Like many we were very sad to hear of the passing of former club photographer Stevie Bacon late last week.
The former East Ham Grammar School pupil and Plaistow born Eastender began working for the Newham Recorder in 1973 as a freelancer, initially he covered the West Ham speedway track but later around 1976 he started covering West Ham games when his work colleague Arthur Edwards couldn’t do them as went on to bigger things at the Sun eventually becoming the famous royal photographer.
Writing in his autobiography ‘There’s only one Stevie Bacon’ the West Ham mad fan explained it was John Lyall who approached him in 1980 following the FA cup win against Arsenal to ask him if he would like to become the club’s official photographer, an offer he quickly jumped at the chance.
Before that the club had employed freelancers and the previous year a freelance photographer has asked players to hurdle benches for action shots and one player got injured.
Stevie became a regular on match days taking photographs of the match day mascots as well as getting action shots of the games.
His most iconic photograph is that of an injured Billy Bonds bandaged and bleeding, but Stevie quickly became a players’ and fans favourite with supporters often singing ‘There’s only one Stevie Bacon!’ much to the confusion of away fans wondering who this Stevie Bacon was.
Stevie only stepped down in his role as the official club photographer in 2014 after 34 years in the role due to ill health tragically having his left limb amputated the next year due to complications with diabetes, from which he has suffered for some time. He lost his right leg in 2022 but battled on with a pacemaker for a heart condition and issue with his lungs but was a frequent contributor on social media engaging with fans right up to two weeks before his death.
It was great to see the club recognise him on Saturday 15 minutes before kick-off and a few spontaneous retentions of there’s only one Stevie Bacon at the London Stadium from some old school Hammers.
Everyone at Claret and Hugh would like to pass on our sincere condolences to Steve’s family and friends at this sad time.
