Eddie Davies memorial service: Wanderers say farewell

Businessman, football club owner, philanthropist – for one moment, as Bolton came together to remember one of their own, he was simply “Our Eddie.”

The life of Little Lever-born, Farnworth Grammar-educated Edwin ‘Eddie’ Davies was celebrated in a special memorial service at Bolton Parish Church attended by hundreds of well-wishers and dignitaries.

To the world, Davies was the self-made millionaire who had amassed his fortune via the Strix Group – a company who claimed its kettle thermostats and controls were used by more than a billion people every single day.

His business acumen was discussed in written tributes from former Strix colleague John Brodie, who described an “energetic” and “focussed” individual who helped push the business from its base at an old cinema on the Isle of Man to worldwide acclaim.

Davies rarely courted publicity and thus the instances of his generosity have only become widely known to the public since his death on a family holiday in Portugal on September 11.

Richard Deverall, a representative of the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, described how his financial input had allowed the creation of a ground-breaking alpine house – the first such building to be created at the gardens in 20 years. Davies, who became chairman of trustees at Kew, also aided the restoration of the world’s largest existing Victorian glass house, a Grade One listed structure.

Although Davies’s fortune allowed him access to a world way beyond his working class upbringing, this was an occasion for those with a longer association.

David Bedford, a former team-mate at Old Farnworthians, described how his friend Eddie had bravely kept goal until suffering a broken leg inflicted by his own team-mate.

Davies had maintained contact with his roots and his donations to the Bolton Museum and the Bolton Royal Hospital coronary care unit helped earn him a CBE in 2011 to go alongside an OBE for services to industry bestowed in 2000.

For all his incredible work elsewhere, Davies’s name will forever be synonymous with Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

After becoming majority shareholder in 2003 he helped bankroll an unimaginable climb to the peak of the Premier League, four consecutive top-eight finishes and two qualifications for the UEFA Cup.

Many of the fans and officials sat at the memorial were there to see Bolton locking horns with the might of Marseilles, Bayern Munich and Red Star Belgrade – none of which would have been possible without the backing of a life-long supporter.

It was entirely fitting that after a service of reflection there should be a period of celebration, and no piece of music quite fit the bill like James Brown’s ‘I Feel Good,’ the anthem Wanderers used to mark a goal in that halcyon era.

Source

karlypants wrote:Businessman, football club owner, philanthropist – for one moment, as Bolton came together to remember one of their own, he was simply “Our Eddie.”

The life of Little Lever-born, Farnworth Grammar-educated Edwin ‘Eddie’ Davies was celebrated in a special memorial service at Bolton Parish Church attended by hundreds of well-wishers and dignitaries.

To the world, Davies was the self-made millionaire who had amassed his fortune via the Strix Group – a company who claimed its kettle thermostats and controls were used by more than a billion people every single day.

His business acumen was discussed in written tributes from former Strix colleague John Brodie, who described an “energetic” and “focussed” individual who helped push the business from its base at an old cinema on the Isle of Man to worldwide acclaim.

Davies rarely courted publicity and thus the instances of his generosity have only become widely known to the public since his death on a family holiday in Portugal on September 11.

Richard Deverall, a representative of the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, described how his financial input had allowed the creation of a ground-breaking alpine house – the first such building to be created at the gardens in 20 years. Davies, who became chairman of trustees at Kew, also aided the restoration of the world’s largest existing Victorian glass house, a Grade One listed structure.

Although Davies’s fortune allowed him access to a world way beyond his working class upbringing, this was an occasion for those with a longer association.

David Bedford, a former team-mate at Old Farnworthians, described how his friend Eddie had bravely kept goal until suffering a broken leg inflicted by his own team-mate.

Davies had maintained contact with his roots and his donations to the Bolton Museum and the Bolton Royal Hospital coronary care unit helped earn him a CBE in 2011 to go alongside an OBE for services to industry bestowed in 2000.

For all his incredible work elsewhere, Davies’s name will forever be synonymous with Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

After becoming majority shareholder in 2003 he helped bankroll an unimaginable climb to the peak of the Premier League, four consecutive top-eight finishes and two qualifications for the UEFA Cup.

Many of the fans and officials sat at the memorial were there to see Bolton locking horns with the might of Marseilles, Bayern Munich and Red Star Belgrade – none of which would have been possible without the backing of a life-long supporter.

It was entirely fitting that after a service of reflection there should be a period of celebration, and no piece of music quite fit the bill like James Brown’s ‘I Feel Good,’ the anthem Wanderers used to mark a goal in that halcyon era.

Source

Was I the only one who went from Nuts?

Probably.

Fair play to you in actually turning up and showing your respect.

Here is a link to a wonderful article in remembrance of Davies by Ian King, the business Director on Sky News, that Chris Custodiet originally posted on Wanderersways, which fully deserves a read from every true Wanderers fan.

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-world-worse-off-without-business-leaders-like-eddie-davies-11503661

Sluffy wrote:Probably.

Fair play to you in actually turning up and showing your respect.

Here is a link to a wonderful article in remembrance of Davies by Ian King, the business Director on Sky News, that Chris Custodiet originally posted on Wanderersways, which fully deserves a read from every true Wanderers fan.

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-world-worse-off-without-business-leaders-like-eddie-davies-11503661

The article was mentioned in the service. Chris Custodiet was banned from Wanderersways for publishing it in full and for complaining when a moderator deleted the tribute and all the comments related to it.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:

Sluffy wrote:Probably.

Fair play to you in actually turning up and showing your respect.

Here is a link to a wonderful article in remembrance of Davies by Ian King, the business Director on Sky News, that Chris Custodiet originally posted on Wanderersways, which fully deserves a read from every true Wanderers fan.

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-world-worse-off-without-business-leaders-like-eddie-davies-11503661

The article was mentioned in the service. Chris Custodiet was banned from Wanderersways for publishing it in full and for complaining when a moderator deleted the tribute and all the comments related to it.

Yes, I saw the matter and commented on it, although until you mentioned it I hadn't realise in had escalated to a full ban.

It's a shame if something so relatively minor as led to that.

For what it is worth I believe that Chris Custodiet is one of the very few posters (maybe even the only one) who has a sound financial grasp as to what has been going on at the club over the last decade or so and is prepared to explain to the rest of us publicly - even facing the abuse and ridicule of those whose agendas clash with the facts as laid out in the annual accounts.

I know many people simply don't want to be bothered with the financial side of the club but this attitude is short-sighted of them in the extreme as the financial position of the club not only determines what resources we can invest on the playing and managerial side of the club but also determines what our future direction is most likely to be and explains why the club owner does what he as to do (no matter how unpalatable to many) in order to keep get the club to a position of financial stability.

There's plenty of ignoramuses out there quick enough to moan when this bill or that bill hasn't been paid on time or because the owner of the club will not pay over the odds in his opinion for this player or that - but they speak without any interest or knowledge of the clubs financial state or the creditors loans that have to be settled by specific dates, or even if we have the money to do what they believe we should be doing!

I for one appreciate the person behind the Chris Custodiet and/or other accounts having taken the time and trouble to explain and tell us what's been going on according to the accounts and not some made up conspiracy bollocks to fit their prejudicial agenda against the current club owner, like so many others love to do all the time.

So Wanderersways readers loss unfortunately but hopefully Nut readers gain!

Please carry on keeping us informed of the financial goings on at the club Chris, wherever you choose to do it - hopefully here on Nuts!

I suppose the obvious and controversial question for a financial expert  is this.

What is Ten Bobsworth's estimate of how much cash the Anderson family take from the club per year, assuming they are not volunteers.

Growler wrote:I suppose the obvious and controversial question for a financial expert  is this.

What is Ten Bobsworth's estimate of how much cash the Anderson family take from the club per year, assuming they are not volunteers.

I put out my previous message to see if anyone from Nuts might have cottoned on to the idea that Ten Bobsworth was a username of Chris Custodiet.

I'll come to Growler's question in due course but lets stick with the Memorial Service first.

I had followed ED's ownership of BWFC with interest over the years for a number of reasons. He, like me, had became a committed Wanderers fan in the 50s and will have enjoyed many of the same experiences. I was also a shareholder with a keen interest in the club's financial health or otherwise.

I've met many of the club's movers and shakers over the last twenty years and hoped that one day I might meet Eddie. It wasn't to be so I went to the memorial service to pay my respects but also to find out a bit more about him that I didn't already know.

I'm glad I did. I knew quite a bit already because I had, over the years, searched out just about everything there had ever been printed about Eddie Davies and felt able to sort most of the wheat from the chaff. There was quite a lot of chaff some of it coming from people that ought to have known better.

One of ED's former work colleagues had earlier described him as the hardest working individual he had ever met and this aspect was amply reflected in a tribute from another read out at the service by BWFC Chaplain Phil Mason. An almost endless list of acutely focussed comments followed that Eddie had made whilst he had been chairman of Strix and that colleagues had taken note of.

Another tribute came from someone representing Kew Gardens and finally one from David Bedford, a Wanderers fan who had known Eddie as a friend starting from when they both played for Old Farnworthians.

There was a large group of Eddie's familyat the front of the pews reserved for invitees including his widow Sue and their respective children and spouses. I had thought quite lot about Eddie's family and how they must have worried about Eddie's endless drive to make a mark in life despite the health scare that he had in the 1990s.

Had Eddie, I wondered, retired from Strix at a comparatively young age because of these concerns and had he stepped down from his directorships of BWFC and Burnden Leisure for the same reason? Museums and gardens you would expect to have been a lot less stressful.

Eddie didn't give many interviews and considered newspapers 'a necessary evil' but one given to Isle of Man newspapers finished up with the words 'No one is finite, you never know the day, do you?'

How prophetic that Eddie was still worrying about and supporting BWFC on the day before the night he died.

As for Growler's question, may I refer you to Chris Custodiet's explanations on Wanderersways.
Sorry but I have to depart for the funeral of a friend. Its the second one this week.

I have had a read and seen a good explanation of how much money you think Dean Holdsworth made but not how much the Andersons make
You make the point that you  will have to see the next accounts before before being able to answer that question.

Growler wrote:I have had a read and seen a good explanation of how much money you think Dean Holdsworth made but not how much the Andersons make
You make the point that you  will have to see the next accounts before before being able to answer that question.

The amounts paid by way of consultancy fees were disclosed in the 2017 audited accounts and I have explained how the one paid to Inner Circle was needed to fund the Holdsworth divorce settlement and reach an accomodation with BluMarble to prevent an insolvency event in 2017.

Do I think he might have taken anything else out in that year? No. The club was a long way from being flush, he said that he hadn't, it would have been contrary to his strategy and it would have been inefficient for tax purposes to take money out except as a consultancy fee paid to KA's company.

2018 is a different kettle of fish and KA might well think that the efforts of Superagent and himself merited something. His primary strategy though has to be try to get someone with deep pockets to take the club over with something for himself for his efforts. I hope he succeeds and ends up with more than Dean Holdsworth got for doing very little - not too much mind you

I've always believed and still do that it doesn't matter how much profit Ken Anderson might get if and when he sells the club on. What matters is that he can only make a profit at all if the books are balanced and the buyer sees a genuine potential for profit themselves. If he can pull that off and I think he can then he deserves whatever he can get and I for one won't begrudge him a penny. The days of chairmen or owners pumping their own money into a club as a hobby are long gone and they're not coming back.  Nor frankly should they do so. It's high time fans recognised and understood that they DON'T own the club any more than they own the local pub they have a pint in or the supermarket they shop in. Football is nothing more or less than a form of entertainment and when you buy a ticket to a match that's ALL you bought. So if Ken makes a few million out of BWFC but leaves it stable and able to grow I for one will be happy with that.

It was only 2 months ago that Ken  made an announcement on the club website saying that the club would be going into administration .The following day money was provided by Eddie Davies and another wealthy fan to prevent that. 
Being given money by other wealthy fans to stave off administration means Ken is some way short of balancing the books I would think

Growler wrote:It was only 2 months ago that Ken  made an announcement on the club website saying that the club would be going into administration .The following day money was provided by Eddie Davies and another wealthy fan to prevent that. 
Being given money by other wealthy fans to stave off administration means Ken is some way short of balancing the books I would think

He wasn't GIVEN the money mate, it was a short term interest free loan as I recall. I understand that we were due some TV money but one of our creditors didn't want to wait so they threatened admin (Ken never said we WERE going into admin only that it had been possible) in order to try and prise the money out early.

In truth Ken hasn't done everything right, in particular I think his silence then late and somewhat petulant statement on the "Ben Amos" issue didn't help his cause with those who don't like him but he's also been the victim of some extremely unreasonable behaviour such as that displayed by Heathcote's who seemed to feel they had him over a barrel despite the fact the total net debt to them was around five grand. The tendency for several of these allegedly 'aggrieved' people to use social media as a platform to try and force things to happen annoys me and if I were Ken I think I'd be tempted to dig my heels in a bit too.

The simple fact is he's been doing a pretty decent job overall of playing a seriously lousy hand made all the worse by Dean Holdsworth and the Blu-Marble fiasco.

Don't forget that since then Ken has also announced that he expects the club to make a small profit this year. What matters isn't the sum total of the debts owed, only that they get serviced as per whatever agreements are in place and it now looks like they are being. The summer was always going to be tough thanks to the lack of revenue when there's no football on and the way player and staff contracts give bonuses in June while the main revenue of TV rights doesn't come in until August at the earliest. Given our situation it was little wonder that we seemed to lurch from one crisis to another then. I don't claim Ken is a messiah or genius, only that despite some very turbulent waters he seems to be steadying the ship. That alone is quite an acheivement in these circumstances.

Eddie Davies supported Bolton Wanderers like no other man ever did and, I dare say, like no other man ever will.

I arrived early for his memorial service to get a good seat. I needn't have worried, there was plenty of room but rather than be the sole occupant of one of the empty pews I decided to take a seat next to one with just one other person sitting in it.

'Have you come far' I said to the man next to me. 'Blackpool' he replied, 'I don't go to matches now, its too depressing but I wanted to pay respects to Eddie for everything he had done for the club'. He proceeded to reel off the names  of all those players so familiar to us all that we would never have seen in a BW shirt without Eddie.

He went on to say that he read the comments page of the BN and how he was revolted by the vile abuse that regularly featured on it. 'Couldn't agree more' said I.

Two other younger men came to sit in the same pew before the service began. I had continued in conversation with the man from Blackpool and it was only at the end of the service that the four of us briefly talked together.

'No Ken Anderson, Dean Holdsworth or Sam Allardyce' said I. Ken Anderson was not at all popular with the other three and my view that, on the whole and given the circumstances, he had done a good job gained no support. It was not the time or place for a debate on that subject and we all went our separate ways.

I cannot find a link to the Isle of Man article about Eddie Davies but I thought when I first read it that it was interesting in several ways, not least the contemplation of his own demise when he had only recently retired at the relatively young age of 60. At the risk of offending any Nuts protocol here it is in full:



[size=32]I WISH I WAS NOT ON RICH LIST — IT'S A CHARTER FOR BURGLARS[/size]


Published in Isle of Man newspapers Monday 27 November 2006


THE executive chairman of Strix, Eddie Davies, would probably rather not be interviewed for an article about him and his retirement from Strix after 22 years, but he was nevertheless a gracious interviewee.


Journalism was a 'necessary evil', he said, with a smile.


Take The Sunday Times rich list. Mr Davies, who steps down from Strix at the end of the year, was listed as 501st last year (with a fortune estimated at 99m).


The big word is 'estimated' and Mr Davies, a man of great intellect with a particular flare for figures, deals with fact, not guesswork.


What's it like to be on the list?


'I wish I was not on it,' he said. 'It's a burglar's charter. Where do they get their figures from?


'Some people think the other way. I'm low profile, I'm not particularly interested in raising my profile.
'I have known people who have written to them and said: "I'm worth more than anyone on the list." It's absolute lunacy! There's no point trying not to be on it.'


It's a logic you can't argue with and has helped to carve a remarkable career for the boy from Little Lever, near Salford (sic).


He graduated with a first in maths from Durham University, gained qualifications in mechanical engineering and accountancy before launching himself into the business world.


'My career has followed a classic career progression,' he said. 'I got a maths degree, engineer and accountant qualifications, ran a multinational business, that kind of background and training is invaluable.'


He was assistant group managing director at Scapa Group (that made paper for paper machines) running the South American division from Brazil when he was approached by John Taylor in the early 1980s.
Professor Taylor, who was educated at King William's College, established Strix in the Island in the late 1970s.


Unemployment was high and Strix, which employed 800 people, 'soaked up' a lot of the employment, said Mr Davies.


It has been a successful collaboration.


'John is the inventor I'm the innovator,' said Mr Davies. 'I decide what ideas make money.'
Inspired ideas have flowed from the union, such as the development of a heating control that could be used in plastic kettles and the cordless kettle.


It's based on a simple market philosophy, he said: People will be interested in Strix products if they can make money out of them.
In the early years Mr Davies flew 200,000 miles a year.



'You know places only by being there and talking to people, not being sat back in the ivory tower,' he said.



Sterilising his chop sticks before using them to eat with in China inspired the water purification arm of the business, that has grown by 70 per cent since 2003.


Today, Strix is the world leader in its field and has 65 per cent of the market share in a growing market.
Strix products sell in 40 countries and the company has won four Queen's awards. It has sold one billion units and 20 per cent of the population uses a Strix product.


He leaves it in a very healthy position and Brian Amey continues as chief executive.
Retirement from Strix does not mean retirement to the golf course. Mr Davies, 60, hasn't got time!
There's his 'hobby', the football club Bolton Wanderers, where he became non-executive director in 1999 and has 94.5 per cent control following substantial investment.


His Manx wife Sue (nee Crellin) runs — very successfully — a race horse farm in Cheshire.
He's involved with various institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Manchester Business School and Kew Gardens.


His home remains in Ballasalla and his children Sarah, 35, a chartered accountant and son, Roger, 32, a personal trainer, are based here — as is his new grandson Jasper.


But he operates on the world stage and his original inspiration still drives him on.


He said he wants 'to achieve something in life' and being awarded an OBE for services to industry and all the rest obviously isn't enough!


'You have got to move on,' he said. 'No one is finite, you never know the day, do you?'

If there was no Anderson, Holdsworth or Allardyce present, who was there? A lot of recognisable folk in the pews reserved for invitees including, I noticed in particular, Michael James and Peter Ridsdale.

It was the money from Michael James' Prescot Business Parks that really made the difference in early 2016 and together with ED did so again, so we hear, two months ago. Wanderers supporter, Michael, is the sole director of PBP but not the majority shareholder.

I also spotted paying their respects, Richard Hurst, first interim chair of the Supporters Trust, and a pal (don't know his name) of the ST's present chair, Terence Rigby, each of them being the sole occupants of pews in front of me.

Ahead of them was a small contingent including Baroness Taylor of Bolton. No Baron Taylor of Clitheroe though. He's busy fighting off mutiny in the ranks at the PFA. That's been a long time coming!