MH17 Victim's Memorabilia To Be Auctioned
Thousands of football programs, tickets and books collected by John Alder, who was killed when flight MH17 was shot down in July, are being auctioned for charity.
The sister of Newcastle fan John Alder, who was killed on board flight MH17, says she wants an auction of his memorabilia collection to bring some positives from his tragic death.
Thousands of football programs collected by John are going to be auctioned off for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.
John Alder, from Low Fell, was one of 298 people whose lives were tragically cut short when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July last year.
Along with fellow fan, Liam Sweeney, he was travelling to New Zealand to watch Newcastle United play in a pre-season tournament.
An incredibly dedicated football supporter, John missed just one Newcastle United game, home and away, in 40 years. He was also an avid collector of football memorabilia and his home was full of boxes of carefully stored match programmes.
John’s family has donated the collection to help the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and it will be auctioned at St James’ Park on Sunday.
Thousands of match programmes, tickets and books will go under the hammer, dating from 1920s to the present day, and the total collection is estimated to be worth at least £18,000.
Fred Wyrley-Birch, auctioneer at Anderson and Garland says: “We’re very proud to be involved with this auction. It’s a huge responsibility and we hope John would approve of the way we’ve catalogued his wonderful collection."
“It seems very fitting that Geordies, home and away, will be able to get involved and anyone interested in online bidding should register as soon as possible via our website.”
John’s extensive collection includes match programmes from the 1924 onwards which he sought from other collectors as well a tremendous volume of programmes and tickets from games he attended over 40 years following Newcastle United.
These include rarities from pre-season friendly fixtures, like Newcastle United's tour of Southern Africa during 1952, to John’s one and only NUFC scarf.
The final lot, number 224, is the match programme from Newcastle United’s pre-season friendly at Oldham Athletic on 15th July 2014, which was the final game John attended.