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.