Westwood The Pirate - Our Memories

Last updated : 17 March 2014 By Footy Mad - Editor

For those younger NU-Mad readers, William Westwood, 2nd Baron, was chairman of the club the last time we won silverware - the Inter City Fairs Cup.

About as unpopular with the Geordie fans as a Mike Ashley is today, he was out of touch with the paying public at SJP and it was indeed a happy day when he left.

As well as being a Director of the football club, he was also a Director of Hornby trains (I kid you not) and President of the Football League.

He was Chairman of the club when we last had a players uprising, and bowed to player power and appointed Richard Dinnis as manager.

Now Westwood took stick for that (because Dinnis didn't last a year) but if the truth was known ... he didn't want Dinnis in the first place.

Westwood was also involved in a ticket touting scandal when he promised 1951 FA Cup tickets to an MP, these tickets were included in a raffle before the police stepped in to stop the tickets becoming available.

Westwood lost one of his eyes in a car accident in 1956. As a result, he wore an eye patch for the rest of his life ... which is how he was cruelly nicknamed "Pirate".

Lord Westwood followed his father, seven years after the death of his father, into the Newcastle United boardroom in 1960. Three years later he became chairman and was to hold the post for the next 18 years.

The colourful chairman was voted president of the Football League in 1974, vice-chairman of the Football Association and served on the UEFA professional committee.

He resigned from the board under controversial circumstances in 1981.

Newcastle United were in dire straits and each director had been asked to put a £16,000 guarantee into the club to help finances.

Lord Westwood had just been hit with a big financial loss following the stock market collapse of DCM, Europe's leading toy company, of which he was also chairman, and he refused to dig any deeper in helping out Newcastle United.

Hornby Railways released a model Hall Class Locomotive in 1973 and 1974 called Lord Westwood.

The lowest point in his stint as chairman was in the crisis-torn year of 1977, when six leading first team players threatened to quit the club after contract talks broke down.

Amid allegations of back-stabbing in the boardroom, Lord Westwood, ordered a complete ban of every Newcastle United employee, especially the players, from talking to the press.

So THAT'S where Ashley got it from!

After a string of defeats, Newcastle went down 2–1 to Arsenal at St James' Park and hundreds of demonstrators called for the chairman's resignation.

Many fans fought among themselves in the Leazes End and there were 10 arrests.

Lord Westwood died in 8 November 1991.