How being evacuated from Margate during Second World War started Ron's 70-year Chesterfield FC passion

His family’s remarkable story of bravery and resilience would take them via Staffordshire before eventually settling in Derbyshire.

It was here that Ron, now aged 90, fell in love with the Spireites as a teenager and he still continues to attend matches to this day as a season ticket holder on the Kop with his son and grandchildren.

Such is his passion for the Blues, at his 90th birthday last month his family surprised him with a special Chesterfield cake and he also has his name engraved on a brick at the Kop end and in the reception area of the stadium to celebrate the 150th anniversary.

Ron was born on August 23 in 1930 and lived in Margate along with his two sisters Pamela and Peggy, his mum Elsie and dad William.

Nine years later, their lives would change forever.

“The government decided that kids living in that sort of area of England had to be evacuated because of the danger of invasion from the Germans because they were getting close to England,” Ron, who now lives in Dronfield, told the Derbyshire Times.

"All of the schools were evacuated and on September 2, 1939, my mum took us to Westgate station just outside Margate and we all had to get on this train.”

Ron and Pamela were bundled into the carriages with absolutely no idea where they were going. Not even their mum, who stayed behind in Margate with three-year-old Peggy, was told.

After a journey of about three hours, Ron and Pamela arrived in the Staffordshire market town of Rugeley.

“When we got there they took us to this big hall and we all had to go up on stage and there were a lot of parents,” Ron explained. “They got paid to look after kids during the evacuations. They kept saying ‘who wants this one, who wants that one’. One woman said ‘I’ll have that one but I don’t want the girl’. I said I was not going without my sister Pamela, she was six at the time. Eventually this couple decided to take us in.”

Ron and Pamela stayed in Staffordshire for two years but during this time they did not get to see their mum because she could not afford to travel up to see them, and their dad William was away in the RAF after volunteering.

Later on, like most RAF personnel in those days, William suffered horribly from nerves due to the bombings and he was sent to a hospital in Matlock. As a result of his condition, William was medically discharged from the RAF and decided to set up home in nearby Chesterfield after getting a job as a bus driver.

Finally, after years apart, the family were reunited in Newbold in 1944 when Ron was 14. He would go to Chesterfield Grammar School and then get a job as an instrument engineer at British Thomson-Houston, which later became Dema Glass, which of course is where the Technique Stadium is located now. He then followed in his dad’s footsteps and went into the RAF for two years.

“It was in 1947 that I became a Spireite and I have supported Chesterfield ever since,” Ron, who is the current chairman of the Chesterfield & District Table Tennis League, said.

Ron, who has two children and five grandchildren, believes his first Chesterfield match was against Bury in the old Second Division, which was a 3-1 win.

“I started taking my son Steve to Saltergate when he was about six or seven,” Ron said. “He (Steve) has three children and we all sit together on the Kop. I was thrilled to bits when I got my son to go to matches and his three lads. I just feel sorry for them that we got relegated out of the Football League but it has not stopped them going.”

Recalling his favourite moments watching Town over the years, Ron said he will always look back fondly on following the Blues to Wembley and the promotions.

“We probably enjoyed it a lot more at Saltergate because we all stood up on the Kop and when we first started you were allowed to go to the other end at Cross Street but they stopped doing that,” he said.

When asked why he choose to support the Spireites, he added: “I think you should support your local team. I know there is Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United but I never wanted to go there. I always wanted to support my own team, you get more of a thrill out of that.

“It was a shame that we went down into the National League but I think they will turn it around.”

Ron’s step-grandson, Chris Cooper, added: “No matter how high, or how low the club have been over the years, Ron has hardly missed a single home game in over seven decades. That level of support and dedication is a testament to his loyalty, and to the passion he’s always had for his beloved Spireites.”