A non-football Maurice Sills story

A few years ago some of our American cousins were over and I took them to London for the day. First up was St Paul’s Cathedral where I knew they would love, we arrived and I paid for 4 tickets to get in. At the desk I asked if Maurice was in that day as I know they would have loved to have met him, but whatever day of the week we visited was not one of his working days. The staff asked how I knew Maurice and explained it was through our support of City and he was part of our travel group.

We spent a few hours at St Paul’s and on the way out the manager of the shop/ticket office saw us and very quietly but firmly asked if I could come back to the till with him. I was a bit alarmed about this to start with as he said he needed to see my credit card receipt for the entry money!

My cousins were also a bit worried at this but walked out and I said I’d see them in a few minutes.

Turns out the manager was a Charlton fan and Maurice had recently been to the game at the Valley with him; my assumption was that as Maurice normally sat on the side of the pitch and not with the away fans he’d secured the tickets.

He took back the receipt, cancelled it and gave me back the entrance ££ and insisted I took it back with the words “Any friend of Maurice is a friend of ours”.

I took the cash, put £10 of it back in a collection box (which was roughly my fee) and gave the rest back to my cousins as they were on a budget for the trip. They couldn’t quite believe it.

Maurice had that effect on people

RIP Maurice, a true gent of football.

Posted By: KentonCanary, Jun 27, 07:56:48