Bill Foulkes, one of our two Honorary Presidents - the other being Bert Trautmann joined the club from Whiston Boys Club and played a number of games for Town during the 1949/50 season, under the captaincy of Harry McCann and alongside Billy Twist in the defence. He signed for Manchester United in March 1950 for the princely sum of £10.

Born at Clock Face on 5th January 1932, William Anthony Foulkes began in junior football at Whiston. He was a right back of obvious talent, big and strong, due in no small part to his job as a miner at Lea Green Colliery. Sport was in his blood, as both his grandfather and father had played rugby for Saints. Indeed, his grandfather had captained Saints and became an England international and Bill proudly followed later in his footsteps, although in a different code. Although he signed professional at Old Trafford under Matt Busby in August 1951, Bill did not play in Uniteds Championship season, but made his debut against Liverpool on 13th December 1952. Remarkably, he continued to work full-time at Lea Green Colliery, catching the train from the nearby station to Manchester after the end of his shift to attend evening training sessions and he only finished at the pit after he won his one and only England cap against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast, on 2nd October 1954. He also appeared twice for England Under-23s the same season.

As one of the legendary Busby Babes, Bill won back to back Championship medals with United in 1955/56 and 1956/57, he was an FA Cup winner in the 1963 Wembley final against Leicester City and he went on to win further Championship medals in 1964/65 and 1966/67 and played in the 1968 European Cup triumph over Benfica at Wembley. In all, he played in 563 league games and a total of 685 matches for United, then a club record only recently beaten by Bobby Charlton and Ryan Giggs.

Bill was a survivor of the Munich air crash in February 1958. Along with Harry Gregg, he helped a number of the injured to safety from the burning plane. Eight of his team-mates lost their lives, together with club officials and a number of other passengers, including journalists who had flown with the team to cover the European Cup tie in Belgrade. Bill took over the captaincy of the team from that point, a position he held until 1966. He also switched successfully to centre-half. Remarkably, he played in every match in that fateful 1957/58 season, a feat he repeated in 1959/60, 1963/64 and the Championship season 1964/65. Bills final game was against Southampton on 16th August 1969.

After his playing days were over, Bill was a youth team coach at Old Trafford between 1970 and 1975. He briefly managed Witney Town, before his career took him to the USA, Norway and Japan. As a coach for the Manchester FA, he particularly enjoyed conducting Japanese visitors around the Old Trafford ground, being fluent in the Japanese language, having learned it during his four years in the Far East.

Sadly Bill passed away in November 2013 aged 81 years. At the end of the 2013-14 season the club named the Player's Player of the Year Award 'The Bill Foules Trophy'.