Alan with his son, Clive, in 2004
ALAN MARSHALL
14TH August 1947 – 14th July 2026
We are all saddened to learn of the death of former Bristol Rovers photographer Alan Marshall, who passed away in Spain, aged 78, on 14th July.
Many younger Rovers supporters will not instantly recognise his name but will have seen many of his photos which have been reproduced in numerous publications over the years. Rovers programme collectors, especially, will be aware of his ability/talent to take outstanding photos in both the digital and pre digital eras.
Coming from a family of Rovers supporters, Alan had very little choice about which team he would be supporting and was hooked on following the club from a very young age.
His first job, as a 16 year old, was with the Bristol Evening Post as a photographic technician and he always said that one of his most heartbreaking jobs at the Post was having to destroy all the glass plate negatives of photos that had been stored at that newspaper and the Bristol Evening World, which resulted in many Rovers photos being lost for future generations.
He undertook a number of jobs on leaving The Post and, in 1973, he became Bristol Rovers’ official photographer. In the early days he would shoot a film of 36 photos, hand the negatives to the club and someone in the office would decide which ones were good enough to publish.
Remember those were the days of black and white photography, and so Alan graduated to developing his own photos; his children would shut him in a small bedroom at their house and wait for him to come out to dry the negatives and then he would decide on the best ones himself and hand those in to the club.
That stopped with the advent of colour photography and so he went from developing his own film to having his roll(s) of film processed at a branch of Boots on a Sunday morning and then handing over the ones he thought should be published. Later, of course, the advent of digital photography gave him back his Sunday mornings!
His first full season as photographer was 1973/74 and one thing that peeved him about that campaign was that a family commitment saw him miss the famous 8-2 win away at Brighton.
It was the beginning of three decades behind the lens, sitting on touchlines up and down the country in all weathers; he certainly let us know when it was cold, wet, or windy, but didn’t seem to mind when the sun was out!
During those years he took may iconic Rovers images, at Eastville, Twerton Park and The Mem; Those that spring immediately to mind are of Stuart Taylor in an aerial duel with Paul Mariner, Ian Holloway’s penalty against City, Devon White scoring at Wembley on our first ever visit to the home of English football, Marcus Stewart celebrating goals at Brentford, Rovers players on the set of Coronation Street and visiting Carnaby Street and then, of course, moving back to Bristol some thirty years ago.
Another visit to Wembley came along in 1995 and he was was snapping away when we reached the play off semi final against Northampton in 1998 and there when we were relegated to the fourth tier of English football for the first time in 2001.
The final game of his photographic journey with Rovers was against Lincoln City, with his son, Clive, at The Mem on 1st May 2004 when he was presented with a commemorative plaque and a trophy, by Geoff Dunford, to mark his 31 years as club photographer. And then he was off to live in Spain with his partner, Pauline, where he was still living at the time of his death.
If Alan had a fault, it was that he didn’t catalogue his vast portfolio of photographic work, a task now being undertaken by Clive, a Supporters Club Director, in order to create a lasting legacy of his work on the Supporters Club website.
Those of us who knew Alan well would often refer to him as Mr Grumpy and whilst he didn’t suffer fools gladly, underneath his gruff exterior was a man who cared, about his family, about Rovers and those of us proud to be called his friends.
Alan will be missed by so many of us, especially by his partner, his three children and his grandchildren, but his legacy will live on through his photographs and we send our condolences to all of his family members and his many friends at this very sad time.
Alan with the late Geoff Dunford in 2004