Grave of footballer Jack Kirby who defied Hitler restored
The work, carried out by Horobin Memorial Masons, was completed on Sunday.Mr Dhindsa said: "The original grave was in a very weathered state. "It was almost impossible to find then decipher what was written on it."Myself and family members decided that the best thing to do would be to restore it as close as possible to what it looked like when it was first put down."Jack Kirby is a Derbyshire legend of defiance. It was a pleasure to see this through."
Born in South Derbyshire on 30 September 1909, Kirby made 191 appearances for the Rams after arriving from Derbyshire-based Newhall United in 1928.During Derby County's tour in 1934, Kirby refused to salute in all four matches in four cities against German teams, of which the Rams lost three and drew one.Despite never meeting him, Jack Kirby's great-niece, Rachel Kirby, said she idolised her great-uncle for his defiant act 90 years ago.
"His grave had become weathered and unrecognisable to fans, but thanks to Kal and generous supporters, it has now been beautifully restored, with the lettering once again clear for all to see," said Ms Kirby.Rachel said her Uncle Jack shared a close bond with her father, Douglas."Even into his 90s dad took great pride in visiting the grave and laying flowers, but sadly we lost dad to dementia," she added. "I know how he would have been deeply moved by this tribute."I'm incredibly proud and so thankful to everyone who donated, shared, and supported. I'd love people to visit and remember him."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Proper England': perfect unity that shows how Lionesses triumphed over the odds
For some reason, as Chloe Kelly's penalty hits the net and the England players explode across the pitch like streaks of white light, as Sarina Wiegman and Arjan Veurink embrace on the touchline, as England fans clutch each other in the stands, the eye is drawn to Khiara Keating of Manchester City. Keating has not played a minute for England at this tournament. In fact, she has never played a minute for England at all. In fact, there was not the remotest possibility that she would play a minute for England at this tournament, and she knew this all along. Her entire Euros has consisted of training, travel and watching football from a hard bench. And yet at the moment of victory, nobody celebrates harder than England's third goalkeeper. It's Keating who is one of the first of the substitutes to reach the ecstatic huddle of white shirts on the pitch, Keating being hoisted aloft by the second-choice goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse, Keating doing a funky dance in front of the England fans, Keating beaming behind Leah Williamson and Keira Walsh as the trophy is lifted amid a fanfare of ticker tape and smoke. This is very clearly a triumph in which she feels just as invested and included as any other player, a triumph that is hers too, as surely as if she had saved the match-winning penalty. And as the dust settles on Sunday's epic final, perhaps this little snapshot of perfect unity gives an insight into just how England managed to triumph over the odds. 'This team shows exactly what it's like to be English,' Kelly said after the final on Sunday, riffing on a theme that many of her teammates have also taken up in recent weeks. And while the temptation is simply to nod along, surely it's worth taking a moment to interrogate which part exactly Kelly was referring to. The winning? The close finish? The physicality? The fighting spirit? The calm under pressure? The togetherness? Would a nonchalant 5-1 victory with a late Spanish consolation goal still qualify? This notion of 'proper England', a phrase first deployed after the 1-0 win against Spain in February and a recurring trope since, seems to vary depending on who you ask. 'It's that we give everything, we run ourselves into the ground,' Walsh said. For Alessia Russo it means 'we'll stick together'. For Lucy Bronze it means 'if push comes to shove, we can win in any means possible'. For Sarina Wiegman, it means 'passing with purpose'. But of course the Englishness Kelly and her colleagues are referring to here is not really a dictum, far less a tactical blueprint. 'Proper England' can mean passing a team off the park or lumping long balls to a big No 9 (the 'Hit 'Less' strategy employed against Sweden). Rather – and much like the fluid nature of nationality itself – it is an energy, an ethos, an unspoken creed, a pure vibe. Proper England is playing an entire tournament with a fractured tibia. Proper England is Jill Scott swearing at some German who probably had it coming. And of course the method of England's victories at this tournament is very much of a piece with what we like to imagine as the classic English sporting triumph, from Kelly Holmes coming back from last place at the 2004 Olympics, to Jonny Wilkinson winning the World Cup with the final kick, to the pandemonium of the 2019 Cricket World Cup final. Victory is no prerequisite – there is also a solid place in the liturgy for the heroic failure of Derek Redmond and Frank Bruno. What matters is the intent, the full and undiluted commitment, the sporting equivalent of going 'out out'. 'Proper England' is just the latest attempt by an English sporting team to articulate just what, exactly, makes it English. Bazball, the dogma of the men's cricket team, is fundamentally a marketing strategy, a doctrine of spellbinding nihilism wrapped up in nonsense slogans and daddy issues. Gareth Southgate's concept of Englishness, meanwhile, was best expressed in his famous Dear England essay of 2021, a patchwork quilt of competing influences that nobody really seemed to realise were competing at the time. So along with the idea of sport as a vessel for fairness, protest and social justice, Southgate also appeals to the traditions of 'queen and country … military and service'. This is an England of humility and passive tolerance, a quietly conservative England in which every man swears to do his duty, as long as you don't put too many noses out of joint. Protesting racist abuse: fine. Protesting against a Qatar World Cup: ooof, bit much. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion And so of course by trying to navigate the culture wars Southgate's team ended up being co-opted into them, and ultimately resiling from them. The women's team, by contrast, are a group far more engaged with the outside world, more urgently aware of the power of their platform, instinctively closer to progressive causes through their LGBT allyship. This matters, because even before their plane had touched down at Southend Airport their triumph was being co-opted by people who believe the very opposite. For Exhibit A, study Monday's Daily Mail, which juxtaposed a gleeful photo of Kelly and Michelle Agyemang with the more sombre headline 'NOW SHUT MIGRANT PROTEST HOTEL'. Hannah Hampton's declaration that 'we've got English blood in us' was feverishly seized upon by Tommy Robinson and his acolytes as proof that the Lionesses are actually a sleeper ethnonationalist cell. A columnist in the Spectator, meanwhile, paid begrudging tribute to England before promptly getting on to its main talking points: the taking of the knee, the 'foolish and irrelevant' pursuit of equality with men's football and – bingo cards at the ready! – the usual gratuitous swipes at Labour and trans people. And once you've stopped yawning, there is of course an ever-present danger that an achievement this spectacular and unifying will be celebrated by the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Which is why it is the actions rather than the words of this team that speak to its nature. A team so evidently built on selflessness, individual sacrifice for the common good, inclusiveness and mutual support, hard work and manual labour, where an attack on one is an attack on all, where nobody is grander or more important than anyone else. A team drawn from every corner of the nation, just 4% of them privately educated, a group of women from which we can all learn a thing or two. And if that's not proper English, then what is?
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
Livingston sign veteran striker Bokila
Livingston have announced the signing of striker Jeremy Bokila from Dutch side Willem II after receiving international 36, has played in the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Russia, China, Turkey, Qatar and the USA during a long and varied has represented DR Congo on 20 occasions, scoring six goals.
The Sun
31 minutes ago
- The Sun
Lionesses were in crisis going into Euro 2025 as critics turned on Sarina Wiegman… England boss is owed an apology
SARINA WIEGMAN is owed an apology. By any and all who doubted her ahead of this, a third straight women's Euros triumph for the 55-year-old. 5 5 5 Wiegman, cemented now as one of the greatest managers in the history of women's football, described Euro 2025 as the most chaotic tournament she had ever experienced. But even before England arrived in Switzerland to defend their title, the Dutchwoman was facing intense scrutiny. After the influential duo of Mary Earps and Millie Bright ruled themselves out just weeks before the tournament and Fran Kirby retired from international football after being told she would not go to the Euros, faith in Wiegman was on the wane. Crisis had struck and many questioned if the woman in charge could handle the fallout and whether she had caused it. Had she lost her touch? Was she too direct or brutally honest with her players? Those questions looked foolish as the Lionesses flew back home yesterday, trophy in hand for a second time. Wiegman's players were in awe of her in Switzerland, a manager who kept her cool with the team on the brink more than once. The ex-Netherlands boss told the squad they had almost killed her twice, with last-gasp comebacks against Sweden and Italy in the quarter-final and semi-final. CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS Wiegman had to stand and watch three spells of extra-time — the first time any side has gone the distance in three games at a women's Euros. She also had to endure two penalty shootouts, which both swung dramatically from one side to the other. Wiegman insisted there was no lack of belief during those nervy knockout ties — but the manager did admit there were brief moments when she thought they were going home. While there was a calm exterior throughout every close call, she was 'having a heart attack' inside. Despite that, she always found the right words for the moment. Delivering emotional and inspirational speeches when they were needed most. Those messages all had an edge. The Lionesses boss said she could not repeat some of the language from her team-talks, while sales of the 'b**tches get s*** done' washbags will surely skyrocket. Having kept her cool throughout, the moment Chloe Kelly fired home the winning shootout penalty against Spain in the final, things finally cracked. Wiegman said: 'I just started running. I'd been screaming for three minutes. I just could not believe that we won it. 'When she went to take that penalty, her conviction again — and she just loves these moments.' Players were shown clips of their finest moments out here, one last confidence boost to get over the line when hope appeared lost. Wiegman showed faith in the likes of teenage striker Michelle Agyemang unknown to all but the most ardent Women's Super League fans before this tournament. She's bloody amazing. She's an incredible woman. What she's done for this country, we should all be so grateful for. Chloe Kelly on Sarina Wiegman Agyemang, 19, is a new favourite, scoring the leveller against Sweden after England were 2-0 down, before the most dramatic of injury-time equalisers to set up the semi-final win against Italy in extra-time. But the resolve and determination which has defined England's heroines all stems from their coach, also a Euros winner with her native Holland in 2017, and her staff. There are so many of this squad who have faced adversity, did not think they would be here or had struggles throughout the tournament. Kelly, England's finals icon, feared she would not even make the squad after falling out of favour at Manchester City earlier in the season. But Wiegman stuck with her. A loan move to Arsenal followed, where she won the Champions League with victory over Barcelona — before scoring or assisting in every Euros knockout game and hitting the winning spot-kick. Kelly said of the Lionesses boss: 'She's bloody amazing. She's an incredible woman. What she's done for this country, we should all be so grateful for. 'What she's done for me individually, she gave me hope when I probably didn't have any. 'She gave me an opportunity to represent my country again. 'What she's done for the women's game, not just in England, in the Netherlands she's done it, she's taken it to a whole other level. 'Are you sure?' 'The work doesn't go unnoticed from the staff behind her, they're incredible people.' Jess Carter was dropped for the semi-final against Italy after some shaky performances. And the Chelsea defender's misery was compounded by some horrific racist abuse from online trolls. But Wiegman showed the faith to restore her in Basel — and Carter delivered the performance of a lifetime against Spain. The centre-back, 27, said: 'We went into training and she sat me down and said, 'I'm thinking of starting you on Sunday'. I said, 'OK, thanks'. 'After, I was thinking, 'Are you sure?' To have that faith from Sarina to put me back in the squad and that she believed I could help this team to a trophy was amazing. 'It gave me a lot of confidence going into this game.' Wiegman revealed ahead of the final that she had fallen in love with England. There can be few who will argue the feeling is not mutual. 5
