ALAN KAY

[JeremyJacobs]

I've just heard that Alan passed away yesterday. I was called earlier this morning by his son Ian. Alan was 86. Hopefully the Club will honour "Mr Margate FC" and his many years of service at Hartsdown Park in some way.

 

He'll be sorely missed.

[Cookie]

A pure legend in his long time with the club.. R.I.P

Commiserations to his family.

[JeremyJacobs]

My fondest memories of AMK was in the 60's. As a small boy sitting with my father in the Main Stand, Alan would come along to Dave Cooper just after half-time. ( The Gazette man ) and slowly say "One thousand, three-hundred and twenty-nine" - then 1329 or whatever the crowd was in those days.

[Drummer]

One of my younger brothers knew Alan Kay from his days at St.John's school in Margate where Alan was a teacher.

 

I remember him particularly as a font of knowledge about Margate FC as I am sure that most of us do. Around 1994 when the great Billy Wright passed away there was a tribute to Billy on TV and he was shown during the making of a training film at a football ground. I recognised the ground as Hartsdown Park and putting two and two together worked out that it must have been around 1961 when a Showbiz Xl played at the ground. Included in that team was Billy Wright, and I believe Tommy Steele, and I telephoned Alan to check this. He confirmed my thoughts, we had both attended the game, and also told me who else had been in that showbiz team.

 

He will be greatly missed.

[Jeff Trice]

Very sad news - for those people that don't know Alan was secretary of Margate FC for over 25 years from the early 1950's to the mid 1970's and served on the club's management committee for the same period. The committee were responsible for every aspect of Margate FC's business and Alan played a huge part in establishing Margate as a major non-league club and in making Hartsdown Park one of the best non-league stadiums in the country. He was also responsible for little touches like ensuring players received Christmas cards from the club every year.

 

As well as being an immense figure in the history of Margate FC Alan was a genuinely nice man and fascinating to talk to.

 

He invited me to his home in Birchington a few years back and told me all kinds of interesting tales, not only about Margate FC but also about his life in general - if I remember rightly he was involved in intelligence / the secret service during the war.

 

He'd met a host of famous people and I think I'm right in saying that he even appeared as one of the guests on the Australian verson of 'This is Your Life' - can't remember who the subject of the programme was though.

 

Amongst Alan's amazing collection of Margate FC memorabilia there was a postcard of a crowd scene featuring a young boy and Alan told me that it was actually him - I think he said it was the first game he ever went to so that was an amazing coincidence.

 

Alan also told me about his trip to Blackpool to watch Margate play there in the FA Cup in 1936 - think the journey was something like 15 hours each way !

 

He also told me about how Hartsdown Park's capacity was established before the Spurs game in 1973. Alan taught at Hartsdown School and took a class over to the stadium on a mini field trip. they measured out and roped off a certain small area - a few metres square or whatever - and then worked out how many people could stand in that space before multiplying the result in accordance with the overall dimensions of the ground. Quite a novel idea !

 

Even after moving to Sussex a couple of years ago Alan still watched lots of Margate games and in terms of club officials he was the last link to the the golden era of Almer Hall as far as I know.

[geoff pay]

Lovely tribute jeff and thanks to JJ for pointing this out to us all be it an unfortunate and sad occasion. Alan was a true gent who loved MFC and went into raptures when we got in the conf nd sadly was so depressed to see its (hopefully tempory) demise. his memory was phenominal theres no doubt about that. Ian, his son, brought him to matches when it was not too cold and often he would disappear somewhere to get a better look or try to ascertain some encouraging info. SADLY MISSED.

[JeremyJacobs]

Good to see that the Club has put an announcement on the Website.

[Jack Metcalf]

I,too,am saddenned to hear of the passing of this fine old gentleman. While I did not know him,he

is exactly my own age so that it is very likely that he attended many of the games at Hartsdown as I did in the early thirties and after the end of the second world war.

Margate and the Club have lost a very well respected citizen.

[Jeff Trice]

Jack - hope you've seen my website as it'd no doubt bring back some memories for you. Really interested in the fact you watched Margate in the 1930's so if you could e-mail me or tell me your e-mail address I'd appreciate it. I'm thinking you'd be a prime candidate for the 'memories' section of the site.

[Jack Metcalf]

Thanks Jeff:-

 

Yes please do E-mail me at:-

 

jmetcalf@aisl.bc.ca