As honorary Vice President (and former Chairman) of St Helens Town AFC my connections go back to the early 1950’s when as a five year old, my dad took me regularly to games at Hoghton Road which was close to where I was born in Reginald Road, Sutton.

By then Bert Trautmann had left Town for Manchester City but his legacy was very strong (and still is) and my first chance to see him in action was on next door’s TV in the 1955 FA Cup Final v Newcastle United.

‘That’s the Town goalie,’ said my dad and I watched with pride as the game got under way but within 3 minutes our hero was picking the ball out of his net courtesy of a Jackie Milburn power header which set the Magpies up for a 3-1 win.

However, a year later City were back at Wembley again and triumphed in the now legendary ‘broken neck’ final against Birmingham City and all Town fans shared in City’s pride.

Due to my dad’s work patterns we couldn’t always make Town’s away games and on those days we’d hop to St Helens Junction station to watch Everton at Goodison Park.

This was were I first saw Bert in ‘the flesh’ in 1957 which coincided with my own selection in goal for my primary school team.

We took our seats very early in the upper deck of the old ‘Park End’ stand and Bert ran out to a great reception having fought back from terrible injury and personal tragedy.

I watched his every move, with my own school team debut imminent but within 3 minutes Everton had gone two up courtesy of an Alec Ashworth brace. City though, in typical fashion came back to win 5-2 in what was a ‘crazy season’ for them.

Years later, courtesy of Bert’s biographer Alan Rowlands, I got to meet him at the book’s launch in Manchester’s Deansgate. Many of Bert’s old team mates were there so I was way down the pecking order as after all, Bert didn’t know me from Adam.

Once I introduced myself as the ‘Town’ Chairman Bert beamed and was so emotional about the kindness and warmth he received at Hoghton Road at Hoghton Road when as a German, hostility abounded nationwide.

The day after the book’s launch, Bert and his wife came to St Helens to revive many happy memories and I met them off the train at the Junction station.

After a light lunch in the Junction pub (where Bert used to get his kit washed) he asked me to take him on a sentimental journey. But first he had an interview to do for BBC Radio Merseyside which he did in the satellite studio of the Gamble Institute.

We went through Ashton in Makerfield, Golborne, Parr and Sutton where at the latter, Bert visited his son John’s grave at St Nicholas’ churchyard. Naturally it was a very emotional experience. We passed the house in which he signed for City in Marshalls Cross Road en route for Huyton where he had been assigned to the bomb disposal squad based around Longview.

To cap a truly memorable day I drove them to their hotel at Haydock Park racecourse where luxury was the word, a stark contrast to the POW camp he was in across the road forty five years earlier. Despite a tiring day he insisted in returning to the Hoghton Road social club in the evening to meet the people of Sutton. I was on bingo duty that night and the usual ‘chatter’ ceased as Bert walked in to thank all who remembered his days amongst them and the generosity shown to him and his family back in Germany in very hard times.

Jim Barrett