A SINGLE red rose attached to a lamppost with a simple family card underneath is starkly highlighted against the autumn afternoon sky.

It rests above dozens of other bouquets, cards, messages, gifts and candles to mark what would have been the 17th birthday of Margate schoolgirl Kelsey Murphy.

The tributes from friends and former classmates at Hartsdown Technology College are on the railings of Margate Cricket Club in Hartsdown Road, just yards from the spot where Kelsey died in a car crash last December, weeks after her 16th birthday.

The teenager was a passenger in a Renault Clio driven by her brother Aaron, who was a student at St George’s School, Broadstairs, where their mother Lorraine taught.

Earlier this year 15-year-old Hanh Thi Hoang was nominated by fellow Hartsdown students to receive the school’s first annual Happiness Cup in memory of Kelsey’s sunny and caring personality.