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Tommy Lawton (October 6, 1919 - November 6, 1996)
was an England|English football
(soccer)|association footballer.

==Playing career==

Born in Bolton, Lawton's precocious talent won him
a trial for the England schoolboy team in which he
scored a hat trick but this never led to a junior
cap (football)|cap. In 1935, he signed for
Football League Second Division|Second Division
club Burnley F.C.|Burnley. Despite podiatry|flat
feet and needing to wear orthosis|orthotics, as a
striker, he rapidly achieved fame for his pace,
heading ability and two-footed effectiveness in
front of goal.

By the start of 1937, Lawton had been bought by
Football League First Division|First Division
Everton F.C.|Everton for £6,500 to play alongside
the phenomenal, but ageing, Dixie Dean. Exposure
and experience in the top flight led to his
selection for England national football
team|England in the international against Wales
national football team|Wales in October 1938,
Lawton scoring from the penalty spot in the 4-2
defeat. By the end of the 1938/1939 season, he had
won three senior caps, scoring 34 goals for
Everton in the final season before World War II,
helping the club to win the league title.

For the duration of the war, Lawton served in the
British Army|army as a physical training
instructor. Post-war, he joined Chelsea
F.C.|Chelsea, allegedly to escape from his wife,
scoring 26 goals in the 1946/1947 season before
falling into a conflict with the club's management
and asking for a transfer. Despite being at the
peak of his playing career, he shocked the
football world with a move to Football League
Third Division|Third Division Notts County
F.C.|Notts County with a transfer fee of £20,000,
probably attracted by manager Arthur Stollery, who
had formerly been Physical therapy|physiotherapist
at Chelsea. At County, he immediately realised an
iconic status and real raport with the Nottingham
public, scoring 103 goals in 166 appearances for
the club over five seasons and helping them win
promotion to Football League Second
Division|Division Two in 1950. Despite playing
much of his career in the lower leagues, Lawton
was capped 23 times for England, scoring 16 goals.

In 1952, Lawton took the player/manager role at
Brentford F.C.|Brentford but enjoyed little
success. In November 1953 he joined Arsenal
F.C.|Arsenal to see out his professional playing
career; in his two years for the Gunners he scored
15 goals in 38 matches, including one in the
Gunners' 1953 Charity Shield win over Stanley
Matthews' Blackpool F.C.|Blackpool.

==Later career==

A second attempt at the player/manager role at
non-league Kettering Town F.C.|Kettering Town was
more successful but Lawton could hardly resist the
opportunity to manage Notts County when it arose.
County's dream appointment ended in disappointment
and relegation to Division Two at the end of the
season and Lawton chose retirement.

A short-lived appointment as a scout was followed
by a period of some financial difficulty, hardly
mitigated by fees for a column in the Nottingham
Evening Post. Everton arranged a testimonial match
for him in 1972. Increasingly feeble in his later
years, he died of pneumonia at home in Nottingham.
His ashes are lodged at The National Football
Museum.

==Bibliography==
*Lawton, T (1950) Tommy Lawton's all star football
book ISBN B0000CHTOA
*Lawton, T (1954) Soccer the Lawton way ISBN
B0000CIYT5
*Lawton, T (1973) When the Cheering Stopped ISBN
090148217X 
*McVay, D &, Smith, A (2000) The Complete Centre
Forward: The Authorised Biography of Tommy Lawton
ISBN 1899807098