Alberto Fresneda Carrasco was 19 when he died

FAMILY and friends of three young men who died while spray-painting on a railway line marked the first anniversary of the tragedy with a memorial, a book launch and “graffiti-jam”.

Alberto Fresneda, a former William Ellis School student better known as Alby, died alongside friends Jack Gilbert and Harrison Scott Hood when they were hit by a train near Loughborough Junction, in south London, last year.

On Monday, the 19-year-old’s parents, who live in Hampstead, launched a personal tribute to the artist, a book called Dear Son, at the Cervantes Theatre in Southwark. It calls for an end to what is described as a “war on graffiti”.

Carlos Fresneda at Loughborough Junction last year

Alby’s father Carlos Fresneda, a journalist who reports for a Spanish national newspaper, told the New Journal: “Dear Son started like an ‘ego trip’, a very personal letter from father to son and as a way to cope with the tragedy. But it evolved into something different, a kind of road trip, with stops in many places – and with more than 80 people along the way”.

He added: “It also started as a celebration of Alberto’s life, but it dealt with grief and the sense of loss of many parents who have lost their sons. The third element in the book is the graffiti community, with interviews and shared experiences with Duke and Stone, members of the original North West Sprayers crew.”

Friends of the three artists gather at the graffiti wall in Alexandra Palace park this week

“And the words of well-known street artists, including Decolife and those of Rafael Schacter, author of The World Atlas of Street Art. He told me the time is now to put an end to the war on graffiti and recognise that street art has been the biggest force in the art world in the last decades, from Basquiat to Banksy.”

Friends of all three of the young men gathered at a graffiti wall in Alexandra Park to share memories of them and pay tributes on Tuesday. Alby’s mother, Isobel Carrasco, has also written a chapter in the book.

Alby as a young boy

As the New Journal reported earlier this year, she wrote her son’s tag on a wall during a visit to New York as part of her own grieving process.

Mr Fresneda said the launch was “very healing for the three families”. A “visual poem” created by one of his son’s best friends had been “incred­ibly powerful”, he added.

The tags Trip, Lover and K-Bag can be seen across Camden and north London, both the friends’ original work and tributes from other graffiti artists touched by their tragic deaths.

Alby’s parents at a tribute work

A “graffiti jam” on a legal wall will take place at Stockwell Hall of Fame from 1pm to 9pm on Saturday.