TRIBUTES have been paid to a life-long Bolton Wanderers fan who has died at the age of 102.

Frank Arcus appeared in the Bolton News in 2018 when he was about to celebrate reaching a century of life and talked about his love for football.

That love was shared with his wife Hilda as they travelled to Wembley in 1958 to see Wanderers win one of three FA Cups.

The Heaton resident had been enjoying hearing about the club’s recent upturn in fortunes.

Granddaughter Jan Hampton said: “He lived in Bolton all his life and loved supporting Wanderers.

“His second team was Man City even though his son Frank supported Manchester United.

“He had lost a bit of heart with the club in recent years but when the new owners took over he was happy with things and even their success this season. My only regret that I never took him to the new ground.”

He had two sons Jeffrey and the late Frank then had eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren and one great great grandchild.

Family was very important to Frank as Jan added.

She said: “For the funeral we all had to come up with something about him and I looked after him and in all that time that I have known him he never moaned.

“His door was always open and if anyone wanted to talk he was there.

“I have memories of going to church and then going swimming and off to my nans and she would put the chip pan on for us and there would be chip butties for us.”

Mr Arcus worked as a firefighter on the railways in Bolton in the early part of the 20th Century, and his job meant that he was exempt from service when the war began in 1939.

He would go on to spend three years going to night school at the old Bolton Technical College, before finishing his training and becoming an engineer, a job he did until he was 62 years old.

During much of that time, Mr Arcus and his wife were regularly going to see Wanderers play at Burnden Park, but the day he recalls best is a visit to Wembley in 1958 when Bolton beat Manchester United 2-0 to win the cup, with goals from the legendary Nat Lofthouse.

Frank also loved playing dominoes on Moss Bank Park and even bowls.

He went ballroom dancing with Hilda twice a week.

Jan added: “He always started the day off with a raw egg in sherry and was quite partial to Baileys in his coffee.

“He always had a smile on his face.”