LEIGH will today honour one of its most famous sons, author and Oscar winner James Hilton, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
A plaque in the Goodbye Mr Chips writer's memory is to be unveiled in Leigh Town Hall.
It's amazing really that in 1900 his parents should return to Leigh from the south so that he could be born at his grandad's Wilkinson Street home, and that he never forgot his Leigh roots.
An academic, he started in journalism, but success after success followed and in 1942 he won an Academy Award for the film Mrs Miniver.
At the time he was reputedly the highest paid script writer in Hollywood and by the end of his life he had written 21 novels.
He died at Long Beach, California, on December 22, 1954.
Recognition has taken a long time coming, but a centenary is as appropriate a time as any.
The blue badge heritage people should now place a plaque in Wilkinson Street, and how about honouring the Leigh Caruso, Tom Burke, and Georgie Fame in the same way before he shuffles off this mortal coil?
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