Home is the hero. He returns in spectral form but the welcome is substantial, loud in cheers and heartfelt in word and tone.
It is a sunny Tuesday in Musselburgh and the town is celebrating its annual festival. A crowd forms just outside Loretto School in anticipation of paying homage to a great footballer who was born in Fisherrow in the town.
It is 62 years to the day that John White, footballer and father, decided to have a game of golf at Crews Hill Golf Club in Enfield. He was on his own as his team-mates at Tottenham Hotspur did not fancy a round in the rain. White, only 27, took shelter under a tree. He was struck by lightning and died.
The anniversary is acknowledged by many in the crowd. They know the White story. They lived part of it with the player who travelled from Alloa to Falkirk and then Spurs.
There is the 91-year-old who played with White on Fisherrow. There is the daughter of footballing royalty who can tell of the impact on those who loved the footballer. There are those carrying photographs and other mementoes celebrating a link to a life cut cruelly short.
There is also Rob White, son of the great man.
John White was a huge part of Tottenham’s domestic and European success in the early 60s
The doors of the school theatre open and the crowd drifts in. The Ghost of White Hart Lane is about to appear on stage. The play has been derived from Rob White’s book. But first there are other stories to be told.
‘I am 91. Johnny was a bit younger,’ says Alex Young, who is eager to see the play. ‘I mind him and his brothers very well.’ Eddie and Tommy also became professional players.
‘We played every day and he was great, just great. Even as a laddie you could tell he was going to go to the top. In those days, if there was a ball available you just played and played. Games went on for hours. John danced past you. Once you didn’t pick him because he was the weest but gradually he grew and he was magnificent. He became first choice.
‘I always remember that I recommended him to Hibs but he went to Falkirk instead. I am a Hibee and I have never forgiven the club for that.’
He says this with a smile but becomes sombre when recalling how he heard the tragic news in 1964.
‘I came down the stair in the morning and saw the headlines in the newspaper. What an awful day.’
That day is recalled by Valerie Mackay, daughter of the wonderful Dave Mackay, a team mate of John’s with Spurs and Scotland.
White (second left) with Scotland boss Andy Beattie and fellow players Graham Leggat, Bertie Auld Ian St John and Denis Law
‘My mum was back home in Scotland as she was about to give birth to my sister,’ she recalls. ‘There was a knock of the door and a policeman asked her: “Did you know John White?”
‘My mother froze at that because it was in the past tense. That’s how she found out. My mum phoned dad and eventually got him. My father never talked about it. He loved John. I know he went to the tree where John died but how long after the death that was I don’t know. They were great friends.’
Mackay, a fabulous player and a fine gentleman off the pitch, later brought Rob to matches when he was manager of Derby County. The son of his team mate would ride in the team bus and sit in the dugout. It was fitting that a daughter of Mackay was in the stalls to see the first appearance of The Ghost of White Hart Lane in Musselburgh.
There were other familial links. Arron Palmer produced a photograph which showed a Borders select playing a side from the King’s Own Borderers. His dad – John ‘Jocky’ Palmer – was there alongside the great White who was doing his national service with the KOSB. ‘This photograph was always on show in our living-room,’ says Palmer.
‘I read this play was on and that’s why I am here. My dad had a trial for Sunderland but did not go further. He was a modest man and never talked of his link with White but obviously I am proud of it.’
Billy Brown, former footballer and coach and all-time Musselburgh worthy, is also present at the play.
‘I come from the Wimpeys just down the road from here and John went on to live there as well. I am 75 so did not get to see him play but I heard stories from those who did. Did you know he used to cut the feet off his socks so he could get a better feel of the ball?
White began his career with Alloa Athletic before moving on to Falkirk and then Tottenham
‘He would have been a great player in any era. He could run, he could pass and he could score. He was also a 100 per center. He trained well and played hard.’
Jim Gardiner, 71, is also too young to have seen White but he is a football historian and a product of the Honest Toun so has a wealth of knowledge.
‘I heard the stories from my uncles, my dad, my grandad. We lived in tenements on the Edinburgh Road and one of our neighbours was Tom White, who was lord provost at one time, and was John’s uncle. He was full of stories.
‘I used to run the team at Willie Ormond’s pub in the town. Willie was adamant that if John had lived Scotland would have qualified for the World Cup in 1966 and had a helluva tournament.’
Ormond, a member of Hibs’ Famous Five and once manager of Scotland, was not known for extravagant statements.
The audience drifts back out into the sunshine. The Ghost has made a matinee appearance and all are moved by the experience.
The play, written and directed by Martin Murphy, is based on Rob White’s experience of growing up without a father. Rob was only five months old when his dad died and the play is part personal remembrance and part homage to the star who seemed to be known by everyone except his son.
It was premiered at White Hart Lane two years ago and had a successful run on the Fringe but bringing it home to Musselburgh lent a further layer of drama to an extraordinary work.
Callum Newman offers a stunning performance as White and his son Rob in the stage play
It is impressive on so many levels, not least in that it is carried for more than an hour on the slim shoulders of Callum Newman. This is a one-man show. Newman delivers 75 minutes of script with only a suitcase as a prop and backed by a screen denoting time and place.
His fitness, both vocal and physical, is impressive but his ability to inhabit the personas of John and Rob White is astonishing.
‘I go to the gym, eat healthily…I wanted to be as close to John White as I could get and he was fit, especially for the time,’ says Newman. He has learned so much of the White story from Rob.
‘He is obviously a font of knowledge on the subject but I don’t believe this is simply a football story. It transcends sport. It is sometimes hard to believe it is a true story’
The play will now head to the Fringe before a run in the West End of London. It has been a dramatic learning curve for Newman who at 27 is the same age as John White was when he perished.
There is a bench in Olivebank, home of Musselburgh Athletic, that pays tribute to the lost hero. It has been taken inside the stadium from its erstwhile home in the town and beautifully restored.
‘There are words on it that struck me,’ says Newman. ‘It states that all glory comes from daring to begin.’
Rob White at the front door of the house in Links Street, Musselburgh, where his dad was born
It is pertinent to recall that the White story has elements of mischief and humour. This is a narrative about the life of a father and a son so it cannot and should not be desperately bleak.
‘People can forget how funny John was,’ says writer Martin Murphy. ‘You cannot lose that and hope to tell the story of the man. There is, of course, sadness but not just in his death. John lost his father at an early age and would now be diagnosed with some sort of seasonal affective disorder as he became depressed in the winter months. In those days, you were just told to get on with it and John did.’
The play thus has a brightness and a darkness that grips the audience. It can surprise, even gently shock.
It started, of course, as a book by Rob White and Julie Welch, the renowned sports writer. It was the search of a son for a father. There are hundreds of fellow travellers on this quest.
‘I meet so many people and everyone has their John White memory,’ says Rob after the play. ‘I was thinking today that part of the process of the biography and the play was cathartic. But it is now twisting in my brain to be a celebration, not something to hide from or feel really sad about.’
This view was reinforced by the steady queue of people approaching him with photographs or snippets of information about his dad.
The theme of a homecoming was strengthened by the presence of the Honest Lad and the Honest Lass of 2026, replete in full riding dress. The Musselburgh Festival was honouring one of its own.
White with the spoils of victory in 1962 after Tottenham’s second successive FA Cup triumph
Ali Barclay, one of the festival’s committee members, spoke of his delight at the play coming to the town, saying it was a worthy complement to that night’s five-a-side tournament at Olivebank. ‘The John White trophy and the Willie Ormond Trophy are up for grabs,’ he says. ‘John’s trophy was donated by Spurs and is wonderful with a cockerel on top. It is insured for five figures.’
But some things are priceless. Rob White, briefly free of those carrying remembrances of his father, reflects: ‘There is a sense of bringing him back home. It feels like he would have been mortified in one sense and as pleased as punch in another. I don’t think he would have ever been in the grounds of Loretto, except perhaps if he had kicked a ball over the wall.’
With that, he turns to the play’s staff and a decision is made to pursue ice cream. The Ghost is laid to rest for another day. But he may never truly leave Musselburgh or us.
