Family announces plan for Sir Bobby memorial
Aug 22 2009 by Tom Mullen, The Journal
SIR Bobby Robson’s memorial service is to be held at Durham Cathedral next month, his family announced yesterday.
Following his low-key family funeral earlier this month, close friends and some of the biggest names in football are being invited to the service on September 21.
A short statement released by Sir Bobby’s family yesterday announced attendance at the service will be by invitation or ticket only.
Legends from the football world are among hundreds expected to attend, including Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello, Sir Bobby Charlton and Alan Shearer.
Thousands of fans and admirers from the public are expected to line the streets as moving tributes are paid to the North East legend.
The announcement comes exactly three weeks after Sir Bobby passed away at his Durham home following a long battle with cancer.
More details are expected to be announced on Monday, but the decision to hold the service in the former England and Newcastle United manager’s home county has been welcomed.
Sir Bobby was born in Sacriston, grew up in Langley Park and last December was granted the freedom of Durham in recognition of his services to football and his charity work.
There had been suggestions the service could be held at St James’s Park, but many thought Durham Cathedral would be a more appropriate venue.
A spokesman for Newcastle United said: “It will be a very moving and special occasion and, as a son of Durham, it is extremely fitting that Sir Bobby’s service will be held at Durham Cathedral.”
The Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove had earlier welcomed the possibility of holding the event in Durham.
He said: “Sir Bobby was a son of Durham and a fine ambassador for the North East.”
It is more than 20 years since the last memorial service was held in the North for a sporting legend.
As many as 50,000 lined the streets as Jackie Milburn’s funeral cortege was transported 14 miles from his terraced home in Ashington to St Nicholas’s Cathedral in the centre of Newcastle in October 1988.
Milburn, the legendary Newcastle United centre forward of the 1950s, died of lung cancer aged 64.
At the cathedral there was another huge turn-out. All 900 seats were taken up, some arriving two hours early, and 200 more were shoe-horned in at the back.
Outside, a further 2,000 gathered.
Similar numbers are expected for Sir Bobby’s memorial service.
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