John Anderson RIP

My good friend John Anderson, known to many as “Feltham John”, has died peacefully in his sleep following a long illness.

John played a key role in many of the supporter-led initiatives that kept the Club alive some 15 to 20 years ago.

Among the many highlights:

John was one of the hardy band of bucket collectors, to be found at the New Road entrance before and after most games;

He was the relief driver for the famous (some might say infamous) sponsored walk to Hartlepool in 2005;

He was also actively involved in many of the music nights in Stripes and was generally a “do anything and everything” bloke.

I have probably done him a grave dis-service by omitting many other activities, but this just gives a flavour of the sort of guy he was.

John was also a former Bees United Board member and BIAS committee member.

He stood as a candidate for the ABeeC Party (“A Future for Brentford FC in Your Community”) at the local Council elections in 2002.

The past few years had not been kind to John and he had been in poor health for some time but he did make it to the “new Griffin Park” on a few occasions. Whilst John loved our old stadium – his season ticket was at the back of the old “Hate Corner” – he had been an advocate for the new stadium for many years.

One of my treasured moments would be his face as he walked into the stadium for the first time for that Blackburn game in December 2020, during the pandemic, when a reduced attendance was allowed for the first time. His smile that day would have lit up the darkest room.

Goodbye dear friend. You enriched the lives of so many and you shall never be forgotten.

Regards, Paul Stedman