Billy Liddell

William Beveridge "Billy" Liddell (10 January 1922 – 3 July 2001) was a Scottish footballer, who played his entire professional career with Liverpool. He signed with the club as a teenager in 1938 and retired in 1961, having scored 228 goals in 534 appearances. He was Liverpool's leading goalscorer in the league in eight out of nine seasons from 1949–50 to 1957–58, and surpassed Elisha Scott's club record for most league appearances in 1957.

With Liverpool, Liddell won a league championship in 1947 and featured in the club's 1950 FA Cup Final defeat by Arsenal. He represented Scotland at international level on 29 occasions. While serving as a Royal Air Force navigator during the Second World War, Liddell continued his career by appearing in unofficial games for Liverpool and guesting for various teams in the United Kingdom and Canada. After his retirement from football, in 1961, Liddell occupied himself as a Justice of the Peace (from 1958), bursar of Liverpool University, and voluntary worker.

Links To Peel
Peel's long-standing idol was Billy Liddell, whose portrait hung in the dining room at Peel Acres: an autograph signed on a newspaper flyer by the player was kept in his father's old desk and John referred to it as  'perhaps the most sacred item I own.' In an interview with Jeff Mills, Peel mentioned that his  'most treasured possession is probably Billy Liddell’s autograph (one of the greatest Liverpool players and my boyhood hero – he was a god!).'