Is Tom the famous, Thomas Shanks was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1880. A centre-forward, he joined Derby County in April 1898. Although he stayed for three seasons he only played in 27 games for the club. He then spent time at Brentford before joining Woolwich Arsenal in January 1903?
Shanks became a regular member of the first-team and in the 1903-04 season played alongside Roderick McEachrane, Jimmy Ashcroft, William Linward, Tommy Briercliffe, Tommy Shanks, Tim Coleman and Percy Sands in helping Woolwich Arsenal win promotion to the First Division. Shanks was the club's leading scorer with 25 league goals. This included hat-tricks against Leicester City, Lincoln City, Burnley and four in a game against Grimsby Town.
Shanks performance in the Woolwich Arsenal team resulted in his winning his first international cap for Ireland against Scotland.
In 1903 Shanks, who had scored 29 league and cup goals in 48 games for the club, was surprisingly transferred to Brentford. He also played for Leicester City, Leyton Orient and York City.
There is a picture of him on the internet which I have attached
He was my grandmother's cousin who lived in Bermondsey and Battersea.
This person is of interest to me as a Brentford historian. I can tell you the person in the photo is not the same Tommy Shanks that played for Arsenal and Brentford. Looking at the British Newspaper Archive, "this" Tommy Shanks played consistently for Linfield Swifts throughout the period 1902-1909 so would rule him out.
At the time of the photo, our Tommy Shanks was playing for Leyton (not Leyton Orient). They were a Southern League club.
Like other posters on this thread, I have drawn a blank on his whereabouts since the 1920s and frequent traces of official records have drawn a blank.
I attach a photo of Tommy that appeared in the Athletic News edition of 16 February 1903.
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Topic: Where is Tom SHANKS? (Read 5561 times)