Farewell to a Legend: Sir Billy Boston Passes Away at 92

Sir Billy Boston, one of the best loved and most iconic figures in the history of Welsh sport, has passed away peacefully at the age of 92.

The most famous son of Tiger Bay, he died overnight in hospital in his adopted home for the past 74 years, Wigan. His death came only four days after the funeral of his wife, Lady Joan, to whom he had been married for 70 years.

Last summer Sir Billy became the first player from the rugby league code to be knighted. He was 91 at the time.

Having turned professional at the age of 18 for the princely sum of £3,000, the former Wigan, Wales and Great Britain wing was never able to fulfill his lifelong dream of playing for Wales at senior level at Cardiff Arms Park.

Even so, he held the distinction of being the first black player to play representative rugby union for Wales – for both the Boys Clubs of Wales and the Wales Youth teams in 1952.

Born in Angelina Street in what used to be called Tiger Bay, Sir Billy won the Dewar Shield with Cardiff Schools U15 in 1949. He was in a side that triumphed 8-3 in Neath over Mynydd Mawr and contained future Wales captain Lloyd Williams and British & Commonwealth heavyweight boxing champion Joe Erskine.

He played for the Central Boys Club in Cardiff as well as Cardiff Juniors. At the age of 17 in February 1952, he captained the Boys Clubs of Wales against England at Neath, scoring a hat-trick of tries in a match haul of 17 points, as the home side notched a magnificent 32-0 win in front of a crowd of 5,000.

Also on the scoresheet that day was the future Wales prop and coach Ron Waldron. Sir Billy had already played for the Neath senior team at The Gnoll and had scored more than 120 points for the CIACS that same season.

A month later he was capped by the Wales Youth team. The Wales Youth side had played their first international against France in 1951 and then played Munster (twice) and Wales Schools before facing France again on 29 March 1952 – with Sir Billy scoring the only Welsh try in a 5-3 defeat in Aurillac. This made Sir Billy the first black player to play for any Welsh rugby union representative side.

As well as playing for Neath, Sir Billy also played for Pontypridd before joining the Army to undertake his National Service. At the age of 18 he led the Cardiff & District XV against Cardiff in the opening game of the 1952-53 season at the Arms Park.

Cardiff, with Cliff Morgan playing at outside half and scoring two tries, won 22-0, but the Western Mail rugby writer JBG Thomas commented: “The District had a splendid centre in W Boston, who should be in the Cardiff Athletic XV.”

Alas, he never played for the senior Cardiff side and instead signed for Wigan at the age of 19, thus professionalising himself. He put pen to paper on the £3,000 offer from Wigan on 13 March 1953, although the contract wasn’t announced until a few months later.

During his National Service he was based in Catterick and became a star in the Royal Signals XV. He scored six tries against the Welsh Guards in the 1953 Army Cup Final and four of the Army’s five tries against the Territorial Army in 1954.

In his first season with the Royal Signals he scored 37 points on his debut and notched 126 tries over the course of the 30 game season at the age of 18.

After watching that performance, the Daily Express rugby writer, Pat Marshall, wrote: “If he had not signed professional forms he must have been in the current Welsh Rugby Union side. Quite simply, he is one of the greatest running backs I have seen.”

His Wigan debut came in an A Team fixture on 31 October 1953, when he announced himself with two tries against Barrow A at the age of 19 years and 68 days in front of a crowd of 8,500. His first team debut also came against Barrow at Central Park on 21 November, when he scored the first of his 478 tries for the club in 488 appearances.

After his try scoring debut, he followed up with two tries in his second outing, three in his third and four in his fourth – 12 tries in five games including a cup tie. His talent was soon spotted by the Great Britain selectors, who picked him to go on tour to Australia in the summer of 1954 – at 19, the youngest player to have toured with the squad.

He was the first black player to be selected to tour Australasia. He played in all five Tests and scored 36 tries in 18 games on tour – including seven hat tricks and six against North Coast.

He also equalled the record for the most tries in a Test match with four against New Zealand in Auckland in the first international.

An original inductee of the British Rugby League Hall of Fame, Welsh Sports Hall of Fame, Wigan Warriors Hall of Fame and the Wales Rugby League Hall of Fame, Sir Billy was appointed MBE in the 1996 Birthday Honours List “for services to the community in Wigan, Greater Manchester.”

He was one of five rugby league greats captured on a statue at Wembley, was then given his own statue in Wigan and two years ago took centre stage on a rugby league statue in his hometown, honouring the ‘Cardiff Codebreakers’, alongside Gus Risman and Clive Sullivan. He also had a stand named after him at Wigan’s home ground in 2009.

The Welsh Sports Hall of Fame sends sincere condolences to Sir Billy’s family and friends.