Many Arsenal fans that attended games at Highbury and the Emirates would have encountered a character called Frank Kelly.

If they didn’t know his name, there’s a good chance they will recognise him from the photo with this obituary.

Frank sadly passed away aged 68 at the beginning of February, and he certainly made enough of a contribution to The Gooner story for his sad death to be marked here.

Myself and my pal Dave started selling stuff at Arsenal matches at the start of the 1989-90 season, and by the end of it we were effectively distributing The Gooner to relieve editor Mike Francis of that duty from our ‘fanzine wall’ on Gillespie Road.

We knew Frank from the Highbury Barn pub, and the idea of him selling The Gooner to help him with beer money was mooted by mutual friends.

Now let’s not beat about the bush here. Frank both drank and smoked heavily and certainly continued smoking until the end of his days.

He didn’t look after himself physically and had to stop selling The Gooner after over 20 years in 2014 as a consequence of declining health.

However, we gave him a chance back in the early 1990s and over the years he both sold The Gooner for us – tens of thousands of copies - and in the final seasons at Highbury manned a stall that sold fanzines and memorabilia at the top of Aubert Park.

At the Emirates he sold from a spot in Benwell Road for eight seasons, until it became a bit too much of a struggle and he called it a day.

He used to go to the pub while the game was on in the years when he was not manning a stall and gravitated towards The George when Arsenal moved from Highbury.

Frank had some particular passions in life – outside of Arsenal and cricket, he enjoyed his music, most notably the Who, and his TV, none more so than ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and his conversation would be littered with Del Boy phrases.

Now Frank wasn’t so much of a wide boy in that sense, but he was a charmer.

He seemed to get on easily with most people and had a certain charisma that you don’t see too often, the kind that meant you could forgive him for a lot.

At various times, two of his sons manned the memorabilia stall in Drayton Park after the stadium move.

One of my favourite memories of Frank was a game we set the stall up for one Saturday, just knowing the match was going to be postponed as the snow was relentless.

I think it was against Stoke back in 2010. Frank arrived to sell The Gooner just before the match was called off, his son James already there to work on the stall.

They had the mother of all snowball fights and Frank’s standard insult ‘you cheeky git’ was heard many times until the snowball chucking stopped and we packed away the stall. 

The thing about all of the long-term Gooner sellers is that they often worked in the cold, wind and rain to eke out sales and although they were paid commission, at times it was a hard slog which they endured for the better days.

Frank worked on many such days, complained about the weather, but still turned up and did a shift.

The one question before he began working for Dave and myself was about his reliability. It was never an issue.

Another memory was his superstition of wanting to swap seats if Arsenal weren’t doing well, when Frank watched matches in the stadium.

More than once I ended up sitting in his seat if we were together and the team weren’t producing what we wanted to see on the pitch.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but I indulged him. Paris in 1995 was one time it didn’t, with teargas to boot.

I know a lot of people warmed to Frank and regularly had a chat with him and that he was missed once he stopped coming to the matches.

This is to inform those people who knew him that he has watched his last Arsenal match on TV, listened to his final Who record and smoked his last cigarette.

He died peacefully on the sofa in his flat and was found the following day by concerned family when they hadn’t heard from him.

I’ll retain fond memories of the old sod, and I am sure I won’t be alone.

Frank’s service will be held at Islington Cemetery & Crematorium (West Chapel), London N2 9AG at 330pm on Friday, March 8 followed by a wake at the Prince Arthur pub, 80 Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BX.

I’ll be there, so if you recognise me but I can’t place you, come and say hello and we can have a chuckle exchanging memories about Frank.

RIP fella

Kevin Whitcher