My earliest memories of Eric were as a keen 16-year-old wannabe programme contributor. I used to lap up all the articles he, Graham Hayes, Ian Westbrook, John Hirdle, Rob Jex, and others wrote. I was smitten by the club’s history and keen for a piece of programme action. I wrote to Eric and asked if he needed any more helpers. To my delight, he agreed. On most Sunday evenings in the early 1990s you would find me cycling over to his Norwood Green bungalow and deliver my handwritten copy through the letter box. This was well before the advent of the internet that made things much easier. Come – mostly – rain or shine, he would publish my copy in the next edition.
By that time, I had become a member of the Brentford Programme Collectors’ Club, which Eric chaired. We would spend the time either buying programmes or catching up with club gossip. Back then, sales from programme donations were quite considerable. We would donate several thousand pounds to the parent club.
Eric became editor in 1959, relieving team manager Malcolm Macdonald. The Scot did the role for two years. He replaced Middlesex Chronicle editor George Sands. He had fallen out with the club over the sacking of Bill Dodgin senior. It seems astonishing now for a football manager to edit the programme, but it wasn’t that unusual in those days. Eric then edited the progamme for 15 years until 1974. He was forced to step aside for new club promotions manager Bill Berry. That lasted only 12 months before Eric was back in the saddle, where he remained until his death in 1996.
Printing programmes in the 20th century was a different art. FA Cup replays were a particular headache for Eric. If you were drawn away from home, the programme team would still write articles in advance in case there was a potential replay. In those days they took place on the Tuesday or Wednesday after the Saturday game. I still remember the fascination when Eric showed me a printer’s programme proof for a potential Yeovil Town cup home replay. It was a game that never took place because Brentford were knocked out at the first attempt.
There is no doubt Eric was a club man through and through. As Brentford’s honorary press officer, he would air its official viewpoint to the national and London evening newspapers (plural). After the QPR takeover crisis in 1967, huge rifts opened between the club and its supporters’ organisation. If there is any criticism to be laid on Eric during that time it was that he was a keen defender of Chairman Jack Dunnet before the crisis started and did alienate some fans as the boardroom battle for control of the club drifted on to the early 1970s.
He was at the mercy of several managers down the years. Some who would be most cooperative (Steve Perryman). And there were some suspicious of the press (Fred Callaghan). Most notable for me was David Webb. He took a dislike to my new away day feature in the programme. I made a comment about Stockport County’s style of play and put a stop to the column right there and then.
Eric and captain Ron Fenton – late 1960s
There’s no doubt my youthful interest in the programme was part of the reason I took on the role as editor in 2012.
It was a source of some considerable pride.
As an editor, in case you spot an error, you’re always terrified to open a freshly-printed programme.
However, I did manage to escape what can only be described as a programme editors’ nightmare, which happened to Eric in 1983.
After some crossed wires, Dai Hopkins, our Welsh international wing wizard from the 1930s and 1940s, had the unique experience of reading his own lengthy obituary in one of Eric’s programmes.
Dai saw the funny side and lived for a good few years more to tell the tale.
It’s fair to say that if you were looking for names of club personalities who volunteered their services for Brentford over a lengthy period, then Eric White will be high up on that list.
Mark Chapman