Museum trustee Ian Wallis chaired a celebration at the CAFC Museum on Wednesday evening at which four new players were inducted to the Hall of Fame.
First up was Kim Dixson who joined the club as a nine year old in 1997 and who made her senior debut as a seventeen year old in 2005 when Charlton Women were one of the top clubs in the country.
The club was disbanded later that year and was eventually taken over by CACT. Kim became captain and went on to lead her team to the FA Women's Premier League Southern Division title in 2010/11 and to the FA Women's National League Play-Off Final in 2017/18. She led the team to victory in the Capital and Ryman Cups and the FA Women's National League Cup in 2014/15 beating Sheffield on penalties.
While she was captaining the team she was also coaching and after her retirement in 2018 she became a coach and then assistant manager to Riteesh Mishra in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns. She now works for CACT.
Winger Billy Kiernan played for Charlton as an amateur when he was eighteen in 1943 but left to serve in the war in India, Hong Kong and the Middle East and was playing for Hong Kong FC when he was recommended to Charlton in 1949. He stayed with the club for twelve seasons and played 401 games, 270 of which were in the old First Division. He scored 93 goals, of which 63 were at the top level - a highly impressive figure for a winger.
He gained an England "B" cap and played in the semi-final of The Inter- Cities Fairs Cup when representing London. He played in the famous 7-6 match against Huddersfield in 1958. He died in April 2006.
His Hall of Fame award was presented to his son Peter and daughter Maureen who had come from Canada for the ceremony. Peter thanked everyone who had voted for his father. Ian Wallis noted that all eight players who had made more than 400 appearances for Charlton were now members of the Hall of Fame.
Bob Bolder had trials for Charlton's youth team in 1975 but wasn't asked to play again. "They said I was too small" he explained. He played for Dover before going North to Sheffield Wednesday and, subsequently, to Liverpool in 1983. The form and fitness of Bruce Grobbelaar meant that he never made a first-team appearance although he was on the bench for the European Cup Final in 1984 and therefore won a Winners medal. "I was brilliant in the warm-up" he claimed.
Bob was in goal for Sunderland in Charlton's first game at Selhurst Park in 1985 ("I had a marvellous game but we lost 2-1") but finally joined Charlton the following year. In a seven season career with Charlton he was to make a total of 296 appearances, including the three play-off games against Leeds in 1987 ("we were quite confident. We knew we were the better team") and the first game back at The Valley against Portsmouth. Because he was with Charlton during the "wilderness" years he only represented the club on five occasions at The Valley but he has since become a well-loved figure at the stadium through his hospitality duties and his role with CACT.
Chris Solly joined the club as an eleven year old and turned professional at seventeen. He made his debut as an eighteen year old in May 2009 and was a regular in the side for the 2011/12 promotion season. His contribution to the success of that season was recognised by him being voted both player of the year and young player of the year (only the second player to do so after Richard Rufus in 1995). The following season, when Charlton finished ninth in The Championship, he missed only one game and was again voted player of the year.
Over a total of twelve seasons he played a total of 314 games for the club and scored 3 goals. "I was quite prolific" he commented. He also drew attention to the fact that all three of his goals came in games when he was playing on the left. The first came early in his career (August 2010) in the 94th minute at Leyton Orient in a 3-1 win. Two years later (Oct 2012) he was back on the scoresheet with the second goal in a 2-0 win at Blackpool. It was to be a long wait for his hat-trick goal but it was well worth waiting for. In September 2018 he lashed home an unstoppable 95th minute equaliser following a corner at Luton. The ever modest Chris described it as "a good strike".
Ian Wallis commented that, unlike Billy Kiernan who played for the club for twelve seasons under just two managers, Chris saw eleven managers come and go (not counting caretakers) during his Charlton career - evidence of the chaos at the club during those years. Chris is now assistant to Chris Lock with the Charlton under 21s.
All four players were presented with their awards by this year's Supporter of the Year - Clive King. Clive has not missed a Charlton home game for fifty one years.