogies delivered by Mark Harris and David Dein respectively.
Some well-known faces amongst the gathering such as Sir Bobby Charlton, David Gill, Gordon Taylor, Dennis Tueart and Peter Coates.
Plus plenty of members of the Alty 'family', including Tony Sanders, John King, John Rogers, Graham Heathcote, Gerry Berman, Andrew Shaw, Bill Waterson, Ernie Fryer, Dave Baldwin and the one and only George Heslop.
If you have Altrincham FC in your blood, then pour yourself a measure of red wine this evening and raise your glass in memory of our greatest ever chairman.
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If you have Altrincham FC in your blood, then pour yourself a measure of red wine this evening and raise your glass in memory of our greatest ever chairman.
Yes Barry, I have done that - it’s very dangerous to post after alcoholic intake so I will limit my observations to concur with you. I’ve just re-read my letter to Noel in 2011 after the sad death of Roy Rees, and Noel’s kind reply. I’m so glad I told him how much he meant to me.