‘It’s up to us all to make sure Sir Bobby Charlton’s values live on’

I clearly remember first reading those words when I was a child, looking through a football history book, and they’ve remained with me ever since.

I thought of them again when I heard the news that Sir Bobby Charlton had passed away.

The tributes that quickly flowed gave equal weight to the good values that he embodied as a human being, as well as to the on-pitch skills that made him England’s greatest ever footballer.

Newspaper headlines used words like ‘hero’ and ‘legend’, words that come easily following the death of many sportsmen and women.

But the one that stood out, and was most frequently used, was ‘gentleman.’

Sadly, Sir Bobby’s death marks the not only the end of a footballing era, but also the on-going slow and heart-breaking goodbye to one of Britain’s greatest ever generations.

Many of the those born in the first half of the last century grew up in the dark shadow cast by the effects of two World Wars.

Working class areas like Ashington, where Sir Bobby and his brother Jack were born and raised, bred resilient, dignified, respectful and humble people who knew the only way they could get on was by getting your head down and grafting hard.

Most families in those towns, from where many of those who fought the wars came, were touched by the tragedies of those conflicts.

They were also the generation that having experienced the horrors of war, be it directly or indirectly, didn’t want to live through anything like it again.

Heaven knows, looking at the disturbing scenes of protest on the streets of our capital for the past few weeks, we need more like them now.

They knew what it was to experience real struggle, real hardship, but dealt with it in a reserved way and without complaint.

With a coal miner father when most mines were death traps, Sir Bobby and Jack would have seen the daily jeopardy he had faced just going out for a day’s work.

Sir Bobby displayed more of his own quiet courage in coping with the life-long personal legacy of surviving the Munich air disaster that took the lives of 23 people, including eight of his Manchester United teammates.

Towns like Ashington were also places with a strong sense of community, where if one family was struggling, others would step in to help.

Shortly after Jack Charlton’s death, a film re-emerged of him returning to shoot a documentary on the streets where he and his brother had grown up.

Everyone he met, he referred to them respectfully as ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs’.

He was then a successful, international footballer, but his humility and respect for others, qualities shared by Sir Bobby too, still shone through.

I was lucky to have been brought up in the North east of England among people who shared similar values and had experienced similar tough times.

As time goes on their numbers dwindle.

Now those of us who are lucky to have been close to them have a duty to make sure what made them great doesn’t dwindle too.

It’s easy to mouth platitudes about values and legacy when fine people like Sir Bobby pass away.

But it’s up to each of us to make sure we don’t forget what they stood for and use moments like this to preserve their virtues, letting them live on through us.

I felt it myself when my own father passed away a few years ago.

Eight years younger than Sir Bobby, my father’s beginnings weren’t hugely different from his.

Born and brought up in a working-class household in 1940s West Yorkshire, he’d always worked hard to support his family.

Quiet, unassuming, and decent to all he met, he taught me and my brother by example what it meant to be good men, good human beings.

As I watched him pass away, I realised that when your role models die you have a duty to keep them alive in the way you live your life.

I only hope I can eventually live up to that.

Like Sir Bobby, who was the ultimate role model, he came from that gentler generation with a strong sense of right and wrong.

So, Mr Charlton, you will live on in the hearts you leave behind.

But it’s up to all of us to make sure your values do too.