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Tom
Holford |
Stoke FC
1 appearance, 0 goals
P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F
4:
A
0
100% successful
1903
captain: none
minutes played: 90 |
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Timeline |
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Thomas Holford |
|
Birth |
Friday,
22 February 1878, at 81 Paddock Street in Hanley, Staffordshire.
confirmed
by the Births and 1939 registers, as well as his funeral details. |
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registered in Stoke on Trent January-March 1878 |
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According to the 1881 census,
Thomas is the fifth of six children to Thomas Henry and Anna Davis (née
Edwards). Thomas is a
potter's manager, his wife is a potter's sponger. They live at Sneyd Green
in Burslem. Ann's widowed mother, also Ann, lives with them. |
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According to the 1891 census,
Thomas is a potter's assistant. He is now the fourth of seven children at
the home of his parents, his father still a potter's manager. They live at
Oak House on Elder Road in Burslem. His grandmother, Ann, still
lives with them. She is 91 years old. |
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According to the 1901 census,
Thomas now lives with his widowed mother and is the eldest of the four
children left in the house. He is a potter's mould maker. They all live at
17 Grant Street in Burslem. |
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Marriage |
to Sarah Jane
Platt, in Burslem in the spring of 1903 |
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registered in Wolstanton April-June 1903 |
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Children |
Tom and Sarah Jane
had three children together. Lilly (b.1904) and Anna (b.22
November 1905), another had born and died before 1911. |
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According to the 1911 census,
Thomas is now married to Sarah Jane and they have two daughters, Lily and
Annie. He is still a potter's mould maker, and they live at 14 Sneyd
Street in Cobridge, Burslem. They census return reveals that they had lost
a child in death. |
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According to the
1921 census, Thomas is still a mouldmaker (for Wiltshaw & Robinson
Potteries) and is still married. With their two daughters and his own
mother, Anna, they still live at 14 Sneyd Street.
(His mother died
in 1928) |
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According to the 1939 register, Thomas and
Sarah J. remain married and they still live at 14 Sneyd Street, along with
their daughter, Annie, and her husband, Abel Holdcroft. Thomas is
a football trainer. |
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Death |
Monday, 6 April 1964,
in Stoke, Staffordshire |
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aged
86 years 44 days |
registered in Stoke on Trent April-June 1964 |
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Obituary |
,%20Tom.jpg) "Tommy Holford was outstanding figure in Potteries Soccer.
"Former England, Stoke City and Port Vale player Mr. Tom Holford, whose
death at the age of 87 was reported in the late editions was outstanding
in Potteries football for many years. His connection with football as
player and official extended over the greater part of the history of
organised football in this country. The Football League was only 10 years
old when he started to play for Stoke in 1898 and he was over 70 when he
finally gave up his active connection with football. After that he
continued his interest as a regular spectator.
"He was 20 when he
signed for Stoke at £1 a week and subsequently became the smallest centre-half
to play for England. It was in 1903 that he was capped against Ireland at
Wolverhampton. He was only 5ft. 5ft in. tall and weighted only nine stone,
but he was a tough and fearless tackler. Always an extremely fit man who
took care of his physical condition, he played in League football when he
was 45. Even when he was a man of 80 he looked very much younger.
"From Stoke he moved to Manchester City in 1908-09 and with them he won a
Division II. championship medal in 1909-10. It was in 1914 that his long
association with Port Vale began and it covered a succession of roles as
player, manager, trainer, coach and scout, embracing a period of 36 years.
Transferred to the Vale as player-manager, ne never occupied that post
because the war intervened and he served with the Royal Artillery. He
played for a time for Nottingham Forest and when normal football resumed
returned to the Vale as a player. He became as popular at the Vale's
headquarters as he had been at the Victoria Ground. Playing for the club
when they were elected to the Second Division after the 1914-18 war, he
remained in the side until 1922, when he was appointed trainer and made
occasional playing appearances. He served as trainer for 10 years and was
manager for three years. Afterwards he became coach and subsequently chief
scout." -
The Evening Sentinel, Tuesday, 7 April 1964. |
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Funeral |
April 1964 at Burslem cemetery,
Hanley Road, Stoke-on-Trent. |
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Source |
 Douglas Lammings' An
English Football Internationalist Who's Who [1990] & |
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Playing Career |
Club(s) |
Began his football career at Granville's Night School FC and Cobridge FC.
However... |
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"Mr. Holford commenced a long and distinguished career at the age of 16 as
a member of Tunstall Town F.C., who competed in the North Staffordshire
League. After two years in junior football, he signed professional forms
with Stoke in the 1897-98 season, remaining there until 1907-08."
Evening Sentinel, Saturday, 2 March 1946. |
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Holford then became a Manchester City FC
player on 18 April 1908. He left to become the player-manager of Port Vale FC
on 29 May 1914.
Guested for Nottingham Forest FC during the war. He gave up the managership in 1919 and eventually he retired from playing, aged 46 years,
for The Valiants in 1924. |
League honours
476 appearances 66 goals |
Stoke FC 1898-1908
248 appearances, 31 goals
debut: 17 September 1898 Sheffield United FC
1 Stoke FC 1.
Manchester City FC
1908-14 172 appearances, 34 goals
debut: 21 April 1908
Manchester City FC 0 Bristol City FC 0.
Port Vale
FC 1919-24 56 appearances, one goal
debut (division two): 18
October 1919 South Shields FC 2 Port Vale FC 0.
last (division two): 5
April 1924 Derby County FC 2 Port Vale FC 0. |
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Club honours |
Football
League Division One third place 1907-08 (2ᵃ); Division Two winners 1909-10
(30ᵃ 12ᵍ); |
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Individual honours |
Holford Avenue in Fallowfields area of Manchester is named in his honour |
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Distinctions |
Nephew of Will Holford (Stoke FC 1888)... and is uncle to
League Referee, Tom Kirkham and cousin of Wilf Kirkham (Port Vale FC
1923-33, Stoke City FC 1929-31) |
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Height/Weight |
'a midget half-back'; 5' 5", 9st.
2lbs [1903], 5'
6½", 10st.
8lbs [1921]. |
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Source |
Douglas Lammings' An English
Football Internationalist Who's Who [1990]. |
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Management
Career |
Club(s) |
Rumours abounded that Holford was to became secretary at Stoke FC, until
they refuted on 16 April 1918. However, following an interview with
directors at the biginning of the following month, he was appointed the player-manager of Port Vale FC
on 29 May 1914. He retired from playing
for The Valiants in 1924, although he did act as trainer from July 1923.
Served Port Vale in a vareity of capacities as coach, trainer, team
manager again from 1933 until 30 September 1935, when he relinquished his
position as team manager and trainer, becoming coach and chief scout. When
Bill Frith resigned as manager of Port Vale on 12 October 1946, trainer
Ken Fish took over as caretaker manager, with Holford acting as an advisor
for him. |
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League honours |
Football League
best Division Two eighth place 1933-34; |
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England Career |
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Player number |
One of seven
who became the 278th player
(279) to appear for England. |
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Position(s) |
Centre-half |
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Only match |
No. 77, 14 February 1903, England 4 Ireland
0,
a British Championship
match at Molineux, Waterloo Road North, St. Peter's, Wolverhampton, aged 24 years
357 days. |
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Major tournaments |
British
Championship 1902-03; |
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Team honours |
British Championship
shared
1902-03; |
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Individual honours |
None |
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Distinctions |
None |
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Beyond England |
|
After he gave up the frontline part
of the game, he became a Port Vale scout, retiring in 1950. -
An English Football Internationalists' Who's Who.
Douglas Lamming (1990). Hatton Press, p.134. |
England
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