ON the face of it this picture is simply a plea for names to complete the line-up of names where memory has failed to fill all the gaps.

The photograph is of the Beeches football team in 1933 and it is true that some of the names are missing. It was sent in by Geoffrey Le Marquand who now lives in Southampton and includes his father, Alfred, who is seated in the middle of the front row.

What makes this photograph more unusual, especially for the Le Marquand family, is the timing of the picture. It was taken on 9 November 1933, just four days before Alfred was involved in a serious road accident in which he lost his right leg. Geoffrey Le Marquand has also sent in the news clipping about his father’s accident.

Alfred was only 23 years old when the accident happened at the junction of Kensington Place and the Esplanade. He had just filled the tank of his motor cycle at Pitcher’s Garage and was turning onto the Esplanade when the collision happened with a lorry headed in the direction of the Weighbridge.

‘As soon as he saw the motor cyclist the lorry applied his brakes, but it was raining and the road surface was slippery. The lorry skidded and the front wheel of the motor cycle became wedged in the bumper of the lorry. Both vehicles skidded across the road locked together, a distance of 80 feet until brought up against the railings bordering the railway line,’ reads the report.

According to the report the impact burst the bike’s petrol tank, which then caught fire. Alfred was trapped by the weight of the bike. He was saved from severe burns by the actions of passerby Thomas Strachan, the drummer in Leslie Wilson’s Pavilion Band, who pulled him free of the bike and the flames.

The report goes on to mention Alfred’s footballing talent and the fact that he had been expected to play in Guernsey later that week.

• Geoffrey’s knowledge of the photograph line up is as follows:
Back row: Unknown, Jack Dupré, Andrew Labbé, unknown. Middle row: Arthur Mutton, John Marquis, Francis Jackson and Willi Walsh. Front row: Robert Le Riche, Alfred Le Marquand, unknown.