'Everyone who worked in the market would know him'

Despite having lost half of his toes to trench foot after years wandering the streets, he did not claim disability allowance and instead worked as an odd-job man for the British Aluminium Company for 35 years.

The pain of cancer could not dim the 67-year-old's passion for bus and train spotting, his meticulously kept notebooks evidence of a simple fascination nurtured since childhood.

Weeks before his death, he was at the new bus station and Bank Quay train station neatly jotting down details.

"Everyone who worked in the market would know him," says cousin Stephen.

"People would smell him a mile off!

"But he wouldn't hurt a fly. He'd just wander round picking up fag-ends.

"Whenever I was back from working away, I'd give him some tobacco and buy him a cuppa.

"He'd never say thanks, he'd just wander off, but that was just Billy's way."

Stephen says he will treasure their last moments together.

"I held him, gave him a kiss and asked him to squeeze my hand if he knew I was there and he did."