St.Helens R.F.C. would like to send the condolences of everyone at the Club to the family and friends of Arthur Moore. Arthur was a wonderful member of our staff, who worked for the Club for over 50 years at our old home - Knowsley Road.
The following obituary has been kindly provided by Arthur’s son, Andy.
Arthur Moore, who passed on January 24th at the age of 93, was a lifelong Saints fan who worked in the cash office at Knowsley Road on matchdays for 55 years.
For much of that time dad served as chief matchday cashier, retiring from the role in 2002 aged 71 (and bowing out on a Grand Final win).
Dad’s role involved sending out and paying all the turnstile operators at the beginning of each matchday but that was only the start of it.
All the cash that poured in on a matchday would descend on dad’s office, where he and his loyal staff (mostly from the NatWest) were tasked not only with counting it but also making the amount of cash taken at the turnstiles balance with the number of admissions – and doing so before the security guards arrived to transport it all to the bank.
In these days when it’s hardly possible to pay for anything with cash on a matchday, it’s hard to imagine what a different world Knowsley Road was. I know from first-hand experience that turnstile operators would be buried under mountains of notes, which could get very wet on rainy days in those leaky wooden turnstile huts.
But whatever state the cash was in, dad and co. counted it up. It wasn’t too dissimilar to his day job as a cash and salaries manager at Pilkingtons, where he worked for 45 years.
I’ve kept the cuttings from the local papers, which made quite a fuss of dad when he finished at Saints and they all went on the same angle: the fan who had hardly missed a match at home for 55 years but never saw his team play there. That’s not completely true: if they had a good day and balanced early, he might see the final 10 minutes. The Echo had the best headline, ‘Patience of a Saint’ as dad looked forward to finally taking a seat in the stand after being rewarded for his services with a season ticket for life.
There are still a few turnstile operators around from dad’s day and he always enjoyed bumping into them at the ground. And he loved going in for his season ticket each December to talk about the old times with Chris in the office. To keep our family tradition going, I’ve manned a turnstile myself for 40 years but I could never have graduated to dad’s job. Not only do I lack his head for figures … I couldn’t bear missing the match.
The pictures attached both show dad with Eamonn [McManus] and were taken 20 years apart.
The first was the presentation to dad on the Knowsley Road pitch at his final fixture in 2002, and I’ll briefly tell you the story of the second. By the time he reached 90 dad had to pick and choose his games, and in the last couple of seasons we’ve treated him to a match in hospitality. When we were there in 2022, my wife Michelle gingerly knocked on the boardroom door and asked if Eamonn would like to see Arthur again after all this time. I felt sure he’d have forgotten but I should have known better. Not only did Eamonn recall Arthur well, he came over for a chat and asked Bernard Platt to take this photo which dad treasured as much as their first.
Arthur’s funeral will take place at Moss Bank Mission, very close to his home on Moss Bank Road, on Wednesday, 21st February at 2.30pm.
Everyone at St.Helens R.F.C. extends our thanks to Arthur for his 55 years of service to the Club, and we send our condolences to Arthur’s family and friends at this sad time.
