Tom Wilson (footballer, born 1930)

Thomas Frederick Wilson (3 July 1930 – 29 March 2010) was an English professional footballer who played as a full back in the Football League for Fulham and Brentford. He later returned to Fulham as a director. As a player, he was described as a "right back of the industrial type".[3]

Tom Wilson
Personal information
Full name Thomas Frederick Wilson[1]
Date of birth (1930-07-03)3 July 1930
Place of birth Southampton, England
Date of death 29 March 2010(2010-03-29) (aged 79)[2]
Place of death Putney, England[2]
Position(s) Full back
Youth career
1947–1950 Southampton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1950–1957 Fulham 45 (0)
1957–1962 Brentford 148 (0)
Folkestone Town
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Playing career

Southampton

A full back, Wilson began his career at hometown club Southampton as an amateur in 1947.[3] He departed at the end of the 1949–50 season, after failing to make a first team appearance for the club.[1]

Fulham

Wilson followed former Southampton manager Bill Dodgin to First Division club Fulham in August 1950 and signed a professional contract.[3] His time at Craven Cottage was fraught with injury and made just 49 appearances before departing at the end of the 1956–57 season.[3]

Brentford

Wilson joined Third Division South club Brentford in July 1957.[4] He had an uneven start to his Bees career, making 26 appearances during the 1957–58 season,[5] but he did not play at all between September 1957 and February 1958.[5] Wilson was an ever-present during the 1958–59 season and made 50 appearances and captained the team.[5] An injury suffered in September 1959 halted a run of 73 consecutive appearances, but he was back to his best during the 1960–61 season, when he made 45 appearances.[5] Wilson found himself mostly out of the team during the 1961–62 season and he departed the club at the end of the campaign.[4] Wilson made 158 appearances during his five years at Griffin Park.[4]

Folkestone Town

Wilson ended his career with a spell at Southern League club Folkestone Town.[4] During the Big Freeze of 1963, the football programme was postponed for so many weeks that Wilson joked "the players will all have to be reintroduced to each other when we do meet again".[6]

Director

Wilson returned to Fulham in the late 1980s as a director, linking up with friend and former teammate Jimmy Hill.[7] He negotiated the purchase of Craven Cottage from the Bank of England, which saved the club from being merged with Queens Park Rangers and Craven Cottage sold for development.[3] Wilson remained in the role until he was asked to step down in 1997, at the time director Bill Muddyman was negotiating the sale of the club to Mohamed Al-Fayed.[7]

Personal life

Wilson attended Southampton Grammar School and St Mary's College.[3] While a player at Fulham in the early 1950s, his flatmates were Jimmy Hill and Bobby Robson.[3] Wilson was the best man at Robson's wedding in June 1955 and spoke at his funeral in September 2009.[8][9] During his long spells out injured while at Fulham, Wilson trained as a quantity surveyor and entered the property world upon his retirement from football.[3] At the time of his death in March 2010, Wilson was living in Putney and had been suffering from a long-term illness.[2]

Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Brentford 1957–58[5] Third Division South 27 0 0 0 — 27 0
1958–59[5] Third Division 46 0 4 0 — 50 0
1959–60[5] 19 0 0 0 — 19 0
1960–61[5] 40 0 2 0 3 0 45 0
1961–62[5] 16 0 0 0 1 0 17 0
Career total 148 0 6 0 4 0 158 0

References
  1. "Tom Wilson". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. "Former Bees dies". 1 April 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  3. "Tom Wilson". 16 July 2010. Archived from the original on 16 July 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  4. Haynes, Graham; Coumbe, Frank (2006). Timeless Bees: Brentford F.C. Who's Who 1920–2006. Harefield: Yore Publications. pp. 170–171. ISBN 978-0955294914.
  5. White, Eric, ed. (1989). 100 Years Of Brentford. Brentford FC. pp. 384–386. ISBN 0951526200.
  6. "Shepway caught in the grip of the big freeze". Folkestone Herald. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  7. Mihir Bose (7 February 2003). "Fulham pushed out Hill". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  8. "Robson, Sir Robert William [Bobby] (1933–2009), footballer and football manager". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  9. "Sir Bobby Robson's memorial service: football figures assemble in Durham". the Guardian. 21 September 2009. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
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