A native of Montreal Quebec, born August 20th, 1919 Bill Booth didn’t take up playing hockey until aged fourteen, despite having learned to skate by the time he was eight years old.
As a twenty year old, he joined Lachute of the Montreal Senior Provincial League and later on moved to play for the Valleyfield Braves. In 1943, while serving with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, under two former NHL coaches he played in exhibition games against the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. The following year, Bill Booth crossed the Atlantic on active service with the Canadian army. When the war ended, he played services hockey both in Europe and later at Wembley.
Before demobilisation in 1946, Booth received an offer to join the Brighton Tigers and from the September, he became resident in Britain. He played three seasons as a Tiger, including a memorable debut season when the tigers swept all before them winning the English Autumn Cup, the National Tournament and the National League. The Tigers again won the National League crown in the 47/48 season and in 158 games for the Brighton club, Bill Booth recorded 67 points from 26 goals and 41 assists, taking 250 penalty minutes.
In 1949, Bill booth moved to Durham taking the post of player/coach with the Wasps, a role in which he was to be a tremendous influence over the following fifteen years. Under Booth, the Wasps headed the northern Tournament standing no less than seven times and won the playoff final on three occasions in the fifties. Between 1961 and 1963 the Durham club had no home ice and Booth kept the club going even though it meant every game being played away from home. In the spring of 1963 Bill Booth retired from playing having suffered a jaundice attack, nevertheless he continued to coach the Wasps, who had regained their own home ice, for one more season.
After retiring, he married Isobel, a local girl and pursued a career in insurance, though he retained his interest in the sport. Through the sixties he contributed articles to the monthly magazine “The Hockey Fan,” and in the eighties he was the northeastern correspondent for the revived “Ice Hockey World.”
Regarded during his playing days as a sound if unspectacular defenceman, Bill Booth is remembered as a member of one of the great British National League sides and, above all, as an influential coach and father figure to a whole generation of hockey players in the north east.
Bill Booth died on September 25th, 1986.
Compiled with research, provided by Martin C.Harris - April 1989.
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