An athlete, par excellence, Bill Stride won many prizes as a runner with the Amateur Athletic Association. When Southampton Harriers disbanded, following their defeat by St Mary’s in the 1888 Hampshire Junior Cup Final, Bill, a former Charterhouse pupil, joined the Saints.

A formidable half-back, he clocked up more than 100 appearances over the next six years, most of them, inevitably, in the friendlies that then dominated the Saints’ fixture list. But he seldom missed a match in the various county-wide Cup competitions that the club increasingly played in and featured in the Saints’ first four FA Cup matches. On top of which, he represented the county several times.

He was still only 28 when the club started a new life in the Southern League, but he opted to call it a day and to concentrate on working for the Southampton Borough. Engineers Department which he did for 31 years. His son, Norman played one game for Saints as a guest during WW1.

When he died “Banquo” (nicknamed so by the fans after the ghost that popped up unexpectedly in Shakespeare’s Macbeth) the Echo said he was

“as hard as nails, tall, robust half-back”.