Alan Davies

Alan Davies was an English-born Welsh international footballer. Although born in Manchester on December 5th, 1961, Davies's Welsh parentage qualified him to play for Wales, for whom he won 13 international caps between 1983 and 1990, as well as playing six times for the Wales under-21 side.  Signing as a trainee for Manchester United as a 16-year-old in July of 1978, he put pen to paper on his first professional contract just five months later.  Davies made his first-team debut for United in a 1-0 home win against Southampton on May 1st, 1982.  He only played ten competitive games for The Red Devils, but did play both games in the 1983 F.A. Cup Final, when United beat Brighton and Hove Albion in a replay, resulting in him winning the only major medal of his career.  Unfortunately, after this success, Davies suffered a bad injury in a pre-season friendly, which resulted in him being out of first-team contention for six months during the 1983-84 season.  He returned to the team in memorable fashion, scoring his only goal for the side when coming on as substitute in a 1-1 draw with Juventus in a European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final first leg at Old Trafford.  Sadly, he only played three more league games that season, and none the following season, and was sold to Newcastle United in 1985, also playing on loan for Charlton and Carlisle whilst with The Magpies.  He later had two spells at Swansea City, either side of a spell with Bradford City in 1989-90.  During his second spell at Swansea, he found himself a key player in a side that was struggling towards the bottom of the Third Division.  On February 4th, 1992, Davies dropped-off his daughter, Katie (aged 4), at school, before driving out to Horton on the Gower Peninsula, where he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.  Although no-one knows for certain what made him kill himself, it later transpired that Davies - like fellow Welsh international footballer, Gary Speed (who also committed suicide) - had been coached as a youngster by serial paedophile, Barry Bennell.  Six weeks after Davies died, his second daughter, Sophie, was born to his wife, Deborah.  Both his daughters have since competed in running events to raise money for a mental-health charity.  Alan Davies was 30 years old.

Justin Fashanu

Justinus Soni Fashanu was an English footballer, who played for Norwich City and Nottingham Forest, amongst other teams. He was born in Hackney, London, England, on February 19th, 1961, to a Nigerian barrister and a Guyanese nurse, and was the older brother of fellow footballer, John.  Fashanu was most famous for scoring BBC's Goal of the Season in 1980, with a spectacular effort for Norwich against Liverpool.  He excelled at Norwich, his first club, scoring 40 goals in 103 senior appearances for The Canaries, and was selected six times for the England under-21 side.  Fashanu's 19 league goals in the 1980-81 season were not enough to prevent Norwich's relegation from the First Division, and he was sold to Nottingham Forest in August of 1981, becoming Britain's first black million-pound footballer in the process.  His career then stalled, after Forest manager Brian Clough became disturbed by finding out about Fashanu's visits to gay nightclubs and bars.  His confidence and form deserting him, Fashanu scored just three goals in 32 league games for Forest in the 1981-82 season.  He was loaned to Southampton, who were prevented from buying him by lack of funds.  Fashanu was sold to Notts County for £150,000 in December, 1982.  He scored 20 goals in 64 games for The Magpies, but this was not enough to stop the club having back-to-back relegations.  Soon after joining Brighton and Hove Albion in June, 1985, Fashanu suffered a knee injury which looked to have ended his career.  After travelling to the U.S. for surgery, he subsequently played for a number of clubs in England, Scotland, the U.S.A., Canada, and Sweden.  In an interview with The Sun newspaper on October 22nd, 1990, Fashanu came out as homosexual, becoming the first (and, so far, only) prominent player in English football to do so, and thereafter struggled to find regular employment as a professional footballer, as well as becoming the subject of crowd abuse.  His brother, John, described Justin as an "outcast" after his admission.  On April 13th, 1992, whilst playing for Torquay United, Fashanu received a £265 fine and was banned for driving for 28 days after being fund guilty of speeding and failing to produce his driver's licence.  In March, 1998, after moving to the United States, Fashanu was alleged to have sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy after a night of drinking.  Homosexual acts were illegal at the time in the state of Maryland, where Fashanu was living.  Fashanu fled back to England, where - on May 3rd, 1998 - his body was found hanged in a lock-up garage in Shoreditch, London.  His suicide note denied the charges, claiming the sex act was consensual, and that he had returned to England as he wouldn't get a fair trial in the U.S. due to his homosexuality.  The Times and the B.B.C. reported that an arrest warrant had been issued by Howard County District Court on April 3rd, that he had been charged with second-degree sexual assault and first-degree assaults punishable by up to 20 years in jail, and that Howard County police would have requested his extradition had they known he had fled to England.  Justin Fashanu was just 37 years old.

Gary Speed

Gary Andrew Speed was a Welsh footballer and football manager.  Born on September 8th, 1969, in Mancot, Flintshire, Wales, Speed made 677 league appearances in a 22-year playing career, which finished in 2010.  He also played 85 times for the Welsh national soccer side (making him Wales's second-most-capped player), captaining them on 44 occasions.  His successful career encompassed spells at Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers, and Sheffield United.  After retirement as a player, Speed managed Sheffield United and then the Wales national team.  In 2010, he was awarded an M.B.E. for his services to football.  Speed's first competitive game as Wales manager was a 0-2 home defeat to local rivals, England, resulting in Wales slumping to an all-time-low F.I.F.A. world ranking of 117th.  However, several good results followed, lifting Wales's ranking to 45th, and being awarded 'Best Movers' at the end of 2011, after amassing more ranking points than any other nation in 2011.  Speed's last game as Wales manager was a 4-1 home win against Norway in a friendly on November 12th that year.  On November 26th, 2011, Speed appeared as a pundit on the BBC programme, Football Focus, before driving back to his home in Huntington, Cheshire, England. The following morning, November 27th, just before 7 a.m., his wife found his dead body hanging from the roof of the family garage.  An inquest into his death heard that the strain of football management had put strain on Speed's marriage to Louise, and they had argued on the night prior to his death.  His mother, Carol, described Gary as a "glass-half-empty person", and his wife said he was a "somewhat closed character".  Four days before dying, Speed had texted his wife suggesting the possibility of suicide, although he then rejected this out of concern for his family.  As a boy, Speed had been coached by serial sex offender Barry Bennell, although Speed had denied ever being abused; however, one of Bennell's victims claimed he had seen Speed being assaulted, but the inquest was unable to prove this.  Speed's funeral was held on December 11th, 2011, in the village of Hawarden, Flintshire, and was attended by 250 people.  He was later cremated at Pentre Bychan Crematorium, Wrexham.  A memorial match was held in his honour at the Cardiff City Stadium on February 29th, 2012, in which Costa Rica beat Wales 2-0.  Gary Speed was 42 years old. 

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English singer, songwriter, and musician.  Born on June 19th, 1948, in Rangoon, Burma, he came to England to live with his parents in the village of Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, in 1950.  His parents were Rodney, an engineer, and Molly, who recorded numerous songs of her own, which were not released until after her death; his sister was the actress Gabrielle Drake.  After prep school and Marlborough College, Nick won a scholarship to Cambridge University.  At Marlborough, he was a talented sprinter, and played for the house rugby team.  School friends described him as confident and "quietly authoritative", although aloof and difficult-to-get-to-know.  Before and during his time at Cambridge, he began smoking cannabis and probably took L.S.D., becoming involved in the local music scene.  Meeting record producer Joe Boyd, who offered him a recording contract, Drake dropped out of Cambridge in his third year, and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1968.  The album sold poorly.  Moving to London, he played a few poorly-received and -attended gigs, rarely engaging with his audience.  Friend Brian Wells suspected Drake may have been using heroin at this time.  His second album, Bryter Layter, released in 1971, was also a commercial failure, which increased his depression, a psychiatrist prescribing anti-depressants, which he was reluctant to take, and he was described as showing "the first signs of psychosis".  By this time, Nick Drake rarely left his flat, except to buy drugs.  In 1972, Drake's final album, Pink Moon, came out, selling even-less-well than its predecessors.  As with previous releases, he was reluctant to partake in any promotional interviews or concerts.  Suffering from depression and burnout, Drake returned to live with his parents, existing on a £20-a-week retainer from Island Records.  Early in 1972, he was hospitalised for five weeks; initially believed to be suffering from major depression, his former therapist thought he may have had schizophrenia.  In 1974, Drake began recording sessions for a mooted new album, although his performances were not at their former level, and he expressed bitterness that he wasn't rich and famous by now.  His weekly retainer had now ceased, and he had lost touch with most friends.  In November of 1974, Drake's closest female friend, Sophia Ryde, sought to end their relationship.  Nick Drake retired early to bed on the night of November 24th, 1974, but went downstairs around dawn to get some pills to help him to sleep.  About midday on November 25th, Molly Drake, Nick's mother, entered his room to wake him, but found his lifeless body lying across his bed.  There was no suicide note, although a note to Sophia Ryde was found nearby.  A coroner's inquest in November stated his cause of death as, "Acute amytriptyline poisoning - self-administered when suffering from a depressive illness", although several friends thought the overdose may have been accidental.  Nick Drake was just 26 years old.

David Bairstow

David Leslie Bairstow was an English cricketer, and, briefly, a professional footballer.  Born in Horton, Bradford, Yorkshire, on September 1st, 1951, Bairstow was primarily a wicketkeeper and a middle-order batsman, although he occasionally bowled medium-pace.  Bairstow made his debut for Yorkshire in a County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Park Avenue on June 3rd, 1970, taking an 'A'-level at 6 a.m. that day to enable him to play in the game.  He had a long and successful cricket career, playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club for 21 seasons until 1990, captaining the side for three of them.  He scored 13,961 first-class runs at an average of  26.44, taking 961 catches and making 138 stumpings behind the timbers, and even chipping in with 9 wickets at an average of 34.22.  Bairstow made his England debut in a One-Day International against Australia in Melbourne in January, 1979.  Later that year, he made his Test debut against India at The Oval.  Overall, he played 21 O.D.I.s and 4 Test Matches for England.  Bairstow also had a short career as a footballer for Bradford City, playing 17 games as a forward and scoring one goal between 1971 and 1973.  He was married twice, first to Gail (whom he nicknamed 'Stormy'), who bore him one son, Andrew, who briefly played first-class cricket for Derbyshire.  Divorcing Gail, he married Janet, who bore him two children: Becky, and Jonny - who went on to play cricket for Yorkshire and England.  Bairstow later had a second career as a cricket commentator, but began to become dejected after his wife developed breast cancer.  Heated confrontations with Yorkshire C.C.C. officials, financial worries, and a drink-driving charge hanging over him, all exacerbated his problems, for which he saw both his own doctor and a consultant psychiatrist. Suffering from depression, he took an overdose of tablets in late 1997.  A few weeks later - on January 5th, 1998 - David Bairstow hanged himself at his home in Marton-cum-Grafton, Yorkshire.  He was 46 years old.

Brad Delp

Bradley Edward Delp was an American singer, songwriter, and musician, best-known as the lead singer of the rock band, Boston.  Born on June 12th, 1951, in Peabody, Massachusetts, U.S.A., to French-Canadian immigrants, he was raised in Danvers, Massachusetts.  Boston's eponymously-titled debut album was released in 1976, selling 20 million copies, and spawning the rock standard, More Than A Feeling.  A multi-instrumentalist - playing the guitar, keyboards, and harmonica - Delp also formed his own band, RTZ, in 1991.  From the mid-1990s until 2007, whilst he continued to perform and record with Boston, Delp also played in a Beatles tribute band called Beatlejuice, as well as writing songs for other artists.  Delp was married and divorced twice, and had two children with his second wife, Micki Delp.  He was a vegetarian for over 30 years, and contributed to a number of charitable causes.  Sometime between 11 p.m. on March 8th and 1 p.m. on March 9th, 2007, Delp commited suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, in Atkinson, New Hampshire, U.S.A.  He had connected a tube to his car exhaust, and lit two charcoal grills, causing his bedroom to fill with smoke.  He left a suicide note, proclaiming that he was, "...a lonely soul."  The reason for Delp's suicide has been the subject of contradictory news reports and various lawsuits.  Interviews conducted by the Boston Herald  alleged that lingering hard feelings from Boston's disbandment in the 1980s, and personal tensions between Delp and bandleader Tom Scholz, drove the singer to commit suicide.  Scholz denied these claims, but lost the defamation suits he filed in response.  Court documents from the trials detail Scholz stating that Delp was plagued by personal problems.  Other who knew Delp, stated that he wanted to quit the band, but felt caught in an ugly conflict between Scholz and former bandmembers.  Also, for two-and-a-half years before his death, Delp was housemates with Meg Sullivan, his fiancee Pamela's sister.  On February 8th, 2007, Meg found a hidden camera in her room.  On confronting Delp, he admitted to planting the camera, before sending her a series of e-mails pleading for forgiveness.  Delp pledged to admit his wrongdoings to his fiancee, but instead purchased the grills and tubing and committed suicide.  Pamela found his body in the bathroom on March 9th, surrounded by several notes, one of which read: "I have had bouts of depression and thoughts of suicide since I was a teenager...[Pamela] was my 'ray of sunshine', but sometimes even a ray of sunshine is no substitute for a good psychiatrist".  Brad Delp was 55 years old.

Woolly Wolstenholme

Stuart John "Woolly" Wolstenholme was a musician, singer, and songwriter.   Born on April 15th, 1947, in Chadderton, Lancashire, England, he was best-known as a member of the English rock band, Barclay James Harvest, which he formed with three others in 1967.  Some of Woolly's early compositions - "The Sun Will Never Shine", "Happy Old World", and "Ball And Chain" - had an introverted and melancholy feel.  Barclay James Harvest were popular on the college circuit, but their records sold relatively poorly, and they were dropped by EMI in 1973, although quickly signed up by Polydor.  In 1979, dissatisfied with the band's musical direction, Wolstenholme left Barclay James Harvest to make one album of his own, Maestoso, before leaving the music business entirely.  In the 1980s, after Woolly's departure, Barclay James Harvest's popularity peaked, particularly in Germany, where they played to 175,000 people at Berlin's Reichstag building.  Wolstenholme subsequently ran an organic farm with his wife, Jill, for several years - first in Lancashire, and then in west Wales.  Bumping into his former B.J.H. bandmate John Lees in 1998, the two formed John Lees' Barclay James Harvest, which made several albums and toured extensively over the next few years.  This was one of Woolly's most-creative periods, as he also formed his own band, Maestoso, recording and occasionally playing live with them, in addition to B.J.H. duties.  Often a livewire on stage, Wolstenholme also had dark periods, being hospitalised for a period with depression in 2003, and was diagnosed with manic-depression or bipolar disorder.  In November of 2010, several Barclay James Harvest concerts were cancelled, as Woolly was suffering from a recurrence of his depressive illness.  He was expected to recover, but he sadly committed suicide on December 13th, 2010.  Stuart Wolstenholme was 63 years old.  He was divorced from his wife, Jill, but was survived by his partner, Sue, and his mother and sister.

Caroline Flack

Caroline Flack was an English actress, and a radio and television presenter.  Born in Enfield, London, on November 9th, 1979, she moved houses several times in her childhood, and received medical treatment for being "very underweight" whilst at school.  Between 1996 and 1999, she studied dancing and musical theatre at the Bodywork Company in Cambridge.  She began her career as an actress on Bo' Selecta in 2002, before presenting a variety of television shows including I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! NOW!, The Xtra Factor, and The X Factor.  Flack won the twelfth series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 with her professional partner, Pasha Kovalev, the couple earning the first perfect 40 mark in the semi-finals, followed by three more in the finals, to earn a previously-unmatched perfect score of 120 points. In her personal life, she dated Prince Harry in 2009, and also had relationships with One Direction member, Harry Styles, and the England international rugby player, Danny Cipriani; she was briefly engaged to reality TV personality Andrew Brady in 2018.  In 2015, Flack came fifth in FHM magazine's 100 Sexiest Women.  On December 13th, 2019, Caroline Flack was charged with assaulting her boyfriend - the tennis player, Lewis Burton - after an incident at her Islington flat the previous morning, in which she apparently hit him in the head with a lamp.  She allegedly confessed to the crime after police arrived, also warning that she would kill herself.  Four days later, she stood down as host of the ITV2 programme, Love Island.  It was later reported that Flack had been having "personal issues", and had been experiencing an emotional breakdown for "a very long time".  She pleaded not guilty to the charges at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on December 23rd, and was bailed on condition she did not contact Burton.  Although her boyfriend did not support the prosecution, Flack was due to stand trial for the offence on March 4th, 2020.  On February 15th, 2020, she was found hanged in her flat in Stoke Newington, London.  On August 6th, 2020, an inquest concluded that she committed suicide following a long struggle with "fluctuating mental health" that was exacerbated by the stress of fame.  Caroline Flack was the fourth person associated with Love Island to kill themselves, including former contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis.  She was 40 years old.