Thomas Miller (30 June 1890 – 3 September 1958) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and the Scotland national team during the early part of the 20th century.

Career

Club

Born in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

, Miller played for Larkhall United and

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

Miller, Tom (1911)
Hamilton Academical Memory Bank before manager Tom Watson brought him to

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

in February 1912 for £400. Miller made his debut in a home

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

match against

The Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

on 17 February 1912, a game that finished 1–1, his first goal came a fortnight later on 2 March, a division 1 match, again, at home, and again, in a 1–1 draw, this time with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, a game that saw the debut of a Liverpool great, winger Bill Lacey. The inside forward was a main stay of the ''Reds'' line-up and helped the club reach their first

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

on 25 April 1914, unfortunately the game ended in a 1–0 defeat to

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

. Despite the result the day will always be remembered as it was to be the last time the showpiece final was to be played at the

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

ground but, more significantly, it was also the first time the final was played in front of a reigning monarch,

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

. Miller's career was interrupted by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but he did return to the

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

club in 1919 after its conclusion. He found success, scoring 13 goals in 25 matches, better than a goal every other game. His younger brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

was also at the club by this time but they only appeared in three games together, and John only made the first team eight times in all; the first time the siblings appeared together was in a league game at

Boundary Park Boundary Park is a football stadium in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. Its name originates from the fact that it lies at the northwestern extremity of Oldham, with Royton and Chadderton lying immediately north and west respectively. Bound ...

against

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

on 2 April 1920, a game that finished 1–1. Two other Miller brothers,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

were also footballers with Hamilton Accies, the latter playing over 250 times for the club. This 1919–20 season was to be Miller's last for the ''Reds'' as he was transferred to bitter rivals

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

on 23 September 1920,Miller, Thomas
MUFCinfo.com although not before he managed to earn himself a descent goals-per-game ratio at

scoring 56 times in 146 appearances (averaging a goal every 2.6 games). After a season at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

, Miller later played for Heart of Midlothian,Tom Miller
London Hearts Supporters Club

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

, Hamilton for a second spell and

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...

before he drew a curtain on his playing career. He had a short spell as manager of Barrow, during which he recruited his brother John.

International

Miller played for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

at international level and played three times, making his debut while he was at Liverpool in a British Championship fixture at Hillsborough on 10 April 1920; Miller scored twice in the first half, but still finished on the losing side as

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

won 5–4 after being 4–2 down at half-time. He won two further

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

in 1921 while at Manchester United (including the coveted England fixture) despite enduring a poor spell at club level, his cause helped by a strong performance and goal in the '

Home Scots v Anglo-Scots Home Scots v Anglo-Scots was an annual association football trial match organised by the Scottish Football Association between the 1890s and 1920s to examine the abilities of possible players for upcoming full British Home Championship internationa ...

' trial match of that year.Football , International Trial Match
The Glasgow Herald, 23 March 1921

References

External links

Player profile at LFChistory.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Tom 1890 births 1958 deaths Hamilton Academical F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Wishaw Thistle F.C. players Royal Albert F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Scottish men's footballers Scottish football managers Barrow A.F.C. managers Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Men's association football forwards Scottish Junior Football Association players Footballers from Motherwell Sportspeople involved in betting scandals British Army personnel of World War I Gordon Highlanders soldiers Larkhall United F.C. players Southern Football League players