Kirkham ‘Treasures’ Heading For The Public Domain
Darrell Kirkham….another helping hand for Wolves Heroes.
Darrell Kirkham is the footballer’s offspring who just carries on giving.
More than a decade ago, he fed us the astonishing story of how his dad, the former Wolves wing-half Johnny Kirkham, had put family differences to one side and come back to the UK to donate a kidney to him in his hour of great need.
What a surprise that was for us at our first meeting after we had tried for several years to track John down in South Africa!
Now Darrell has shocked us for a second time – by sending us his late dad’s football keepsakes and asking us to ensure they go to a good home.
“I have a poster of Dad on my dining room wall but don’t have enough space and the other stuff is just collecting dust. So I’m happy for you to use it in any way you can,” he said in a message to us.
“I have no idea if it’s worth anything but I’m happy to send it to you and maybe you know someone.”
We were sad that Home Counties-based Darrell was willing to part with any number of what should have been precious family souvenirs and strongly urged him to reconsider.
Alas, his mind was made up, partly due to the fact he has been renovating an upstairs room, and the said items are now in our possession.
They include call-up information from Johnny’s time with England Under-23s and Young England, newspaper cuttings, a copy of Ted Farmer’s autobiography, team photos and, most striking of all, the FA Youth Cup and Charity Shield medals he won at Wolves.
Kirkham played at right-half in the spectacular comeback triumph against Chelsea that the Molineux cubs achieved in 1958, when a 5-1 first-leg deficit from Stamford Bridge was overturned by a stunning Farmer-inspired 6-1 victory in the return.
Two and a bit years later, he had graduated to the status of ‘occasional first-team stand-in’ by the time the club went to Burnley to contest the fifth of the five Charity Shield matches they have played in. Again, he was named in the no 4 role as the prize was held for six months each following a 2-2 draw.
The Wednesbury lad, also courted while at school by Manchester United, Albion, Birmingham and Villa, started life at Molineux as an inside-forward before coach Bill Shorthouse persuaded him he would make a better half-back.
His best seasons at the club were 1961-62 and 1962-63, in both of which he totalled 30 senior appearances. But there had been highlights aplenty in his younger years.
A few months after playing home and away in the final against Chelsea in 1958, Kirkham appeared alongside Bobby Moore and David Gaskell for England Youths against Spain in Madrid, then moved up to the under-23 side a couple of seasons later.
He also faced the likes of Jimmy Armfield, Bobby Charlton, Johnny Haynes and Bobby Robson when he was selected for Billy Wright’s Young England side against the senior team at Chelsea in the traditional FA Cup Final eve fixture of 1961.
The official FA itineraries for all of these games – neatly presented on folded thick card bearing the Three Lions crest – are among the Kirkham collection.
We will keep Darrell updated on what becomes of everything he has sent to us and he has our promise that, if any are sold, all the money will be donated to charity.
Johnny Kirkham.
And we have already lined up a new home for the two prized medals from the Youth Cup and Charity Shield. We are donating those to the Wolves Museum, where a spokesperson said: “They will be a terrific addition to the showcases. We don’t have anything like that in there.”
Johnny died in 2021 only three months before his 80th birthday, having returned to England and set up home in Lancashire.
Readers who haven’t read the story of Darrell’s kidney transplant – and his dad’s vital role in it – can click on Match Of A Lifetime – Wolves Heroes to do so.