Duncan Edwards

Duncan Edwards (1 October 1936 – 21 February 1958) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the mid-1950s, and one of eight players who died as a result of the Munich air disaster.

Born in Dudley, Worcestershire, Edwards signed for Manchester United as a teenager and went on to become the youngest player to play in the Football League First Division and the then youngest England player since the Second World War. In a professional career of less than five years he helped United to win two Football League championships and reach the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Biography

Early years

Edwards was born on 1 October 1936 at a house on Malvern Crescent in the Woodside district of Dudley, which at the time was part of the county of Worcestershire. He was the first child of Gladstone and Sarah Anne Edwards and their only child to survive to adulthood, his younger sister Carol Anne dying in 1947 at the age of 14 weeks. His cousin, three years his elder, was Dennis Stevens, who also went on to become a professional footballer.