Born to Harry and Mary Baldwin[5] on 15 March 1946,[1] he was diagnosed with a learning disability as a child and required speech therapy. Baldwin left school at age 16 to join Sir Robert Fossett's Circus, the oldest circus in England, for whom he performed as Nello the Clown for three seasons.[6] He lived with his mother until a few years before she died in 2003.[6] He is known to be acquainted with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the footballer Gary Lineker, magician’s assistant Debbie McGee and Prince Edward.[7][8]
Keele University
Since 1960, unasked and unpaid, Baldwin has visited Keele University, where his mother worked as a cleaner, to greet new students.[2] A testimonial football match, on 12 March 2000, featured his own team of Keele University students (the Neil Baldwin Football Club, formed in 1967,[9] whose president was Gary Lineker) against an all-star side of former Football League players including Lou Macari, Asa Hartford and Gordon Cowans.[10]
In 2013 Baldwin received the honorary degree of Master of the University from Keele University, which said that he
has been adopted by the student body over the last 50 years as something of a mascot for Keele... He has watched, supported and kept in touch with successive cohorts of Keele students building an impressive network of alumni contacts both national and internationally. He serves the students offering advice and support to students, remaining steadfastly proud and loyal to Keele. In doing so, he has openly defended Keele and voiced his concerns about any issue that has or would affect Keele to his numerous contacts within parliament, the various leaders of Christian denomination churches, volunteer organisations and business leaders across the country, of whom he regularly visits.[12]
In 2016, Stoke City FC and Keele University combined to celebrate Neil Baldwin's 70th birthday at Keele Hall. Guests included friends and family, professional footballers and football administrators, members of the clergy, professional actors and screenwriters, impresarios of the circus, Keele University professors, students and graduates, local dignitaries, singers from the Neil Baldwin Choir, three Cambridge University Boat Club rowers, and members of the Neil Baldwin Football Club. The highlight was a birthday greeting by video-link from Sir Alex Ferguson. Vice-chancellor Professor Trevor McMillan remarked that "Only Neil could bring together people from such diverse walks of life to celebrate his birthday".
Stoke City FC
In the 1990s Baldwin was appointed as Stoke City Football Clubkit-man by then manager Lou Macari[3][4][13][14] who has described him as "the best signing I ever made", as his humour was so good for team morale.[6] In 1993, Macari played him as a substitute for Stoke City, against Aston Villa, in the final five minutes of a testimonial match for Gordon Cowans.[15][16] Macari later wrote seven pages about Baldwin in his 2009 autobiography, Football, My Life,[4] and said that he is a "man without an angle and there aren't many of them in football".[17] In May 2015 Baldwin was awarded "Supporter of the year" by Stoke City FC.
It says everything for Neil that Marvellous was ever made. For in times when TV is seduced by vacuity and celebrity, it doesn't sound that promising a pitch. A drama, set in Newcastle [under-Lyme], about a man saddled with the tag of "learning difficulties" who reveals himself to be so much more? Good luck with that one. And yet here it is – primetime BBC2.
Baldwin's autobiography, Marvellous: Neil Baldwin – My Story, written with the help of Keele University alumni Malcolm Clarke and Francis Beckett, was published in hardback by John Blake in August 2015.[1]
On 21 May 2015 Baldwin was presented with the Freedom of Stoke-on-Trent[27] and on 26 November 2015 was awarded the freedom of Newcastle-under-Lyme.[28] In October 2015, he featured in an episode of the BBC television programme Songs of Praise.[29]
