Links With The Past: FA Cup Final Greetings Telegram
This greetings telegram was sent to Leicester City on 23 April, 1969, three days before the FA Cup Final against Manchester City. It was sent by ‘Robin Bullock. W.A Palmer Printers Ltd.’
Behind these very ordinary words lies a story relating to Leicester City’s history in the 1950s. Robin, who had been on City’s books in the early 1950s playing for the ‘A’ team and the reserves, was the son of Norman Bullock, an ex-England international forward who was Leicester’s manager between 1950 and 1955.
Norman came to Leicester City with a five-year plan to get the Club back into the top flight, a feat he achieved when his side won the Second Division title in 1954.
The reason that Robin was at ‘W.A Palmer Printers’ relates to the story behind his father resigning from Leicester City in February 1955. With his position as manager already under threat due to the team struggling in the top flight, the board of directors refused to fully back him following two breaches of discipline by the inside-forward Johnny Morris, the second of which took place at the Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay while the team was on away trip to play Newcastle United. This led to Bullock resigning.
Speaking in 2012, Robin told us: “After he resigned, I went down to the Club to collect him. It knocked the stuffing out of dad for a while. He turned down the manager’s job at Bournemouth. He wasn’t too sure what he was going to do. He was only 50 and had a family to look after.
“It was then that the Leicester City Chairman, Len Shipman offered to sell him a small printing company (W.A. Palmer Printers) and to stand surety at the bank. This appealed to dad and he invited me to join him, which I did. We knew nothing about printing and even less about bookkeeping. Fortunately, Ken Warren, who had worked on the City accounts, offered his services free until we could manage on our own. It was a fantastic offer and helped dad enormously. We made a great success of the printing business, winning some very good accounts.”