Garry John Purdham (20 October 1978 – 2 June 2010) was an English professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

player and farmer. He was killed in the 2010

Cumbria shootings The Cumbria shootings was a shooting spree which occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre ...

Career

Purdham began his professional rugby league career in 1999 with

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...

. There he played alongside his brother

Rob Purdham Rob Purdham (born 14 April 1980) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. An England international representative , he previously played for Whitehaven R.L.F.C., Whitehaven and London B ...

. In 2005 Purdham transferred to the nearby club

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and ...

. He struggled with a recurring knee injury at Workington and ultimately required four operations in six years. Purdham retired from professional rugby league after the 2008 season; however, he returned in 2009 to play amateur rugby league for Egremont Rangers.

Death

On 2 June 2010, Purdham was working with his uncle mending a wire fence on his father's farm near the Red Admiral Hotel at Boonwood, near

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2001, it had a populati ...

when he was shot and killed. He became the ninth murder victim of

spree killer A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations ...

Derrick Bird, who killed 12 people and injured 11 others that day before committing suicide. In honour of Purdham and the other Cumbria victims, one minute's silence was observed before every rugby league match played in England on the weekend of 5–6 June 2010. The Workington club has announced that a memorial in honour of Purdham will be established. His funeral and cremation were held on 10 June 2010, attended by over 600 mourners.

Family

Purdham is survived by a wife and two children. He was the brother of

, a former player with

Harlequins RL The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

who played for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

five times.

Obituaries

BBC
*(archived by web.archive.org
The Rugby Football LeagueWorkington Town
*(archived by archive.is
Harlequins Rugby League

References

External links

Garry Purdham Memorial Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purdham, Garry 1978 births 2010 deaths Deaths by firearm in England English rugby league players Male murder victims Mass murder victims Rugby league players from Whitehaven Rugby league second-rows Whitehaven R.L.F.C. players Workington Town players