Tommy Brown (footballer, born 1896)

{{for|other footballers of this name|Tommy Brown (disambiguation){{!}}Tommy Brown}}

{{Infobox football biography

| name = Tommy Brown

| image =

| caption =

| fullname = Thomas Henry Staunton Brown

| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|9|3|df=y}}

| birth_place = Dennistoun, Scotland

| death_date = 1973 (aged 76)

| death_place = County Durham, England

| height = {{height|ft=5|in=10}}{{cite news |title=South Shields |newspaper=Athletic News |location=Manchester |date=13 August 1923 |page=6}}

| position = Outside left

| youthyears1 = | youthclubs1 =

| years1 = 1914–191? | clubs1 = Darlington

| years2 = 191?–1919 | clubs2 = Close Works

| years3 = 1919 | clubs3 = Portsmouth | caps3 = 5 | goals3 = 0

| years4 = 1919–19?? | clubs4 = Spennymoor United

| years5 = | clubs5 = Norwich City | caps4 = | goals4 =

| years6 = 1920–1921 | clubs6 = Brighton & Hove Albion | caps5 = 30 | goals5 = 1

| years7 = 1921–1922 | clubs7 = Cardiff City | caps7 = 2 | goals7 = 0

| years8 = 1922–1923 | clubs8 = Bristol City | caps8 = 8 | goals8 = 0

| years9 = 1923–1924 | clubs9 = South Shields | caps9 = 20 | goals9 = 1

| years10 = 1924–1925 | clubs10= Luton Town | caps10 = 15 | goals10 = 0

| years11 = 1925–19?? | clubs11= Poole

| years12 = | clubs12= Jarrow

| years13 = | clubs13= Ashington | caps13 = 0 | goals13 = 0

}}

Thomas Henry Staunton Brown (3 September 1896 – 1973) was a Scottish professional footballer who made 59 appearances in the English Football League playing as an outside left for Brighton & Hove Albion, Cardiff City, Bristol City, South Shields and Luton Town.{{cite book |last=Joyce |first=Michael |title=Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939 |publisher=SoccerData |location=Nottingham |date=2004 |page=40 |isbn=978-1-899468-67-6}}

Life and career

Brown was born in 1896 in Dennistoun, Glasgow, the first child of George Brown, an engine fitter, and his wife Nellie.{{cite web |url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1901Scotland&indiv=try&h=1882129 |title=Thomas Brown in the 1901 Scotland Census |via=Ancestry.com |url-access=subscription |access-date=11 January 2021}} The family moved to England and settled in the Darlington area of County Durham, where Brown attended Haughton-le-Skerne School. By 1911, the 14-year-old Brown was an apprentice engine fitter in a locomotive works.{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_29526_0649_03?pId=35347972 |title=1911 England Census for Thomas Brown |at=RG14/29526 |via=Ancestry.com |url-access=subscription |access-date=11 January 2021}}

Brown was on the books of North-Eastern League club Darlington in 1914. When football resumed after the First World War, he played for the Close Works team before signing for Portsmouth,{{cite web |url=http://www.enfa.co.uk/playersearch.php |title=Player search: Brown, THS (Tommy) |website=English National Football Archive |url-access=subscription |access-date=11 January 2021}} for which he made five Southern League appearances in the early part of the 1919–20 season. After even briefer spells with Spennymoor United of the North-Eastern League and Norwich City of the Southern, all on an amateur basis, Brown turned professional with Brighton & Hove Albion in January 1920. He went straight into their Southern League team, and kept his place for the first couple of months of the inaugural season of the Football League Third Division, but was displaced by Zach March and released at the end of that season.

For Cardiff City, Brown made two First Division appearances in early September 1921, failed to impress, and was dropped in favour of Jack Evans and not picked again.{{cite news |title=City's prospects to-day |author=Citizen |newspaper=Western Mail |location=Cardiff |date=17 September 1921 |page=10}} He made eight appearances as Bristol City won the 1922–23 Third Division South title, and then joined South Shields, where he played regularly in the Second Division for the first three months of the season. He was then left out for three months, and finished the season with 20 appearances and what proved to be his only Football League goal, the equaliser in a 1–1 draw with Bristol City on 26 April 1924, scored off the underside of the crossbar.{{cite news |title=Football at its worst |newspaper=Sunday Sun |location=Newcastle |date=27 April 1924}} Brown ended his Football League career with Luton Town before returning to non-league football with Poole of the Western League.{{cite book |first1=Tim |last1=Carder |first2=Roger |last2=Harris |title=Albion A–Z: A Who's Who of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. |publisher=Goldstone Books |location=Hove |date=1997 |page=40 |isbn=978-0-9521337-1-1}} He then returned to the North-Eastern League with Jarrow and Ashington, but did not appear in the latter's Football League side.

The 1939 Register finds Brown living with his wife, Emma, and four children in Billingham and working as a foreman fitter in the coke ovens.{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61596/images/tna_r39_2742_2742i_005?&pId=5093348 |title=1939 England and Wales Register for Thomas H Brown |at=RG 101/2742I FFBJ |via=Ancestry.com |url-access=subscription |access-date=11 January 2021}} Brown died in 1973; his death at the age of 76 was registered in the Durham area in the first quarter of that year.{{cite web |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Uqc1CTL2AUeXlzX8UEgV%2BA&scan=1 |title=Index entry |website=FreeBMD |publisher=Office for National Statistics |accessdate=11 January 2021}}