Hillsborough stories: Arthur Horrocks

Arthur Horrocks was a married father-of-two who died in the Hillsborough disaster of 15 April 1989. He was 41.

This is the full statement to the inquests by his widow Susan, and read by his son Jon:

Arthur Horrocks: "Husband, best friend, father, brother, much-loved uncle"

Arthur Horrocks was born in Liverpool on 19 January 1948. He was the baby of his family, having two older brothers, Malcolm and George, and an older sister Edna.

Arthur's parents were George and Mary. Sadly, his dad died prior to Arthur's death, but his mother lived to learn that he was crushed at Hillsborough and was devastated.

Arthur grew up loving music. He used to go to the Cavern Club in his school lunchbreak at the Collegiate Grammar School on Netherfield Lane when he was 14 and 15.

The club was only 10 minutes away from his school. His other passion was sport and in particular football, supporting Liverpool Football Club, and attending every home and away game until our children came along.

Arthur and other members of our family would arrange a game of football every Boxing Day in our local park.

I met Arthur when I was 12 years old, as we were both attending the same church. We started courting when I was 16 and we married when I was 18 and Arthur was 22.

'Full of fun'

It was nine years before our sons Jamie and Jon came along and in those years we had a great life together.

We visited the theatre, both here in Liverpool and in London, also taking our nephews and nieces Janet, Billy, David, Gill and Keith to the cinema and on trips out.

We holidayed often in Cornwall having been there for the first time on our honeymoon.

As our nieces and nephews grew up, we attended many Elton John concerts, particularly with David.

He and his brother Keith regarded Arthur as a close elder brother. We also went to many Wembley Cup finals and made a weekend away of it.

Arthur went to away games as well and was at Heysel in 1985, but was nowhere near any violence at that match and unaware of it. Indeed, he was never aware of violence at any football match he attended. The policing at Anfield was very good and the games peaceful and enjoyable.

Arthur was full of fun and nothing was too much trouble for him to arrange for us. In 1979, our first son Jamie arrived, and was loved by all. Two years later came Jon and our family was complete.

We went on many family holidays with my parents Sam and Betty, and Arthur was like a son to them. My mum suffered from multiple sclerosis and he would help her in every way, lifting and making sure she had everything she needed.

Arthur worshipped our sons and would take them to the park or climbing, always playing with them. As they grew older, he attended all their parents' evenings at school and all school activities, even joining in the fathers' race at Jamie's sports day.

Having worked after leaving school as a bus conductor, Arthur became an insurance agent with the Prudential in the mid 70s.

Whilst he went to their offices and on training courses for part of the time, he otherwise worked from home, visiting clients and was available to spend time with the children during the day, doing some of his visits and paperwork in the evenings.

He once brought home a poodle from a customer who was unable to pay her dues. Arthur put in her money himself, and the dog was part of our family for many years.

'Wonderful husband'

Jamie is just like his dad, being the life and soul of any situation, and Jon has his dad's sense of humour and love of sport, especially football and Liverpool Football Club.

As 'the man from the Pru', Arthur was very popular with his customers, many of whom phoned me in tears after his death. They and his huge number of friends showed their love for him by attending his funeral. More than 800 people came to the church, many standing outside.

Higher Bebington Junior School, attended by Jamie and Jon, paid tribute by setting up a yearly football tournament with a trophy engraved as the Arthur Horrocks Memorial Cup. This spoke volumes for the regard in which Arthur was held.

This has been the hardest thing I have ever had to write.

But I hope it goes some way towards saying what a wonderful husband and best friend he was to me, as well as a devoted and much loved dad, brother, uncle and friend and how much we all miss him every day.