Sir Billy Boston, the winger who scored 478 tries in 488 appearances for Wigan between 1953 and 1968, died in the town on the 24th of August 2026. He was 92. Only the Australian Brian Bevan has scored more tries in the sport’s history than Boston’s career total of 571, whilst his tally at Wigan is one that nobody expects to see beaten any time soon. He was knighted in the June of 2025, becoming the first rugby league player in the sport’s 130-year history to receive the honour. What should embarrass the people who hand out honours is that it took until Boston was 90 and living with dementia for anyone to give him his recognition.
Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister at the time of the award, called the wait an ‘historic wrong.’ Boston had been made a Member of the British Empire back in 1986, but the honours system found nothing better to offer him across the four decades that followed. That is despite a place in the Rugby Football League’s inaugural Hall of Fame in 1988 and a statue amongst five League greats outside Wembley. Two more statues, in Wigan and in his home city of Cardiff, arrived before the knighthood did. It can be added to the list of things the ‘Empire’ should be ashamed of.
RIP to the finest Welsh winger ever to pick up an oval ball, Sir Billy Boston
— Georges Lapunkraque (@delboylindo.bsky.social) 25 August 2026 at 11:10
The scale of what took so long to recognise has never been in question. Boston left rugby union in Wales for Wigan in 1953, signed for a fee of £3,000 and scored on his debut that November. Picked for the 1954 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, he became the first non-white player selected for a GB tour and went on to set a record of 36 tries in 18 appearances that stood for decades. He then won three Challenge Cups and a Championship with Wigan, scoring 24 tries in 31 Great Britain caps, including one in the 10-3 win over Australia that settled the 1960 World Cup final at Odsal Stadium in Bradford.
Boston made the switch to the league format of the sport after a brief spell playing union, going on to become one of its most important players thanks to his trailblazing nature. His wife, Lady Joan, to whom he had been married for 70 years, died in the July of 2026. Boston died four days after her funeral. Rugby league gave itself 130 years to work out that Boston deserved its highest honour, but he ended up having just 14 months to actually have it. The sport would do better to spend less time marking his passing and more time asking who else on its list is still waiting for the recognition.
Image: Wakefield Trinity player Gert Coetzer (on ground) is tackled by Wigan player Billy Boston during the 1963 Challenge Cup Final – Herald and News, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
