Spurs founder given grave tribute

Tottenham Hotspur in 1885 before their first competitive match

A memorial to the man who founded the London football club Tottenham Hotspur is being unveiled in Kent.

The Reverend John Ripsher created the club, nicknamed Spurs, in 1882, to keep local children off the streets.

He left London in 1894 and moved to Dover, Kent, but died in 1907 in a workhouse and was buried in a pauper's grave, marked only with a number.

The new headstone is being unveiled at Charlton cemetery in Dover in front of his descendants and club officials.

Mr Ripsher was a bible teacher at All Hallow's Church in Tottenham, and started the football team, which he called Hotspurs, to benefit a group of boys who attended his classes.

100th anniversary

He moved to Dover, where his sister ran a hotel, but little is known of him after that, other than he went blind and died in the workhouse which eventually became Buckland Hospital.

His last resting place was uncovered by author Peter Lupson while researching the origins of major teams for his book, Thank God for Football.

Monday's ceremony to unveil a new headstone, paid for by the Spurs Supporters' Club, comes 100 years after Mr Ripsher's death and in the year the football club celebrates its 125th anniversary.

Among those attending the event will be relatives of Walter Tull, from Folkestone, who became one of Britain's first black footballers when he turned out for Spurs before World War I.