From the Archives
by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | June 24, 2022
We have long suspected and can now definitively share that the photo above, which has been floating around the internet since 2015, is indeed a young Damian Lewis. A little backstory for you – Damian recently shared on The Anfield Wrap podcast with Andrew Heaton that he and some of his pals were coached by legendary footballer John Barnes during his Watford days. Since Barnes played for Watford from 1981–1987, that would make Damian somewhere between the ages of 10-16 during that timeframe.
To narrow down Damian’s age even more, video of The John Barnes Story documentary (26:20 in), which originally aired in 2015 on ITV 4 as part of the Sports Life Stories series, states Barnes found time to coach on the green playing fields of Eton College during his career and we know Damian attended Eton for five years, between ages 13-18. The documentary also states Barnes provided coaching sessions at Eton for “the under 14’s.” My guess, Damian is probably between the ages of 13-14 in this photo. We’d like to thank football fan Simon Corney for his initial clue shared on Twitter back in April, 2015. And finally, we’d like to thank Andrew Heaton who confirmed with the Fan Fun Team that the photo is in fact, Damian. Mystery solved 🙂 And if you need more confirmation, John Barnes confirmed himself:
https://twitter.com/officialbarnesy/status/1576801045065654272
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