Thomas "Tom" Smith
Thomas "Tom" Smith was brought up in Ayrshire, born in 1909 in Laigh Fenwick, the son of parents from Kilmarnock, his father a tailor. But the family would soon move to Cumnock and it was there that he learned the game with Cumnock Juveniles in 1924, Sinclair Celtic in 1925 and Townhead Thistle in 1926. But he made his name in the senior game as a centre-half for six seasons from 1928 at Killy, signed, having won a place at Glasgow University, at just eighteen. And it was from Rugby Park he played in the losing team in the 1932 Cup Final and in 1934 won the first of his two international caps.
That was before in 1936 he went South to Preston, initially as a reserve and not as one of the seven Scots in the losing FA Cup Final team of 1937. But he was there and captain in the winning side of 1938 with seven countrymen once more that would have been eight had Jimmy Milne been fit.
By then Tom, with his team also finishing third in the League up from fourteenth, was about to turn thirty. It was also the year, in which he would win a second cap, a victory at Wembley over England, and return to Scotland, to Sanquhar, to marry Margaret Gilmour with the couple, who would have two children, then settling back in Lancashire.
But after a steady 1938-9 season the war, of course would interrupt football for the duration. Still in Lancashire he would become a Special Constable until in 1945 officially hang up his boots and returning to Scotland to become manager back at Killy. However, it would only last two seasons and include relegation before he resigned due to ill-health. And at that he returned to Preston, there living out the rest of his life. He would die in neighbouring Ashton-on-Ribble in 1990 aged eighty-nine to be buried in the Preston Old Cemetery and outlived by Margaret by twenty years. Her passing would be still in the town at ninety-five in 2010.
Birth Locator:
Residence Locations:
1911 - Townend, Old Cumnock, Ayrshire
1921 - 61, Townhead, Old Cumnock, Ayrshire
1938 - 256, St. Thomas Rd., Preston
1939 - 7, Princes Drive, Fulwood, Lancashire
Mayfield, Oakwood Drive, Fulwood, Lancashire
1998 - Ashton, Preston, Lancashire
Death Locator:
1998 - Ashton, Preston, Lancashire
Grave Locator:
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