Stan Welsh was one of those Banister Court pupils who signed amateur to play for the Saints.

A fast winger, he soon had a first-team run-out in the Western League, but he then became a regular in the Reserves for a year.

At which point, he broke a leg in a trial match for Exeter City. His hopes of Southern League football were over. During the Great War, Stan served in the Royal Sussex Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant, before transferring to the RAF (No.4 Squadron), where he reached the rank of Flight Officer. When peace-time football resumed in 1919, he became a referee.  He also became a journalist with the Sunday Express and BBC Radio Services as well as the owner of the Folly Inn in Adstock and later the Cafe Paris in Aylesbury until 1949 when the Receiver stepped in and he was made bankrupt. He captained the RAF at cricket v the Army & Navy and was also a tutor in a children’s gymnasium as the picture below – taken in 1930 – illustrates.