Born to Harry and Mary Baldwin on 15 March 1946, 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. He lived with his mother until a few years before she died in 2003. He is known to be acquainted with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the footballer Gary Lineker and Prince Edward.
Keele University
Since 1960, unasked and unpaid, Baldwin has visited Keele University, where his mother worked as a cleaner, to greet new students. A testimonial football match, on 12 March 2000, featured his own team of Keele University students against an all-star side of former Football League players including Lou Macari, Asa Hartford and Gordon Cowans. He was granted honorary life membership of Keele University Students' Union in 1968. The proposal received unanimous support. His fiftieth year there was marked with a two-day celebration, including a service of thanksgiving presided over by the Bishop of Lichfield, Keele alumnusJonathan Gledhill, and a further testimonial match. He was also awarded the honorary graduate status. In 2013 Baldwin received the honorary degree of Master of the University from Keele University, which said that he 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".
In the 1990s Baldwin was appointed as Stoke City Football Club kit-man by then manager Lou Macari who has described him as "the best signing I ever made", as his humour was so good for team morale. 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. Macari later wrote seven pages about Baldwin in his 2009 autobiography, Football, My Life, and said that he is a "man without an angle and there aren’t many of them in football". In May 2015 Baldwin was awarded "Supporter of the year" by Stoke City FC.
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.
