Bermuda football is mourning the loss of one of its greatest ambassadors after Charles Marshall, the former Bermuda Referees Association and Bermuda Football Association president, died last Friday at the age of 83.

After leaving school at the age of 16, Marshall became an apprentice at the Bermuda Electric Light Company and would go on to make a significant contribution to the technology and communication industries by purchasing East End Telecom in the early 1980s.

A former senator and chairman of the United Bermuda Party with a lifelong passion for sport, Marshall played a key role in the desegregation of local football, helping to unify the Black and White leagues and creating the BFA.

Having first displayed his skills in the 1950s playing for school team the Blue Mustangs, Marshall joined Bermuda Athletic Association as a teenager and he helped the club win the inaugural FA Challenge Cup after his side defeated Southampton Rangers 3-1 in the final during the 1955-56 season.

Two years later, he switched his focus from playing to officiating as he started to referee while still actively participating in the sport and it was in that field he excelled, earning his Fifa badge and going on to oversee 20 international matches, including one in Israel and a match in El Salvador in front of more than 90,000 spectators.

Such was his passion for refereeing, he became a founding member of the BRA and served as the association’s president for several years. He was elected as BFA president in 1990 and went on to serve two terms in the post.

It was through sport that Marshall turned his attention to philanthropy and he was inspired to give back to local sports in various capacities to help others.

Marshall was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contribution to sport and the community in 1993, while the BFA Appleby Youth Tournament under-17 competition is also played annually as a result of his contributions to local sport.

He was also honoured by the RO Smith Classic Veteran All-Star organising committee, of which he was an integral part of for 25 years.

Along with his wife Lesley, Marshall received an Appreciation Award at the 40th Government Sports Awards in March.

Marshall and his wife gave $1 million to create the Charles E and Lesley Marshall Fund for Football to help players progress and for Bermuda to achieve its best on the world stage.

The money has been managed by the Bermuda Foundation since its formation in 2017.

Shervin Dill, a committee member of the fund, was keen to pay tribute to the effects the Marshall family have had on community sport.

“First, on behalf of myself and certainly all of the clubs of Bermuda, I’d like to express our most sincere condolences to the family of Sir Charles Marshall as I called him,” said Shervin Dill.

“I had the pleasure of working with Charles Marshall recently on his and Lesley Marshall’s Foundation which has been responsible for supporting and promoting huge development in Bermuda. It’s been five years since we started that foundation and I have grown to know and to love the real Sir Charles.

“Charles is the most humble and generous person that I know and his generosity and love for the game is to improve it; one of the main reasons his foundation was established.”

Dill feels Marshall is a visionary who, if he had his way, would have had “far better tools” to work with and improve the game of football.

“As a successful businessman Charles was giving back to football and the referees in particular,” Dill added.

“He had an affinity for that and the contributions he has made in the last five years have been huge, particularly to youth development, referees and different organisations that have been hosting overseas tours and things of that nature. He has really had no hesitation supporting them wherever he could.

“I used to tease Charlie that behind every good man is a good woman. He would correct me and say: ‘Sherv, my wife does not walk beside me, she walks in front of me. She is the real leader of this organisation’ and indeed she was.”

Before his death Marshall expressed his wish to see the foundation continue, which the surviving committee members have committed to overseeing.

At the time of his passing Marshall was a Honorary Life Vice-President of the BFA who also paid tribute to its late colleague.

“Bermuda has lost a true son of the soil and a statesman.,” read a BFA statement.

“The Bermuda Football Association sends condolences to the family and friends of Mr Charles E. Marshall MBE, former president of the BFA.

“Rest well Mr Marshall.”

Also paying tribute was former BFA executive and national youth coach Jon Beard, who spoke fondly of his late friend and colleague.

“I knew Charlie as a friend and among other areas as a referee, president of the BFA, a Saltus parent, recently a Saltus grandparent and a Saltus trustee,” he said.

“In everything he did Charlie was a man of integrity, fully committed and an absolute pleasure to work with. He was, without doubt, one of the nicest people you could ever get to meet.”

Beard added: “One incident that always came up in our chats was a game at BAA that Charlie was refereeing and I was playing.

“The ball went off someone into the air, and I turned, looking up and ran towards it. I thought I had hit a brick wall.

“I had run into Charlie and our heads had clashed. We both hit the ground hard.

“Charlie was first up blowing his whistle and ready to abandon the game as he thought he had been hit by something thrown by a spectator. Then he saw me lying there, helped me up and off the field as I had cut my head, rubbed his head and got on with the game.

“I just wish he could have dealt with his illness the same way; and in many ways he did — living beyond what the medical profession expected.

“I will always remember him as a kind, generous and committed man — a legend in so many aspects of Bermuda’s community.”