Peter Gledstone

Born in Ferndown in 1934, he was moved to Lymington as a child during World War II before beginning his football career with the Bournemouth Gasworks team, where his father was an inspector, helping them to win the Hampshire Senior Cup in 1953-4. It was as a 19-year-old at the Gasworks that he met the love of his life, Mary, who he married in 1954 and went on to have two daughters with – Tania and Andrea. He gained Dorset County honours prior to joining Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in November 1955. After National Service in Cyprus with the Royal Berkshire Regiment, he had his League debut at home against Port Vale in April 1958. Partnered in defence with the likes of Jack Gregory and Arnold Woollard, Mr Gledstone played a key role in the Cherries’ 1961-2 promotion near-miss under Bill McGarry. He scored twice in 131 League games for the club before a series of knee injuries and operations curtailed his playing career in June 1964. He went on to play for Bournemouth Fire Brigade while working as a painter and decorator, before he emigrated to New Zealand in March 1967. Settling in Auckland, he had two spells as an aircraft technician with Air New Zealand either side of a year back in Bournemouth as a typewriter technician. He loved travelling, and spent much of his later life visiting locations including the US, Canada and Singapore with Mary. He later moved to Australia where he worked as a maintenance engineer until retiring in 1999, when he moved to Cabarita Beach, New South Wales.