David France

Last updated

David France

OBE
BornDavid Harry France
(1948-06-30) 30 June 1948 (age 76)
Widnes
OccupationRetired oil & gas industry executive, Author
NationalityEnglish
GenreSport
Subject Everton Football Club
SpouseElizabeth France

David Harry France, OBE (born 30 June 1948) is an author, football historian and philanthropist. Throughout the past two decades, he has been the driving force behind numerous initiatives related to Everton Football Club including Gwladys Street's Hall of Fame, the Everton Former Players' Foundation, the EFC Heritage Society, the Founding Fathers of Merseyside Football and the David France Collection (now known as the Everton Collection). In January 2011, Liverpool's Freedom of the City panel rewarded David France with the prestigious title of Citizen of Honour. [1]

Contents

France was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to football in the United Kingdom and Europe. [2] [3]

Background

France was born in Widnes, Lancashire (now Cheshire). Educated in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany (BSc, MSc, MBA, PhD), he moved to North America in 1978 and worked in the nuclear and space industries before joining the executive of an oil & gas corporation. He retired from corporate life in 1990 to concentrate on consulting and charity work. Although based in Texas, he travelled in excess of 2 million miles supporting the club and his Everton initiatives. Known as ‘Dr Everton’, he was appointed Life President of the Everton Shareholders’ Association. In a 2009 website poll involving eight candidates, he came a close second to manager David Moyes as the person who Everton fans trust the most. The results were David Moyes 35%, David France 34%, Bill Kenwright 19%. [4]

Everton books

Dr France has written 19 books to tell the Everton story. Some involved collaborations with David Prentice, [5] [6] [7] [8] Becky Tallentire, [9] Barry Hewitt [10] and cartoonist Peter King, [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] while others embraced inputs from a cross-section of Everton enthusiasts. The profits from these books were donated to Merseyside charities.

Gwladys Street's Hall of Fame

Conceived by Dr France after consultation with baseball's counterpart in Cooperstown, New York, it pays tribute to the men who have contributed to Everton's history. In 1996 he recruited an independent panel of players, journalists, shareholders and season-ticket holders to painstakingly assess the qualifications of the 800 or so candidates and select the initial 75 members. [16] Subsequent additions have been elected by Everton supporters via postal and internet ballots. The Hall of Fame inductions were celebrated passionately in 1998 and every subsequent year at Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel. [17] Known locally as the "Nuremberg Rallies of Football", never before had any club's supporters interacted intimately with heroes who had won the World Cup, European silverware, FA Cups and League titles. [18] The 2009 inductions of Duncan Ferguson and Bill Kenwright brought the total to 126 members. [19] The 2017 additions of John Bailey, Kevin Campbell, Nigel Martyn, Ian Snodin and Pat van den Hauwe increased the membership to 131.

The Everton Former-Players' Foundation

Dr France registered the Everton Former-Players’ Foundation (Charity No 1080101) to alleviate their medical and other hardships of old footballers in 1999. With the support of the Professional Footballer's Association and the generosity Everton Football Club and its supporters, [20] the EFPF has raised and spent over £100,000 per year during the past 10 years assisting individuals with knee and hip surgeries and even home improvements. All grants are confidential but any player who made one first-team appearance for Everton is eligible for help. The EFPF is the first of its kind in the football world and, under the current stewardship of Rev. Harry Ross and Laurence Lee, is considered to be the UEFA model. [21] Subsequently, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have established similar organisations and along with Everton are members of the European Former Players' Association.

The David France Collection of Everton memorabilia

The David France Collection is a compilation of memorabilia related to the birth and development of Everton Football Club. It is lauded as the finest collection of football artefacts in the world. [22] Employing a network of dealers, Dr France took over 20 years to assemble some of football's rarest items dating back to the club's pioneering days in Stanley Park. In addition to hundreds and hundreds of unique items of interest to all football enthusiasts, the real significance of Dr France's paper-chase is that the resulting collection boasts long unbroken sequences of programmes and other memorabilia which tell the week-by-week story of life as well as football on Merseyside football. Perhaps the most priceless treasures are the official club ledgers detailing the minutes of all board meetings between 1886 and 1964 and shed light on the acrimonious split which resulted in the formation of Liverpool Football Club. [23] [24]

Poor health influenced Dr. France's decision in 2001 to find a secure and long-term home for his collection. Despite receiving offers from private investors, he was committed to make the collection available to the people of Merseyside. Six years later, the Everton Collection Charitable Trust (Charity No 1109480) announced that it had secured a grant from the UK Heritage Lottery Fund to acquire his collection, now named The Everton Collection. Subsequently, Dr France donated the priceless ledgers and transferred the other treasures at a heavily discounted price. There were, however, a few conditions to the transaction. Every piece of memorabilia had to be professionally catalogued, preserved by experts and secured in a vault. No items can be disposed of and the collection had to be augmented with quality acquisitions when they become available. Equally as important, the items should be displayed physically in Liverpool and all printed materials digitised and incorporated into a website to facilitate worldwide access. [25] [26] [27] [28] Subsequently, Everton Football Club donated its archives.

Now known as The Everton Collection, it is housed at the Liverpool Record Office where it took a team of experts some 15 months to catalogue the artefacts. Highlights of the collection are featured in two books ‘Everton Treasures’ [29] and ‘Dr Everton’s Magnificent Obsession’. [30] Some of the Everton Collection has been digitised and is available online at www.evertoncollection.org.uk. At the formal launch the Everlution exhibition in late 2009, Andy Burnham, the UK Health Minister, said: "Thanks to David France the story of the heart and soul of our club has been brought together. We all owe him a huge debt of thanks for the passion and the meticulousness with which he has prepared this wonderful collection." [31] [32] Items from the collection will be on display at the Liverpool Central Library until mid-2010. [33]

The collection has been lauded by other Everton fans and experts alike. Everton chairman Bill Kenwright said: ‘On behalf of all Evertonians, I would like to express our collective gratitude to David France for his foresight in acquiring these rarities and for his patience during the fund-raising period.’ [34] Sir Philip Carter added: ‘There are so many sacred items spanning the 131 years from our days at Stanley Park. The treasure trove contained our first programmes, first photographs, first medals, first season-tickets, first contracts as well as the club ledgers circa 1886. Everything is in pristine condition.’ [35] [36] Technical experts offered similar appreciation: Janet Dugdale of the National Museums Liverpool reported: ‘The collection’s importance is increased by its integrity as a collection which has been amassed with a single-minded sense of purpose and intellectual rigour to which many museums aspire.’ [37] Graham Budd of Sotheby's added: ‘The collection offers an extraordinary record of the evolution of British football and of the city of Liverpool. It has no match anywhere.’ [38]

The Founding Fathers of Merseyside Football

Because there had been no recognition at Goodison or Anfield of the men who started and shaped football on Merseyside, Dr. France commissioned artist Wasan Suttikasem to produce six oil paintings depicting the key figures from the early days of Everton and Liverpool. [39] [40] Known as 'The Founding Fathers of Merseyside Football', The subjects are Rev. Ben Swift Chambers, John Houlding, Dr. James Baxter, George Mahon, John McKenna and Will Cuff. [41] The portraits are owned by the Everton Shareholders' Association and will be rotated between different venues throughout the United Kingdom so that all football can celebrate the roots of Merseyside football. [42] [43]

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References

  1. ↑ "Civic accolades announced" Archived 13 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine Liverpool City Council. 12 January 2011
  2. ↑ "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 24.
  3. ↑ "New Year Honours 2012 Departmental List" (PDF). BBC News Online . Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  4. ↑ ""The Last Supper – Encore." Simon Paul. September 27, 2009". Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
  5. ↑ "Virgin Blues." David France & David Prentice (2003), ISBN   1-874799-17-2
  6. ↑ "Everton Treasures – The David France Collection." David France & David Prentice (2007), ISBN   1-874799-20-2
  7. ↑ "Dr Everton’s Magnificent Obsession." David France & David Prentice (2008), ISBN   978-1-905266-79-1
  8. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Blue Book." David France & David Prentice (2002), ISBN   1-874799-16-4
  9. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Holy Trinity." David France & Becky Tallentire (2001), ISBN   1-874799-14-8
  10. ↑ "Toffee Cards - The Bubble Gum Years." David France & Barry Hewitt (2005), ISBN   1-874799-18-0
  11. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Hall of Fame." David France (1998), ISBN   1-874799-09-1
  12. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Hall of Fame Edition 2." David France (1999), ISBN   1-874799-10-5
  13. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Hall of Fame Edition 3." David France (1999), ISBN   1-874799-12-1
  14. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Big Book for Kids of All Ages." David France & Peter King (2002), ISBN   1-874799-15-6
  15. ↑ "Moyesiah." David France (2006), ISBN   1-874799-19-9
  16. ↑ "Gwladys Street’s Hall of Fame." David France (1998), ISBN   1-874799-09-1
  17. ↑ "Standing in the Shadows of Giants." Martin O’Boyle. Speke From The Harbour fanzine. April 2000 [ dead link ]
  18. ↑ Gwladys Street’s Hall of Fame – the video." Simon Paul. 6 April 2009 [ permanent dead link ]
  19. ↑ "Big Dunc joins Everton Hall of Fame." The Liverpool Echo. 20 March 2009
  20. ↑ ""Moyes wins Rooney book libel case." BBC News 3 June 2008". Archived from the original on 6 February 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
  21. ↑ "Everton greats’ service repaid." 13 April 2006
  22. ↑ "The Heritage of Everton FC – First Impressions." Ian Macdonald. 15 November 2003
  23. ↑ "The David France Collection – Everton FC History." Steve Jones, November 2003 "The David France Collection - Everton History - bluekipper.com". Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
  24. ↑ "Everton Treasures - The David France Collection." David France & David Prentice (2007) ISBN   1-874799-20-2
  25. ↑ "Blue bid for haul of fame." David Prentice. The Liverpool Echo. 14 July 2005
  26. ↑ "Everton's treasures are saved." The Liverpool Daily Post. 29 September 2007
  27. ↑ "Doctor Everton’s Magnificent Obsession." Philip Robert. The Daily Telegraph. 27 March 2008
  28. ↑ "Don’t thank me - being a Blue is my reward." Ian Macdonald. Blueblood fanzine January 2009
  29. ↑ "Everton Treasures - The David France Collection." David France & David Prentice (2007) ISBN   1-874799-20-2
  30. ↑ "Dr Everton’s Magnificent Obsession". David France & David Prentice (2008) ISBN   978-1-905266-79-1
  31. ↑ "Health Secretary Andy Burnham opens Everton FC exhibition at Liverpool Central Library." David Prentice. The Liverpool Daily Post. 25 September 2009 [ permanent dead link ]
  32. ↑ "Health Secretary’s debt of thanks to Dr Everton." The Liverpool Echo. 15 September 2009 [ permanent dead link ]
  33. ↑ "The Everton Collection: The greatest football memorabilia on display." EPL Talk: News & Analysis of the English Premier League. Christopher Harris. 12 October 2009
  34. ↑ "Dr Everton’s Magnificent Obsession". David France & David Prentice (2008) ISBN   978-1-905266-79-1
  35. ↑ "Everton Treasures - The David France Collection." David France & David Prentice (2007) ISBN   1-874799-20-2
  36. ↑ "The Everton Collection: The greatest football memorabilia on display." EPL Talk: News & Analysis of the English Premier League. Christopher Harris. 12 October 2009
  37. ↑ "Everton Treasures - The David France Collection." David France & David Prentice (2007) ISBN   1-874799-20-2
  38. ↑ "Everton Treasures - The David France Collection." David France & David Prentice (2007) ISBN   1-874799-20-2
  39. ↑ "The father figures who helped shape Merseyside football." David Prentice. The Liverpool Daily Post. 1 July 2009.
  40. ↑ "David France takes Everton and Liverpool founding fathers back home." The Liverpool Echo. 30 June 2009
  41. ↑ "The Founding Fathers of Merseyside Football." David France & Peter Lupson. Everton Shareholders’ Association booklet (2009)
  42. ↑ "The Founding Fathers of Merseyside Football." David France & Peter Lupson. Everton Shareholders’ Association booklet (2009)
  43. ↑ "Merseyside Six Appeal." LFC Magazine. 5 July 2009 [ permanent dead link ]
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