BUSINESSMAN, football club owner, philanthropist – for one moment, as Bolton came together to remember one of their own, he was simply “Our Eddie.”

The life of Little Lever-born, Farnworth Grammar-educated Edwin ‘Eddie’ Davies was celebrated in a special memorial service at Bolton Parish Church attended by hundreds of well-wishers and dignitaries.

To the world, Davies was the self-made millionaire who had amassed his fortune via the Strix Group – a company who claimed its kettle thermostats and controls were used by more than a billion people every single day.

His business acumen was discussed in written tributes from former Strix colleague John Brodie, who described an “energetic” and “focussed” individual who helped push the business from its base at an old cinema on the Isle of Man to worldwide acclaim.

Davies rarely courted publicity and thus the instances of his generosity have only become widely known to the public since his death on a family holiday in Portugal on September 11.

Richard Deverall, a representative of the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, described how his financial input had allowed the creation of a ground-breaking alpine house – the first such building to be created at the gardens in 20 years. Davies, who became chairman of trustees at Kew, also aided the restoration of the world’s largest existing Victorian glass house, a Grade One listed structure.

Although Davies’s fortune allowed him access to a world way beyond his working class upbringing, this was an occasion for those with a longer association.

David Bedford, a former team-mate at Old Farnworthians, described how his friend Eddie had bravely kept goal until suffering a broken leg inflicted by his own team-mate.

Davies had maintained contact with his roots and his donations to the Bolton Museum and the Bolton Royal Hospital coronary care unit helped earn him a CBE in 2011 to go alongside an OBE for services to industry bestowed in 2000.

For all his incredible work elsewhere, Davies’s name will forever be synonymous with Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

After becoming majority shareholder in 2003 he helped bankroll an unimaginable climb to the peak of the Premier League, four consecutive top-eight finishes and two qualifications for the UEFA Cup.

Many of the fans and officials sat at the memorial were there to see Bolton locking horns with the might of Marseilles, Bayern Munich and Red Star Belgrade – none of which would have been possible without the backing of a life-long supporter.

It was entirely fitting that after a service of reflection there should be a period of celebration, and no piece of music quite fit the bill like James Brown’s ‘I Feel Good,’ the anthem Wanderers used to mark a goal in that halcyon era.