OBSERVER readers are being urged to come forward and help kick-start an ambitious plan to track down the football career of ‘Malvern’s Stanley Matthews’.
Paul Walker is looking to trace his grandfather’s, Harold Victor Hawker, sporting history and hopes an old family picture and engraved medal can help set a trigger in residents’ minds.
The 56-year-old has just a gold shield medal – with M & D A F L Champions 1925/26 engraved on the back – to go on.
However Mr Walker also has reasons to believe his grandfather, who was born in 1900 and died in the town in 1978, also played for Powick FC.
“I didn’t know anything about the medal other than the engraving on the back and I wanted to know more,” he told The Observer. “I have heard stories about him, he was supposed to be pretty good but he could also be a bit of a dirty player.
“In his day though he was supposed to be Malvern’s version of Stanley Matthews, he was rated that highly. It was only amateur but he was supposed to be that good.”
Having contacted the Football League Museum and had no luck, Mr Walker, now of St Anne’s near Blackpool, has also tried routing through archives and old newspapers but got nowhere.
After sorting out his will, Mr Walker said he wanted more information on the medal as it was going to be passed down to his son, Matthew.
“It is for my own interest but also when my son gets it he doesn’t just get a lump of metal and not have a clue what it is about,” he added.
“It was just something I thought Matthew would be interested in but like me we don’t know much more about it than whatever the championship was in 1925.
“I would have thought somewhere there would be something, people find old newspaper articles or someone else who has done something similar of interest.
“I am hoping someone will see the article, see a picture of my grandad and something clicks.
“I don’t give in and would do down every avenue until someone says you can’t get that information.”
