SADNESS

Glenavon is saddened to learn of the passing of lifelong supporter Mervyn Percy.

He was born in Sloan Street a couple of months before the Luftwaffe’s planes flew over Lurgan in April and May 1941 on the way to Belfast to carry out four devastating raids.

He spent most of his formative years with his grandparents in Kilmore.

At the end of the 1940s Mervyn attended his first game at Mourneview Park and in 1952 witnessed Harry Walker’s great team create football history by becoming the first from outside Belfast to clinch the Irish League Championship.

When Glenavon had a home match he rode a bicycle to Lurgan and left it at his parents’ house before completing the journey on Shanks’ Mare. He was one of the many young supporters who were regularly admitted free on the questionable pretext that they were assisting well known wheelchair bound supporter John Girvan!

The Percys’ next door neighbours in Sloan Street were Jimmy and Violet Cush. Their son Wilbur, the outstanding Irish footballer during the 1950s era, was Mervyn’s hero.

In 1956 Mervyn joined the Triangle Glenavon Supporters’ Club. In 1990-92 he served a two year term as Chairman, later became President and was subsequently made a Life Member.

Between 1994 and 1996 he was the driving force behind the building and extending of the Triangle’s spacious and attractively furnished Clubroom.

Keith, Mervyn’s son, was a talented midfielder and a vital member of the team managed by Alan Fraser which, in 1994, came agonisingly close to clinching a first League title since 1960.

In the mid-1950s the Sloan Street man started his working life as an apprentice plumber with Bob Stevenson of Church Place. In the early 1970s he established his own plumbing contractors’ business and managed it until retirement.

Mervyn was a committed family man. He was friendly, kind, and generous. Everyone who knew him, loved him. He exemplified the exhortation to loyalty – be steadfast “win, lose or draw” – which lies at the heart of the Triangle’s name.

He will be greatly missed.

Sincere condolences are extended to wife Joan, son Keith, daughter Helen, and the rest of the Percy family.

Be Just and Fear Not.