Another Star Mourned

Wolves Heroes have today heard of the sudden death of David Burnside at the age of 69.

The former Molineux inside-forward collapsed only a few hours after travelling to London on Friday to further his ambitions of becoming an MP.

Having been overwhelmingly nominated by his local association, he was due to be ratified by national members of the UKIP party to contest a seat in his native Bristol, where he still lived.

We spoke to him several days ago and were due to call him today to check that his nomination had been rubber-stamped.

David Instone was also ghost-writing his autobiography with him – due out next year – and had had several meetings with him in the West Country.

Burnside’s team-mates from Wolves and Albion were today coming to terms with the sad news of a man who also worked for 17 years for the FA, primarily in youth development.

“I’m just shattered,” said Les Wilson, having had a phone call last night from the player’s widow Muriel and son Stephen. “I am completely devastated.”

And John Holsgrove added: “It doesn’t seem five minutes since we lost Bobby Thomson and now we hear this appalling news.

“David and I played together at Crystal Palace, then linked up at Wolves and shared rooms when we spent nine weeks in America in 1967.

“I hadn’t seen him for many, many years until Derek Dougan’s funeral but he was always lovely company. When we returned from the States, Ronnie Allen gave us some extra time off, so I took my wife to Bournemouth for a day. Who should we plonk ourselves down next to on the beach but David, his wife and kids! Having spent virtually all the summer in each others’ pockets, we just fell about laughing.”

Burnside played 43 games for Wolves from 1966-68 and scored five goals.

A fuller account of his life and career will appear in the Obituaries section of this site in the next 24 hours.