THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE is an extract from ‘Tales From The Debenhams Picket Line’.
It happened by chance; some may say it was fate or destiny as Rose Cook traipsed home from a busy working day. Passing the Tansfield Road and Clee Road junction, she decided to take a stroll through Dudley Cemetery. As Rose meandered through the graveyard, she noticed a bunch of red & white carnations filling the black granite vase in front of the six-foot headstone. The grave was also littered with football colours.
In the Dudley evening air, her eyes were fixated on the words inscribed on the headstone which read: ‘A Day of Memory Sad to Recall Without Farewell He Left Us All’.
Duncan Edwards was just 21 when he left this earth in tragedy; England’s greatest: a boy wonder from the Black Country’s backstreets who made even the great Bobby Charlton feel inferior. At the age of 18 years and 183 days he had represented the three lions of England, helping to demolish their great rivals Scotland 7-2. The scribes wrote about the arrival of the complete footballer, a boy capable of excellence in all positions.
Three years earlier in 1952, Duncan had bid farewell to his parents Gladstone and Sarah Anne for the metropolitan borough of Trafford, Manchester. Matt Busby had swooped to sign him ahead of his local clubs Wolverhampton or Aston Villa and the youngster quickly settled into life at 19 Gorse Avenue and daily training at the Old Trafford stadium, which loomed over the city like a beast.
Six years and 151 appearances later, the boy from Dudley was gone… 15 days after flight 609 had crashed off the Munich runway, Duncan took his last breath in the Rechts der Isar hospital. In the year of our Lord 1998, Rose stood up and thought to herself: Why no statue? Why no museum?
As a 13-year-old girl Rose had worked for her local radio station at weekends and on school holidays, with the sports editor Pat Foley taking her under his wing. Pat took the aspiring young reporter to Molineux for football, Dudley Wood Stadium for speedway and boxing in which Brummie John ‘Playboy’ Prescott reigned supreme.
When Duncan Edwards died, Rose’s mother stood shoulder to shoulder with the thousands who turned out in Dudley on the 26th of February 1958 as the player’s cortege made its way to St. Francis church. Now standing herself in front of the grave 40 years later, Rose felt it was time to tell the story.
Within 12 months as Roy Keane was resurrecting the modern-day Reds in Turin, Sarah Anne Edwards took her seat in the mayor’s parlour at Dudley Council offices for the premiere of ‘…and then came Munich,’ her son’s story on celluloid.
The realisation of the 55-minute documentary had not been plain sailing for Rose: no funding came from the local council and while Manchester United sent a letter of acknowledgement of the project, no monies were forthcoming from the bulging Old Trafford bank balance.
Rose persevered and turned instead to the Manchester United family, and the ordinary fan duly answered the call raising £60,000 towards the project.
After attending the 60th anniversary of the Munich disaster in Germany, which Rose states was a humbling personal experience, the Duncan Edwards Foundation was set up. The first donation came from the Manchester United Supporters Trust and now the foundation funds local children in Dudley with sporting talent to try to help them fulfil their dreams.
In 2003 Sarah Anne Edwards sadly passed away, her dying wish was for Duncan’s name not to die with her. Rose promised this would not happen.
Today, if you walk down Castle Street in Dudley you’ll arrive at the ‘Duncan Edwards Museum’, Rose was true to her word. On entering visitors are met with the ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ each step featuring the name of one of the victims of the Munich disaster. The top step reads the name of captain Roger Byrne.
On the 24th of May 2021 after more than 400 days on strike a football shirt donated by Bohemians Football Club and signed by the workers from the Dublin stores was presented to Rose Cook at the Duncan Edwards Museum by Manchester United supporter Matthew Battle. A green and gold Kerry GAA shirt in the same colours as Newton Heath, Manchester United’s original name was also signed and sent to the
museum by the Tralee Debenhams’ workers.
‘Tales From The Debenhams Picket Line’ is available to buy now. More info here.
