The papers, and in particular my Guardian, were full of the death of footballing "legend" George Best at the weekend (although most of them had actually published the obituary the day he died). To be honest Best doesn't really get picked up in many childhood memories and I can't help but feel that he has made such of an arse of the rest of his life that he shouldn’t have been afforded the accolades he received - we seem to adore the self destuctive star don't we. I even read that his funeral could be as big as Princess Di's.

I think the only memory I do have of Mr Best was in the playground in about 1968 we were given balls to play with and I remember my teacher shouting come on dribble the ball like George Best and I thought "who?" I'm sure a few years later I owned a pair of George Best football boots but I can't be sure. He had given up playing football in the UK by the time I started going to football matches just after Sunderland's FA Cup victory in 1973.

The article that caught my eye was half a column inch on page 11, the last surviving witness of the famous Christmas truce in the trenches during World War 1 died this week aged 109. I couldn't help but feel that here was a story more worthy of coverage than that of the demise of Mr Best. After all Alfred Anderson had been there at one of the most amazing moments in history. An event who's tale is told almost every Christmas, I know it was part of last years Christmas play at the kids school. In the midst of a most horrible war both sides took the message of peace and goodwill towards men to heart - even if it was only for a short while.

Alfred Anderson was one of a number of the few remining survivors of World War 1 that were interviewed by the Guardian a few weeks ago. I remember reading the article in which they talked about their war experiences. I remembered his story because at one point he was batman to Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon who was the brother of the late Queen Mother. The one thing I know of my Step-Grandfathers time during the war was that he had been a batman to an officer. I remember he showed my father a letter that he had recieved from the officer after the war. In it the officer mentioned that he still owed my Grandad 10/- and if he sent him an address he would forward it. He never did of course!

If you want to read the article in the Guardian it's here