A local footballing hero is being remembered this year in a special exhibition at Topsham Museum.

Dick Pym was a Topsham salmon fisherman who became Exeter City’s goalkeeper before scoring national fame in the Bolton Wanderers side which won the first-ever FA Cup Final at Wembley - that’s the famous ‘White Horse’ final, 100 years ago this April.

To mark the centenary Topsham Museum is holding a special exhibition with a host of original items from the match and Dick’s career from March 29 until the end of October.

Generations of the Pym family have lived in Topsham for 400 years and remain active to this day. Now Dick’s grandson, Richard Pym, has had a sneak preview of the event a month ahead of it opening to the public.

“Having worked with the team over the last year it was thrilling to visit the museum and see the Dick Pym exhibition being prepared. It brings together the family collection of historic memorabilia never before seen in public - my favourite is the 1923 FA Cup winner’s medal” he says.

“My grandfather was an amazing man and the family are delighted that we are able to work with Topsham Museum to share his story with the public in the town he loved on the centenary of the famous 1923 Cup Final.”

The achievements of Dick Pym - who was known as the Fisherman Footballer - didn’t stop there.

In a string of ‘firsts’, Dick played at two more FA Cup Finals for Bolton, both on the winning side, and even 100 years on he remains the only goalie to play in three finals without conceding a goal.

His transfer fee to Bolton in 1921 was around £5,000 - thought to be a world record at the time. After 301 league appearances for Bolton he returned to Exeter’s St James’ Park to become assistant trainer some 26 years after first being spotted as a player in a local Topsham team.

Dick’s remarkable rags-to-pitches life story - being born into poverty, serving in World War One and then being capped three times for England - is told in the exhibition which runs at Topsham Museum from March 29 until the end of October.

Museum exhibition organiser Gill McLean said: “We’re thrilled to display rarememorabilia to delight footie fans, but equally delighted that Dick Pym’s story offers something for everyone. Spanning the 20th century, his ‘other' life off the pitch offers glimpses of a Devon fishing lifestyle that has now disappeared.”