A football fan has started a campaign to repair and mark the graves of former Liverpool players.
Formed by Kieran Smith, there a Derbyshire resident, look with the aim ‘of repairing and, sick if necessary, marking the graves of former Liverpool FC players,’ the Liverpool Graves project aims to pay respects to past players of the Anfield club by helping to improve the conditions in which they are buried.
Amongst other things, the big Reds fan, 37, has made it his mission to erect a headstone on the grave of league title-winning defender Alf West.
While at the Anfield club, West won the Second Division title in 1905 and a First Division title the following season. He died in 1944 at the age of 62, and is currently buried in an unmarked grave in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire.
Mr Smith has already started to make progress in his mission, and has contacted the son of one of Alf’s former teammates, Alf Rathbone, in his attempt to track down West’s family members.
And Kieran, a biomedical engineer at Queen’s Hospital in Burton-on-Trent, now wants to improve the conditions of other former Reds players’ graves, too.
He said: “When I first saw the register I thought it was a pauper’s grave because a lot of footballers from that area didn’t have a lot of money and were buried in public graves. But the council told me it was a purchased lot.
“I have worked on other graves of a similar era and I have found their surviving family members. I am hoping that I can do the same this time around.
“It’s to try and keep the history alive. A lot of these players are a big part of a club’s history and I want to pay my respect to players who laid the foundation of the club. Alf was quite a significant player.”
Anyone interested in the Liverpool Graves project can access more information via the following Facebook address: https://www.facebook.com/liverpoolgraves/