CLUB HISTORY: FORMER GOALKEEPER JACK KIRBY’S HEADSTONE RESTORED.

The renovation of former Derby County custodian John ‘Jack‘ Kirby’s gravestone has been completed.

In October 2024, local historian Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa launched a fundraising website with the goal of obtaining £1,500 for the repair.

Donations arrived from all over the world, and work on the burial, which had weathered over time, has now been completed.

Kirby joined the Rams from Derbyshire’s Newhall United in 1929 and played for them until 1938. Kirby made his debut in the 1929/30 season, when the club finished second in the First Division.

He went on to make a total of 191 games, 173 of which were in the league. Kirby was born in South Derbyshire on September 30, 1909, and is best remembered for being a member of the Derby squad that toured Germany in 1934, defying the government by refusing to give a stiff-arm salute before each game.

After leaving the Rams, he became player-manager of Folkstone Town in Kent before resigning shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Kirby died on June 15, 1960, at the age of fifty, and was buried at St Peter’s Church in Netherseal, Derbyshire.

Derby County would like to thank Kalwinder for his efforts in refurbishing the headstone, as well as everyone who donated to honour Kirby’s memory.

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