Thomas Frederick Wilson (3 July 1930 – 29 March 2010) 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 played as a full back 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 ...

for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. He later returned to Fulham as a director. As a player, he was described as a "right back of the industrial type".

Playing career

Southampton

A full back, Wilson began his career at hometown club

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

as an amateur in 1947. He departed at the end of the 1949–50 season, after failing to make a first team appearance for the club.

Fulham

Wilson followed former Southampton manager Bill Dodgin to First Division club

in August 1950 and signed a professional contract. His time at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against M ...

was fraught with injury and made just 49 appearances before departing at the end of the 1956–57 season.

Brentford

Wilson joined

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 ...

club

in July 1957. He had an uneven start to his Bees career, making 26 appearances during the 1957–58 season, but he did not play at all between September 1957 and February 1958. Wilson was an ever-present during the 1958–59 season and made 50 appearances and captained the team. An injury suffered in September 1959 halted a run of 73 consecutive appearances, but he was back to his best during the 1960–61 season, when he made 45 appearances. Wilson found himself mostly out of the team during the 1961–62 season and he departed the club at the end of the campaign. Wilson made 158 appearances during his five years at Griffin Park.

Folkestone Town

Wilson ended his career with a spell at Southern League club Folkestone Town. During the

Big Freeze of 1963 Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * '' Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...

, the football programme was postponed for so many weeks that Wilson joked "the players will all have to be reintroduced to each other when we do meet again".

Director

Wilson returned to Fulham in the late 1980s as a director, linking up with friend and former teammate

Jimmy Hill James William Thomas Hill, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director ...

. He negotiated the purchase of

from the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, which saved the club from being merged with

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

and Craven Cottage sold for development. Wilson remained in the role until he was asked to step down in 1997, at the time director Bill Muddyman was negotiating the sale of the club to

Mohamed Al-Fayed Mohamed Al-Fayed (; arz, محمد الفايد ; born 27 January 1929) is an Egyptian-born businessman whose residence and chief business interests have been in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s. His business interests include ownership of ...

Personal life

Wilson attended

Southampton Grammar School King Edward VI School (also known as King Edward's, or KES) is a selective co-educational independent school founded in Southampton, United Kingdom, in 1553. The school was founded at the request of William Capon, who bequeathed money in hi ...

and St Mary's College. While a player at Fulham in the early 1950s, his flatmates were Jimmy Hill and

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

. Wilson was the

best man A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...

at Robson's

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

in June 1955 and spoke at his funeral in September 2009. During his long spells out injured while at Fulham, Wilson trained as a

quantity surveyor A quantity surveyor (QS) is a construction industry professional with expert knowledge on construction costs and contracts. Qualified professional quantity surveyors are known as Chartered Surveyors (Members and Fellows of RICS) in the UK and Ce ...

and entered the property world upon his retirement from football. At the time of his death in March 2010, Wilson was living in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

and had been suffering from a long-term illness.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Tom 1930 births Footballers from Southampton English men's footballers Brentford F.C. players English Football League players 2010 deaths Southampton F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Southern Football League players Folkestone F.C. players Men's association football fullbacks Fulham F.C. directors and chairmen People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton