A Bit of Family Pride

In the Queen’s birthday honours list this year, my paternal grandfather was awarded a British Empire Medal. I am so proud of him and I am using this post to share with others some of the things he has done to be bestowed with this medal.

A British Empire Medal is awarded for a ‘hands-on’ service to the local community. This could be a long-term charitable or voluntary activity, or innovative work of a relatively short duration (3 to 4 years) that has made a significant difference.

My grandfather received his British Empire Medal for services to hockey.

He began playing hockey in a mixed team at the age of fifteen. When he was sixteen, he was already playing Senior County Hockey and was chosen to represent Leicestershire Mixed County Team. For the following two years, he coached and was the Captain of the Westminster College Hockey team and played for London University.

Between 1959 and 1981, he played for, captained and coached his club side, Leicester Westleigh. During this time, he spent four years playing for the Coventry & North Warwickshire Club whilst he was teaching in Coventry. He played up to International level, including many high profile and representative matches. In total, he played one-hundred and eighty County games for Leicestershire; whilst he was captain Leicester Westleigh won the Midlands Club Championship and the team were undefeated for two years. The team also reached the County Championship quarter-finals and semi-finals several times.

In 1959, he commenced coaching; he ran various residential coaching courses for the Hockey Association at National Sports Centres at Crystal Palace and Lilleshall, including setting up first National Coaches residential course in England for coaches. By 1965, he had obtained his first England Hockey Association Coaches Badge and immediately gained his Senior Coaches Badge. In 1969 he was made a staff coach and became the chief coach for the Midlands Region.

From 1971 to 1984 he was the manager and coach to the England Indoor Hockey Team. He sat on the Bench for ninety-three International Matches for England with a seventy percent success rate despite regularly losing many of the top players to Great Britain for Olympic training. During time he was a member of the National Coaching Committee; in particular, he played a key role in writing the syllabus for the Indoor Coaching award and setting up Indoor Hockey in England. This culminated in winning a Silver Medal in the 1983/84 European Cup whilst members of Indoor Team formed the nucleus of the Olympic Gold Medal winning team in Seoul in 1988.

Also in 1971, he coached Hockey in Trinidad for three months after the Trinidad & Tobago Government requested a Coach from the British Government. He was selected by the Hockey Association to go on the tour and was released from his teaching position for the three month period. The Trinidad visit was highly successful. Apparently the Minister of Sport commented at the farewell party that only a mad-dog Englishman would have attempted such an extensive programme! Two highlights of this time were the Trinidad Ladies drawing 2-2 with the then World Champions, Holland, and a weeklong Schoolteachers Seminar. Following this, he had several other coaching assignments to places such as Trinidad, the Bahamas, Germany and Holland.

He assisted with the organisation of the Hockey World Cup in London in 1986 where he had various duties as well as helping to organise many International Tournaments. He has been a judge at many international events too. He was the England National Tournament Director at many English National Indoor Events. He has also held positions as the Vice President of The Hockey Association, of the Midland Region Hockey Association, of Leicester Westleigh and Leicester Ladies, and has been made a Life Member of Leicestershire & Rutland HA.

In 2007, he took on the role of being the President of the Leicestershire & Rutland Schools & Youth Section. Whilst he held this position he was very influential in developing and implementing ‘The Single System for Hockey’ in Leicestershire & Rutland. This system provides a ‘Pathway’ for juniors from the age of thirteen to seventeen to progress from grass roots level up to International level. This is an ongoing system which is acknowledged as one of the best in the country. The LRHA Schools & Youth were voted the best Developing Schools Sports Association in 2012 by Leicestershire & Rutland Sport and an award was presented at the Annual Chairman’s Trophy event.

He has set up eight Junior Development Centres throughout Leicestershire & Rutland and ten age groups at the Junior Academy Centre. In 2010, there were sixty-four young people involved in the Regional Centres. In 2011, there were eighty-five at JRPC and three age groups were Midland Champions. Three young people reached National level. These numbers have continued to grow and show how successful his work has been at encouraging young people to engage with hockey.

In May 2014, he was awarded the LRS Peter Walker Unsung Hero Award and also the England Hockey Volunteer of the Year Award. He has raised a lot of money through sponsorship for local hockey and has helped to create and fund more resources. It was at this time that he also retired for all Hockey apart from attending lunches and dinners.

He has been very active in sport for a large part of his life and has used his skills, talent and personality to bring achievement to teams and also help the sport of hockey to thrive. I am very proud of all his hard work and how much he has done for the local community. Not many people will know about these things but the time and energy that has been put in has been rewarded.

At the local ceremony some of my family attended when my grandfather received his medal, three other people also received a British Empire Medal. They had received their awards for services to basketball, services to dentistry and services to diversity and inclusion in the construction industry. This just goes to show that you can make a difference in any part of life and society.

There are many people out in our society who will never see a formal recognition or reward for the things they do for those around them but there are people who are grateful to you, people who benefit from your work, and people who think you definitely deserve such a reward as well.