Fond Farewell
23 October 2026
Branch member Malcolm Fawcett helps us to say farewell to Mike Houghton and Dave Leitch.
Mike: On 19th October 2026, exactly almost 52 years after the placing first advert (‘Calling all Carlisle Supporters’) in the Tottenham Hotspur v. Carlisle United program, Mike Houghton sadly passed away in a care home in his home town of Whitehaven.
Mike was the true founder of the London Branch, and every member owes him a huge debt of gratitude. While others thought of the possibility of starting a branch, Mike acted and was its early driving force becoming the first Chairman. Before the Spurs warns, he contacted Colin Barton, who ran the Supporters’ Club in Carlisle, who draws him blessing the to use the name, as added it gravitas to the parent supporters’ club in long-standing their push to get a representative on the board of the club.
Mike used his own money, without any thought of being able to recoup it off a bunch of tight Cumbrians, to hire the upstairs room of the Finborough Arms (just round the corner from Ifield Road where he was living in those days - not far from Stamford Bridge) for the inaugural meeting of the London Branch. It would be harder to find a more apt place to start a Carlisle United London Branch, as Finborough Road turns into Warwick Road a few hundred yards further north.
Mike was pretty much oblivious to the politics of the club in Carlisle, and his main motivation was to show his Geordie flat mates that Carlisle had fans who could rival the Toon Army in their loyalty, fervour and crack. Our first committee was made up of Mike (Chairman - from Whitehaven, Chris Wilkinson (Secretary - from Barrow), myself (Treasurer - from Seascale) and David Steele (Transport – from Carlisle). Our one committee member from Carlisle transported himself off after being appointed and we never heard from him again! However, those Geordie flat mates became great friends to all of us, and we used to have some pretty epic darts/drinking matches whenever Carlisle played Newcastle in the APFSCIL darts league.
Our first meetings were social affairs. We met every Thursday night along with the Newcastle supporters for an evening of drinking and chat rounded off with curry in Tottenham Court Road, where Mike would always have egg and chips. Not for him this fancy foreign food. Getting through a Friday at work was always a difficult task, battling a hangover and the taste of vindaloo.
Mike’s main impetus was to get Cumbrians together and provide a focal point in London for those leaving Carlisle to seek work in the South. Mike rarely travelled to watch the Blues on a Saturday afternoon, in fact I’m not convinced that he was that keen on football, but he a feeling that Cumbrians are somehow more fun, and more worthy than any other mortals and he was just more comfortable mixing with them than Southerners.
His reign as Chairman was not to last long. As the committee expanded the workload and ideas increased, and while Mike tolerated all of the suggestions, his natural conservatism held him back from actually endorsing or executing any of them – he just wanted to meet chat and have a few pints.
Mike had a great sense of humour, he was always laughing and cracking jokes, usually at someone else’s expense, but he did it in a way that was non-threatening, non-confrontational and often self-deprecating. He was someone you could have an argument with one minute and then be laughing with a minute later. I learned a lot from Mike, he had a way of making you realise how stupid you were being (when you were being stupid – and in those days most of us were experts at it) without putting you down in front of everyone else. He also understood that the committee were giving their time without any recompense and while you could ask someone to do something you should never expect them to do it, or be surprised when they hadn’t done it – you should just be happy when unexpectedly someone actually managed to do what they said they were going to do!
He eventually left London and went back to his beloved Cumbria, returning to Whitehaven.
Now back in his hometown, he re-engaged in his backing of Cumbrian sport by becoming a director, sponsor, benefactor and would be shareholder of Whitehaven RLFC - campaigning for a change of board that would eventually come towards the end of 2025, but sadly too late to see Haven avoid losing their Championship status.
It was in Whitehaven that we contacted him when we celebrated one of our major London Branch anniversaries by booking a table in Foxy’s Restaurant and inviting Mike as our special guest. He was taken aback by way in which he was treated by the members who were there, most of whom were slightly in awe of him. Then at the end of the meal, the Chairman of Carlisle United came over to make a special presentation to Mike to thank him for creating the London Branch. Mike was genuinely choked and there were tears in his eyes as he thanked Carlisle United and those that had made the day a special one for him.
That was the last time that I saw him, as I moved to Houston shortly afterwards, but I often think of him and the legacy he left that we all still enjoy. It’s sad that most of the current members never had the chance to meet him or learn who he was and how he laid the foundation on which the London Branch has been built and expanded over the years. The world is a slightly duller place without him.
David: Many of you know that I started out as a Barrow supporter, after a friend from Seascale bought me a ticket to see Barrow play Southampton in the FA Cup 3rd round back in 1967. The game end 2 – 2 and Barrow were promoted to the 3rd Division at the end of the season. As a young teenager I used to get frustrated that the people of Barrow were not supporting the club as well as I felt they should and I used to write into the programme to let feelings my be known. I noticed that my were often echoed in sentiment by those of a certain David Leitch from London.
Crowds fell, revenue fell, the standard of players fell and the happened in 1972 when Barrow were voted out of the league, just as I moved down to London. When I left for London, I made a note of David Leitch’s name and address and looked him up in the phone book when I arrived.
We eventually collaborated after the CUSC London Branch was up and running. Dave decided he was going to try and form a London Branch of the Barrow Supporters’ Club, and I gave him what advice I could to help him execute his plan. The first problem he encountered was that there was no Barrow Supporters’ Club! This meant that he was now creating the Barrow National Supporters’ Club based in London! I joined the first committee as Treasurer, designed and printed some of the early copies of the newsletter, was a frequent contributor of articles and travelled with David to some of the games.
Dave was a calm, patient and serious individual who never waned in his support for Barrow despite the dark days they frequently endured. He was Chairman of the Club for many years, APFSCIL representative and supported all of the club’s social events. He shared a lot of attributes with Mike Houghton, generally conservative in outlook, gregarious without being domineering, always happy and smiling despite no matter what the situation and I think that, like Mike, he was a civil servant – there must be something in the training!
The last communication I had from Dave was in the Barrow newsletter (The National Zigger Issue 382 - 10th October 2026) in which he explained that he was unable to play in the Quarter Final of the Pool Summer Cup against Southampton due to a fall. He was still membership secretary, APFSCIL rep and social event supporter right to the end.
The saddest thing is that Dave passed away just days before he was due to be presented with an award from Barrow AFC marking the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Barrow National Supporters’ Club and while no member could ever underestimate the time and effort he made in keeping the Supporters’ Club and Football Club afloat, I’m not sure whether those living in Barrow necessarily had the same appreciation of Dave’s hard work.
One of my favourite authors, Jack Kerouac, reflected on travel, transience and the pull of home by saying, ‘Everyone goes home in October’, Jack, Mike and Dave share the sad fact that each died within days of each other in the month of October.
Malcolm Fawcett
