IT was very sad to read of the passing of Eddie Gill (Tributes paid to a true gentleman, July 5).

I was in the same class as Eddie throughout secondary school at Canon Lee, and it was our first year there that York City lost their FA Cup semi-final replay match against Newcastle in 1955.

Eddie was always good at sport, and by year three, as I was called on to do the piano in morning assembly whenever the music teacher was away, Eddie was having extra training for field sports as well as having a trial with York City boys soccer team.

Bobby Atkinson was in the same class and he went on to run Atkinson’s Ariels, while classmate Tommy Bye was a nephew of the now elderly George Bye, who appeared in the Yesterdays Once More page in last month’s Press.

Eddie was missing from our 1956 class photo, but appears on the 1957 one in Mr Cooper’s class if his widow, Barbara, has a copy.

Allan Denney, Catesby House, Holgate Road, York.