HAGIOLOGY PUBLISHING is a collective comprising four Saints fans - David Bull, Gary Chalk, Duncan Holley and Barry Webb - the first three of whom have been appointed Official Historians of Southampton FC. The collective is committed
to the collection and dissemination of accurate information
on the history of the club.
To date, that dissemination of accurate information has
taken the form of answering enquiries, many of them from callers
referred by the club, about the Saints’ history but a major purpose of this site is to advise
you of the information on that history that has been gathered
together and published in 11 books.
About the members of the collective:
DAVID BULL: First match 27 December 1948 v Nottingham Forest, 2-1, while attending Devizes Road Primary
School, Salisbury. Moved in 1954, to become, in turn, a Camberley teenager, an Exeter student and a university
teacher in Exeter, Manchester and Bristol. Edited two collections of fans’ memories, We’ll Support You Evermore
(1992) and Football and the Commons People (with Alastair Campbell, 1994), as fund-raisers for the Child
Poverty Action Group, in which he has long been an activist. Following early retirement from his university post
in 1996 and statutory retirement from a tribunal judgeship in 2009, he now sits at home all day – moving only
between keyboard and kitchen – writing on the Saints, whether for the match-day magazine (from 1981) or for
Hagiology Publishing, for whom he serves as Editor-in- Chief. His editorial commitments apart, he has sole-
authored biographies of Ted Bates (1998) and Terry Paine (2008). Along the way, he has been appointed an
Official Historian of Southampton FC and a Visiting Fellow to the School of Sport, Health and Social Science at
Southampton Solent University..
GARY CHALK: First match 28 October 1967 v Burnley, 2-2. A native of Eastleigh, Gary attended Chamberlayne
Primary and Alderman Quilley Schools. He was a coppersmith at Eastleigh Railway Works for over 30 years and
spent seven years as a Mechanical Engineer with Lymington-based Solutions Water and Air. While quickly
becoming a fan on the terraces, he developed a passion for collecting memorabilia and researching the club’s
history, ignited by a family post-card showing his great-grandfather in a 1907 Dell crowd scene. His collection
has grown and must now be the finest amassed by a Saints fan, including medals, shirts, caps and an
impressive programme collection. He teamed up with Duncan Holley in 1984 and co-wrote Saints – A Complete
Record in 1987: the first of many collaborations. He is the main statistician and chief records-researcher in the
Hagiology collective.
DUNCAN HOLLEY: First match 20 May 1963 v Stoke, 2-0 (alas, Stan Matthews was rested). Having moved to
Archers Road in 1959, Duncan’s second home became the Dell car park, playing football and autograph-
hunting. Aged 11 in 1966, became a boarder at Peter Symonds, Winchester; then finished his education at
Taunton’s 1969-73. With Gary Chalk, co-wrote Saints – A Complete Record (1987), Alphabet of the Saints
(1992) and In That Number (2003), while solo efforts include Saints’ Scrapbook (1988), Suited and Booted
(2012) and Days Like These (2017). He became Saints’ first-ever Official Historian in 1998, while his day job saw him spend 34 years as
cabin crew with British Airways.
BARRY WEBB: First match 3 October 1981 v Ipswich Town, 4-3. Educated in Salisbury and Cambridge, he
spent over 30 years in the NHS moving from general management into programme management in Public
Health. Though a latecomer to watching the Saints, because of education, work and family commitments, Barry
quickly got the bug, becoming immersed in support for the club. A season ticket-holder who attends nearly all
away matches, barring mishaps, such as getting to Gatwick and finding he had the wrong passport for the
Denmark trip in the Europa League. He stewards on the Travel Club coaches, gathering votes for the away man-
of-the- match for the award for the Away Player of the Season. Barry also went to Lesotho in 2014, raising funds
for the Saints Foundation and Kick For Life. After retiring in 2010, he finally achieved his long-held ambition to
write and published his first (and probably only) novel, A Book About A Matchbox, which he had started to write
in 1973. He then contributed to All the Saints and in 2016 compiled SUPER Kelvin Davis, serving on the
committee organising Kelvin’s Testimonial. He lives in Salisbury with his highly supportive wife, Ingrid. They have
four daughters and seven grandchildren, four of whom are old enough now to have become Saints fans.
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