Time to honour our Jack
Charlton family’s knighthood call as they reveal moving farewells to hero
JACK Charlton’s grieving brother Tommy last night led the calls for the England World Cup legend to be knighted.
The 74-year-old said being made a Sir would be a “fitting tribute” to the former Leeds star, who died on Friday aged 85.
Tommy told of his emotional final meeting with Jack, on a visit to his great nephews. He said: “I’ve never seen him smile like that.”
AS part of the only England team to have lifted the World Cup, Jack Charlton will always be remembered as a football legend alongside the other 1966 heroes.
And his grieving brother Tommy last night led the calls for the former Leeds star to be given a posthumous knighthood to mark his achievements.
The 74-year-old joined MPs, celebs and figures in the game demanding his elder sibling, who died on Friday aged 85, is made Sir Jack.
Tommy said: “He was a wellrespected, well-loved Englishman. I
think a knighthood would be a fitting tribute to him after all he achieved.
“It would be the finishing touch to his life wouldn’t it?
“I think that Jack is every bit as good as one or two of those who have been knighted recently. He was loved wherever he went.
“But to me, he was simply our Jack, my big brother. I’ve heard some of the tributes, and it has been hard at times.”
Sadly, in more recent years Jack – who is survived by wife Pat and their children John, Deborah and Peter – was robbed of many of his favourite memories due to dementia.
But emotional Tommy recalled the last meeting with his brother, also a hero to Irish fans after managing the Republic of Ireland.
He revealed Jack, who had been diagnosed with cancer, had a smile as wide as the Tyne for Tommy’s two grandchildren, William, 11, and Alex, seven, when they saw each other for the final time.
Tommy, of Rotherham, South Yorks, said: “The two boys ran straight over when they saw their uncle Jack and jumped on his knee. I have never seen him smile like that. It is a really, really wonderful memory for me.
“His daughter Debbie brought Jack and his Pat to see me around January, February this year. It was lovely to see him, of course he did not recognise me.
“It was not the Jack you remembered, the Jack you knew, it was very, very sad to watch the big towering guy you always looked up to as your big brother.”
Tommy, who in 2018 played for England in the first over-60s walking football international, fears Jack’s dementia may have been sparked by heading the ball during his long career.
He added: “It is hard not to think it was linked to heading the ball. But he would not have had it any other way.
If you had told Jack not to head the ball, he would have still done it.
“It was just the later years when he was worst affected. I had four uncles who all played football who were hit by dementia, and I am sure that had something to do with it.”
Tommy, who worked for the Mines Rescue Service, told how he last week rang their other brother, England and Manchester United legend Sir Bobby, 82, to let him know Jack was not well.
English football’s two most famous sons – who had their differences in the past, but reconciled – had been unable to travel to see each other due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tommy added: “It is just one of those awful times.”
Born in 1935 at Ashington, Northumberland, Jack began working down a pit aged 15 with dad Bob, before making a club record 773 appearances as a tough, no-nonsense defender at Leeds after his debut in April 1953. He went on to World Cup glory in 1966 and led Ireland to their first major finals at the 1988 European Championship in West Germany.
He also guided the team to the World Cup quarter-finals in 1990.
When he turned 80, Jack told how he loved to read the Daily Mirror with a cuppa and do the word search in his favourite paper.
He is the sixth member of England’s
Cup final team to have died after captain Bobby Moore, Martin Peters, Gordon Banks, Alan Ball and Ray Wilson.
Of the 11 players, only two, Geoff Hurst and Bobby Charlton, were made Sirs. Alf Ramsey, the World Cup winning manager, was knighted in 1967. But the failure to honour “Big Jack” has long angered football fans and players. Former Liverpool star Ray Houghton, who made his Ireland debut under Jack, said: “He should have been knighted, I’ve still never understood that. It’s an absolute disgrace.” Labour MP Ian Lavery, whose Wansbeck constituency includes Ashington, has submitted an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to award Jack a posthumous knighthood. Colin Young, who wrote Jack’s official autobiography, told how the former player strongly believed all the 1966 stars should have been knighted. He said: “He felt it was unfair the team had not been properly recognised.”
The football writer reguWorld larly saw the Ireland boss on flights from Newcastle to the Republic.
He revealed how he once invited him into his chauffeur-driven car from Dublin airport.
Colin said: “It was like walking in the shadow of the Messiah when you were with Jack in Ireland,” Colin recalled. “People would stop and stare. It was amazing to walk in his footsteps.
“One of the best days of my life was when we went fishing. We had to stop at Haydon Bridge for pies, that was the most important part of the day. He had been going there for 60 years.
“It was Jack being Jack, in one of his favourite places.”
Bobby Moore was never knighted before his death in 1993.
A campaign in 2016 for him to be made a Sir posthumously failed, despite the support of then-FA chairman Greg Dyke and a cross-party coalition of MPs. Last year, the Mirror told how former goalie Gordon Banks missed out on a knighthood because officials lost key paperwork. Friends believe he was due to be made a Sir in the 2019 New Year Honours.
It is feared nomination papers, submitted two years earlier, were mislaid in a blunder by the Government’s honours committee.
Banks died in February last year. All the members of the World Cup team were awarded MBEs.
Five, Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball, Roger Hunt, Ray Wilson and George Cohen, did not receive theirs until 2000. Jack, Moore and Banks also received OBEs
For Jack to receive a posthumous knighthood, the rules would have to be changed to allow it.
I have never seen him smile like that. It’s a wonderful memory
BROTHER TOMMY ON HIS LAST MEETING WITH JACK
ENGLAND World Cup winner Jack Charlton was cheated of a knighthood.
The 1966 hero’s family want him to get the honour posthumously.
If the Government rights this historic wrong, it should finally recognise the England team’s surviving stars as well – before it’s too late.