The Royal British Legion have partnered with Everton Football Club to create a Remembrance film.
The film will be shown on the big screens when the Toffees take on Fulham in their first Remembrance fixture at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on November 8.
They will use the 80th anniversary of the end of Second World War to celebrate the legacy of Evertonians who died in conflict.
Stuart Steel, Community Engagement Officer at Royal British Legion said: “It’s the 80th anniversary of World War Two in 1945.
“It coincides with the moving of Everton Football Club from Goodison, where they were for over 130 years, down to Bramley Moore Dock.
“Most people don’t know but it (Bramley Moore Dock) was a receiving station for troops coming back from the war. So those two sort of historic sites sort of collided with each other, and I just thought, what a great idea for a film.”
Stuart said it was important that they do not just celebrate the generation of 80 years ago.
He said: “We’re remembering those fans who stood next to you, who sat in that seat before you, who cheered on the team to victories well before you who served in the military to protect our freedoms.
“If we don’t remember, we will forget, and when we forget we make the same mistakes our forebears did.”
Royal British Legion is a corporate fellow of Liverpool John Moores University and cast some of their students to appear in the film.
Gus Ryrie, a former veteran, and now armed forces champion at LJMU said: “Royal British Legion do an amazing job.
“Royal British Legion, our university, and Everton Football Club worked together collaboratively to come up with something that in a fairly short time scale shows the prevalence of why we remember people.
“The idea of football clubs commemorating and supporting what the Royal British Legion does, I think is really important.
“As the biggest sport in the country, as the national sport, it becomes prevalent that they can engage with a wide range of people who go who go to football.”
Feature image: Stephen Hornby
