Thomas Arthur Capel (27 June 1922 – 5 October 2009) was an English professional

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 scored 120 goals from 276 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

playing for

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The tw ...

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

and

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

. He played as an

inside left Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

Career

Capel played football for a

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

, Gosling's, in Manchester, and for

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester city centre and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the ...

, before joining

in 1941, He made his competitive debut on 4 January 1947 in a 1–0 win in the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

away at

Bob Brocklebank Bob Brocklebank (8 April 1908 – September 1981) was an English footballer and manager. He played for Aston Villa and Burnley, where he was top goalscorer in 1937-38 before becoming a manager, at Chesterfield, Birmingham City, Hull City and ...

signed him for Chesterfield in October 1947. He scored on his league debut for the club, finished his first season as the club's leading scorer with 16 despite joining well after the start of the season, and in something under two seasons scored a total of 27 league goals from 62 appearances. In the 1949 close season Brocklebank signed him for a second time, taking him to First Division club

for a fee of £10,000. Capel, described as a "powerful, bustling player", failed to settle at Birmingham, and moved to

a few months later. He and

Wally Ardron Wally Ardron (19 September 1918 – 1978) was a footballer born in Swinton, West Riding of Yorkshire, and who played as a centre forward. He joined Rotherham United from Denaby United, and went on to score 98 Football League goals for Rotherh ...

formed "a lethal striking partnership" which contributed to Forest, under the management of Billy Walker, winning the

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...

title in the 1950–51 season. Capel spent four-and-a-half seasons at Forest, and scored 72 goals from 162 appearances in all competitions. In the 1954 close season, Capel joined

, for whom he scored 19 goals from 34 league matches in the Third Division South, and finished off his league career with a few months at

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

club

, thus completing the set of playing in all four divisions of

. Capel spent the 1956–57 season with

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

side Heanor Town. They won the Central Alliance North title, scoring 158 goals in the 30 games available, and finished the season with a flourish. Capel had scored four in a match for Nottingham Forest against Gillingham in 1950: he went one better in Heanor's last game of the season against Sutton Town, "scoring all five goals including one from the penalty spot with his unfavoured right foot".

Personal life

Capel was born in

Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. It ...

Manchester 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 Salford to the west. The t ...

. He served in the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, alongside fellow footballers

Eddie Quigley Edward Quigley (13 July 1921 – 18 April 1997) was an English football player and manager. He was born in Bury, Lancashire, the son of Edward and Martha (née Rowley) Quigley. He scored 179 goals from 337 appearances in the Football League ...

and Ken Oliver. His younger brother Freddie also became a professional footballer. The pair were on Chesterfield's books at the same time, but played together only once, for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. He died in October 2009, aged 87.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Capel, Tommy 1922 births 2009 deaths Military personnel from Manchester Royal Marines ranks People from Chorlton-on-Medlock English footballers Association football forwards Droylsden F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players English Football League players Heanor Town F.C. players Royal Marines personnel of World War II Footballers from Manchester