Showing posts with label Funeral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Funeral. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 August 2026
Friday, 10 October 2025
RICKY HUTTON FUNERAL: SON CAMPBELL PAYS AN EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE TO IN MEMORIAL SERVICE
A funeral procession started at the Cheshire Cheese pub and was led by the famous Reliant Robin van from Only Fools and Horses.
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| The coffin of Ricky Hatton is carried into Manchester Cathedral, by his brother Matthew Hatton, front right, and son Campbell Hatton, front left (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Wire) |
Ricky Hatton’s son Campbell paid an emotional tribute to the former two-weight world champion at his funeral in Manchester, saying: “I can’t explain how much I’m going to miss you, dad.”
Hatton, a popular, larger-than-life character who unified the light-welterweight division and also won a world welterweight title, was found dead aged 46 at his home in Hyde on September 14.
Campbell Hatton, who followed his father into boxing and won 14 of his 16 professional fights before retiring this year, said at the memorial service: “I can’t explain how much I’m going to miss you, dad, and that we won’t be making any new memories – but the ones we did I will cherish for ever.”
A funeral procession started at 9.45am at the Cheshire Cheese pub – Hatton’s local – and was led by the famous Reliant Robin van from Only Fools and Horses. Hatton was a huge fan of the show and once bought one of the original three-wheelers for £4,000.
The cortege included stops at Hatton’s boxing gym and the AO Arena, where he enjoyed some of his finest moments, the highlight indisputably being a win over the celebrated Kostya Tszyu on a raucous night 20 years ago to capture his first world title.
Thousands of mourners lined the streets in Manchester to pay tribute to Hatton, with a private memorial service at the city’s cathedral starting at midday.
In attendance was Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, a long-time friend of Hatton who accompanied him on his ring walk alongside brother Noel against Paulie Malignaggi in Las Vegas in 2008.
The great and good of British boxing also turned out, with Tyson Fury, Tony Bellew and Frank Bruno, as well as former England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff and former Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney, arriving at the cathedral.
Also among the mourners was Hatton’s former trainer Billy Graham, from whom he was virtually inseparable on his journey from the amateur ranks to the top of the boxing world.
Hatton’s mother Carol said in a statement read on her behalf at the service: “‘The Hitman’ was adored by his army of fans – the People’s Champion, and he would say that’s how he would want to be remembered.
“Long before this accolade he was our little champion from the day he was born.”
Following the service, the commemorative march will head to the Etihad Stadium, the home of Hatton’s beloved Manchester City.
Hatton’s all-action style brought him 45 wins and three defeats from 48 contests, but it was his down-to-earth demeanour that especially endeared him to fellow professionals and fans around the world.
That was evidenced by tens of thousands following him to Las Vegas, where he fought the two pound-for-pound greatest fighters of his era in Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, with stories of UK fans singing ‘there’s only one Ricky Hatton’ and drinking Sin City dry going down in boxing folklore.
Hatton suffered his first professional defeat when he was stopped by Mayweather in 2007, while a vicious second-round knockout by Pacquiao two years later precipitated his fall from top-level boxing.
A misguided comeback attempt against Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012 marked the first public admission Hatton was struggling to cope in retirement.
He was a tireless ambassador for mental health charities as well as Manchester-based Barnabus, which supports homeless and vulnerable people, and turned his hand to being a successful trainer in an attempt to fill the void.
Having participated in a no-scoring exhibition against Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera in 2022, Hatton announced in July he would return to the ring in a professional bout in Dubai in December.
He had resumed training and his family said he had been “in a good place” and “excited for the future” before his death, for which Greater Manchester Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.
- David Charlesworth
Saturday, 5 July 2025
Sunday, 15 September 2024
MURDERED UGANDAN OLYMPIAN REBECCA CHEPTEGEI'S FUNERAL MARCH BEGINS IN KENYA
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| The cortege of slain Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei leaves the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital funeral home in Eldoret, Kenya [Edwin Waita/Reuters] |
The body of murdered Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei has begun its journey home to Uganda, accompanied by activists calling for an end to gender-based violence in Kenya.
The 33-year-old athlete succumbed to her wounds on September 5 after being attacked four days earlier by her Kenyan partner, who poured petrol over her and set her on fire.
Tt happened just weeks after she made her Olympic debut in the women’s marathon in Paris, where she finished 44th.
Her funeral is planned for Saturday in Bukwo, home to her family in Uganda, but relatives in Kenya paid their respects on Friday in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, near where she lived.
Cheptegei is the third athlete to have died in Kenya as a result of gender-based violence since 2021, provoking a global outpouring of tributes and rage.
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| Family members mourn next to Cheptegei’s coffin in Eldoret, Kenya [Edwin Waita/Reuters] |
Tony Sabila, Cheptegei’s uncle, described her as “a pillar to the family” and expressed his sadness over her loss.
As the body passed through the town of Eldoret, scores of activists lined the road with others walking alongside the hearse.
At a rally the same day, many wore white shirts with an image of Cheptegei and carried white or red roses.
Others had signs reading, “Being a woman should not be a death sentence,” and “A house where a woman is not safe is not a home.”
Cheptegei was attacked outside her house in Endebass in Kenya. Local media reported her young daughters and teenage sister witnessed the assault.
Her attacker, 32-year-old Dickson Ndiema Marangach, was also severely burned and died in hospital on Monday.
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| Agnes Cheptegei is assisted in Eldoret, Kenya, as she mourns her daughter and Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after her boyfriend doused her in petrol and set her ablaze [Edwin Waita/Reuters] |
Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told reporters the dispute with Marangach had been over the property where she lived with her sister and daughters. He told Kenyan media last week that Marangach had bought 5 litres (1.3 gallons) of petrol and then hid out in a chicken coop before the attack.
“He poured the petrol and lit her on fire. When she called her sister to help, he threatened her with a machete, and she ran away.”
The police said the couple had “constantly had family wrangles”.
The United Nations condemned her “violent murder” with Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, saying: “Gender-based violence is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world and should be treated as such.
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| Agnes Cheptegei mourns her daughter Rebecca Cheptegei [Edwin Waita/Reuters] |
Throughout Kenya, 41 percent of women who have been married have experienced physical violence, compared with 20 percent of those who have not been married.
At least 500 women and girls have been murdered in Kenya since 2016, according to the UN.
Figures from UN Women Africa show that globally, there were 89,000 reports of women and girls murdered in 2022, the highest number recorded in 20 years. More than half of the women and girls were killed by intimate partners or other family members.
Kenya’s sports minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, said the Olympian’s death was a “stark reminder” that more must be done to combat gender-based violence.
Friday, 13 September 2024
DAVID BECKHAM AMONG MOURNERS
The funeral of Sven-Göran Eriksson, the first foreign manager to coach the England national team, was held on Friday in the small Swedish town of Torsby where he grew up before embarking on an illustrious career at the pinnacle of European football.
A soft-spoken but determined coach, Eriksson guided teams in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, winning major trophies in the 1980s and 1990s before taking on the England job in 2001, managing stars such as David Beckham, who was among the attendees at the service.
Eriksson announced in January that he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and spent much of the following months reconnecting with many of the places and people central to his career before he died last month.
He fulfilled his dream of managing Liverpool, after leading the club in a charity legends game against Ajax at Anfield in March.
The funeral took place in Torsby, a rural town of less than 5,000 people near the border with Norway, and was attended by several hundred people inside the church.
Some 200 seats in the neo-Gothic church from 1898 were reserved for his family, friends and players from his career in the football world, according to his agent. The remaining seats were open for the public, according to Eriksson's wish
Others followed the service on a big screen set up outside and the funeral was given blanket coverage by Swedish media.
The wooden coffin was wheeled in by pallbearers at the church Friday morning. Next to the casket was a photo of Eriksson on a small table. The floral wreaths included ones sent by FIFA and Lazio, the Italian team that Eriksson led to the Serie A title in 2000.
Others attending the funeral included the Swedish coach's longtime partner Nancy Dell'Olio.
Tributes flowed in from prime ministers, clubs and former players following the news of his death while national teams including England and Sweden played with black arm bands during the the September international break.
Eriksson, known in Sweden simply as "Svennis," led England to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup quarterfinals, and to the 2004 European Championship, managing a golden generation of players that besides Beckham included stars such as Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.
He began building his international reputation when he guided Swedish club IFK Gothenburg to the UEFA Cup in 1982 and went on to win silverware as coach of Portugal's Benfica and Italian clubs Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and Sampdoria.
Unable to end England's trophy drought, he left the helm of the national side in 2006, going on to coach Manchester City and Leicester City as well as Mexico and Ivory Coast and clubs in China and Philippines.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Saturday, 4 May 2024
Tuesday, 14 November 2023
THOUSANDS OF FANS WELCOME CHARLTON FUNERAL CORTEGE AT OLD TRAFFORD
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| Reuters |
Manchester United great Bobby Charlton was remembered both as one of English soccer's finest players and a "humble" and "fantastic" man by the thousands of fans and some of the sport's biggest names who bid him a final farewell on Monday.
Charlton, a World Cup winner with England and one of United's best ever players, died on Oct. 21 at the age of 86.
Former United manager Alex Ferguson, former players Andy Cole and Paul Scholes, England manager Gareth Southgate, Prince William and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin were among the some-1,000 invited guests who attended the private service at Manchester Cathedral.
Monday, 13 November 2023
THE FUNERAL OF MAN UNITED AND ENGLAND ICON SIR BOBBY CHARLTON TO BE HELD IN MANCHESTER
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| AP Photo |
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The funeral of Manchester United and England great Bobby Charlton will be held in Manchester on Monday.
The soccer icon, who was widely-regarded as the greatest English player in history, died last month. He was 86.
The funeral service will be held at Manchester Cathedral and is expected to be attended by around 1,000 guests, including former teammates and leading sporting figures.
Former United manager Alex Ferguson will be among the representatives of the club that Charlton played for from 1956-73, making 758 appearances. Some current members of United's first team will also be in attendance.
A funeral cortege will begin at United's Old Trafford stadium, where fans are likely to gather to pay their respects.
Charlton survived a plane crash in 1958 that decimated a United team that seemed destined for greatness. He then went on to help his country win the 1966 World Cup and lifted the European Cup with United two years later.
He scored 249 goals for his club and won three league titles, the FA Cup and the European Cup.
Charlton held the record as England's leading scorer with 49 goals until being surpassed by Wayne Rooney in 2015.
Harry Kane set a new benchmark this year and currently has 61 goals for his country.
Friday, 17 March 2023
Tuesday, 7 March 2023
Monday, 2 January 2023
Sunday, 2 January 2022
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