Tommy Lawton
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Thomas Lawton | ||
| Date of birth | 6 October 1919 | ||
| Place of birth | Farnworth, England | ||
| Date of death | 6 November 1996 (aged 77) | ||
| Place of death | Nottingham, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||
| Playing position | Centre-forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1933 | Rossendale United | ||
| 1933–1936 | Burnley | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1936–1937 | Burnley | 25 | (16) |
| 1937–1945 | Everton | 87 | (65) |
| 1945–1947 | Chelsea | 42 | (30) |
| 1947–1952 | Notts County | 151 | (90) |
| 1952–1953 | Brentford | 50 | (17) |
| 1953–1955 | Arsenal | 35 | (13) |
| 1955–1956 | Kettering Town | 30 | (15) |
| Total | 420 | (246) | |
| National team | |||
| 1939–19?? | The Football League XI | 3 | (2) |
| 1938–1948 | England | 23 | (22) |
| 1939–1946 | → England (wartime) | 23 | (24) |
| 1947 | Great Britain | 1 | (2) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1953 | Brentford (player-manager) | ||
| 1956–1957 | Kettering Town (player-manager) | ||
| 1957–1958 | Notts County | ||
| 1963–1964 | Kettering Town (caretaker-manager) | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Thomas Lawton (6 October 1919 – 6 November 1996) was an English football player and manager. A strong centre-forward with excellent all-round attacking skills, he was able to head with the ball with tremendous power and accuracy. Despite losing much of his best years to World War II, he scored 260 goals in 433 league and cup competitions in 14 full seasons in the Football League.
Born in Farnworth and raised in Bolton, he played amateur football at Rossendale United, before he turned professional at Burnley on his 17th birthday. He also played cricket for Burnley Cricket Club, before his potential as a footballer won him a £6,500 move to Everton in January 1937. He went on to finish as the First Division's top-scorer in 1937–38 and 1938–39, helping Everton to finish as champions of the Football League in the latter campaign. League football was then suspended for seven full seasons due to the outbreak of war in Europe, during which time he scored 24 goals in 23 appearances for England whilst guesting for Everton and a number of other clubs. In November 1945, he moved to Chelsea for £14,000, and scored a club record 26 goals in 34 league games in the 1946–47 season.
In November 1947, he made a surprise move to Third Division South club Notts County for a British record transfer fee of £20,000. He helped the club to win promotion as champions in 1949–50, before he moved on to Brentford in March 1952 for a club record £16,000. In January 1953, Brentford appointed him player-manager, though he would only remain in charge for nine months. He joined Arsenal as a player in November 1953 for £10,000, where he saw out the remainder of his playing career. He had a promising start to his managerial career by leading Kettering Town to the Southern League title in 1956–57, but then only had two more seasons as manager, getting relegated with Notts County in 1957–58 and then relegated with Kettering Town in 1963–64. During the 1970s he struggled with debt and related legal problems, which were reported in the media as an example of a celebrated person having fallen from grace.
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