Gordon Horsewood' s Mansfield youth team away game at Queens Park Rangers

This team played in the Mansfield Youth League in the early sixties and was managed by Gordon Horsewood. The team members standing from left to right are ? David Starkey, Harold Bell, Richard Reece, Ian Barksby, John Wain, Trevor Long, ? Front row L/R are Graham Martin, ? Paul Aldred (He played for Mansfield Town for a while) ? and Alan Bridges.

Gordon Managed many local Youth team’s from the fifties to the seventies and he organized yearly trips to play the Queens Park Rangers youth team and I was fortunate enough to go twice. We travelled down to London on the Friday, played their youth team on Saturday morning and were given tickets to watch their first team play in the afternoon. At this time they played their league matches at the White City Stadium which held the 1932 Olympic games, it Was demolished in 1985. We played our game at their present ground at Loftus Road. Saturday night until Sunday afternoon was free time to do as we liked. I lost touch with Gordon for many years but we met again in recent years when he was involved with the British Legion. He was in failing health and sight but still had a passion for football especially the stags. My wife and I occasionally went out for a meal with him and reminisce about the old days and during one get together I asked him what the link was with QPR. He told me that during the war he was in the same regiment as Alec Stock who was the Manager of QPR in the early sixties. They were both in the 9th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment and were involved in the Normandy D Day Invasion of France, during their time in the forces they organized friendly football matches for the troops and they became good friends. Gordon was a member of the British Legion for over forty years and devoted much of his time after the war to this charity. He was presented with the forty year service medal which he brought to one of our meetings to show me and told me that he would like me to have it , I was somewhat taken aback by this but he insisted he would like me to have it and I was humbled to take it. As he was in his nineties he was one of the last local remaining survivors of the second world war. When he died in 2018 aged 96 there was a two page memorial about him and another veteran Roger Maywood in the Chad. They were pals at Broom Hill School when they were children and did not meet again until 2014. They sadly died within 24 hours of each other in 2018. Gordon was a lovely man, he was at his happiest when he was helping others and could be seen around Mansfield helping with the poppy appeal, he was a good friend and he is sadly missed.