Obituary: A look back at the life of Oliver Phillips watfordfc
“He was a man I trusted,” the late Graham Taylor once said of a gifted journalist who was recognised as the leading authority on Watford FC and will be fondly remembered by many others for documenting the history of his home town following his death at the age of 81.
He was educated at Shirley House prep school, in Langley Road, and later at Kings School, Rochester, where his father had attended before him. He rated his greatest work as unearthing the names and backgrounds of those who died in the Sandringham Road V1 bomb in the Second World War - immersing himself in months of research - but he loved writing in general, particularly his popular Just a Word and Just a Thought columns, which mixed opinion, observation and whimsy.
He spent years trying and hoping he had effectively held the mirror up to show the supporters what was going on at Watford FC but he admitted in retirement that it was not until fans gave him a 90-second standing ovation at Vicarage Road one night, that he realised he “might have struck a chord”. Some 30 years later, in the 1980s, his friend, cartoonist Terry Challis, who he introduced to the Watford Observer’s columns, told him to slide in first upon arrival in the press box at St James’s Park. Oli was amazed and elated to find himself sitting next to Tyneside legend Wor’ Jackie who had become a journalist, and they struck up a passing friendship that lasted until Milburn’s death.
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