Our club has lost one of its most loyal and generous benefactors with the death yesterday of Bernie Coleman. He was 97.
Older supporters will remember him as the man who saved The Dons at a critical moment in our history. In fact, but for him, we might not exist today.
Bernie bought the old Wimbledon in 1972 because no one wanted it and he cared passionately about the community and sport. He wrote off the debts, stabilised the finances and then sold it for what he had paid for it - £2,971.
He remained a passionate fan for over 50 years, saw us play at every level of football at the old Plough Lane, Selhurst Park and Kingsmeadow. His greatest game, he always said, was the F A Cup tie at Leeds United in 1975.
Bernie was still with us when we re-formed as AFC Wimbledon, making regular donations to the Foundation and investing in the Plough Lane Bond. ‘Mind you, I doubt if I’ll be around to see a return on it’, he joked at the time.
This year alone he paid for 25 season tickets for local children to share and bought hundreds of copies of our book ‘We Are Home” for every school and library in Merton. Little more than a week ago he gave the Dons Local Action Group a cheque to help pay for a Christmas party for its volunteers.
Bernie once had a financial stake in Crystal Palace and when the club was sold he used the money to create a charitable trust which, besides helping us, has supported local charities and provided coaching for promising young cricketers.
One of Bernie’s proudest moments was going to Buckingham Palace to receive an OBE for his charitable work.
In fact, cricket was his greatest sporting love. He was president of Surrey, helped transform the Oval and toured the world with the England team.
Bernie was also the popular owner of the ‘Dog & Fox’ in Wimbledon Village. Among his many other pubs were ‘The Castle’ in Tooting and ‘Woodies’ next to our training ground in New Malden.
His business partner in the pubs was Joyce Jones and when they retired in their eighties they secretly married at Morden Register Office, recruiting two council gardeners to be their witnesses!
Joyce died two years ago. Bernie became more frail but he still followed our results and read copies of our programmes. Only last week he had talked of one day feeling well enough to visit the new stadium his generosity had helped create. Sadly, it never happened.
Long before his death Bernie made it clear there wouldn’t be a funeral. 'I don’t want a fuss', he said.
So typical of a man whose contribution to the club we will always treasure.