Nov 28 - Christian Wink Memorial Football Match
The Royal Gibraltar Regiment held a memorial football match in Devils Tower Camp today to honour their colleague Christian Wink.
Christian joined the Regiment in 1997 and was 22 years old when he lost his life in a road traffic accident whilst on deployment to Jebel Sahara in 2001.
Christian’s biggest passion was football, he represented the Royal Gibraltar Regiment’s Football team on many occasions in the Gibraltar Services League but the match he enjoyed the most was the annual Seniors & Officers vs Junior Ranks match. Therefore it is fitting that the memorial match be between the Seniors and Juniors.
At 11 o clock the Regiment held a poignant minute’s silence to remember Christian before kick off. The victors in this match were the Juniors with a score of 2-1. Scoring for the Juniors were Cpl Paul Grech and LCpl Daniel Rodgers with CSgt Leigh Thorne scoring for the Seniors.
Christian’s father Emilio Wink said: “It’s very heartwarming to see the Commanding Officer supporting a memorial match, football was something very special to Christian; it was our joint interest and he supported Leeds United just like me.”
Following the match Emilio presented the Man of the Match Trophy to Cpl Grech and his wife Janet presented the winning team trophy.
Commanding Officer Lt Col Ivor Lopez said: “I want to thank everyone involved in the organisation of this match, let us not forget we remember one of our colleagues who sadly lost his life in 2001. I knew Christian well and have very good memories of him as an excellent guy and a focused soldier with great leadership potential, he proved this early on in his career whilst on operational tour to Northern Ireland. I would especially like to thank Emilio and his family for coming to help us honour this day.”
