John Marquis, third from right, with former player Jan Molby, left, and fellow supporters’ club committee members, left to right, Brian Evans, Dave Baker, Alan Jenner and Andy Priaulx. (0397406)

LIVERPOOL supporter John Marquis will today pay tribute to the 96 football fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster.

He will address up to 15,000 people at a service organised by the Hillsborough Justice Campaign to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.

The joint chairman of the Guernsey branch of the Liverpool Supporters’ Club will speak at the eternal flame Hillsborough Memorial near the Shankly Gates at Anfield at 1.15pm ahead of a service inside the stadium. That commemoration will include a two-minute silence at 3.06pm – the time on April 15, 1989 that the FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool was stopped because the crowd was spilling onto the pitch.

Mr Marquis said he was ‘honoured, surprised and privileged’ to be asked to make the address: ‘I’ll do it with humility and pride,’ he said.

Mr Marquis, who first saw Liverpool play 30 years ago and has been a season ticket holder since the mid-1990s, said the disaster was part of the club’s heritage. .He believes he was asked to make the address because he has been a supporter of the HJC since its inception.