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Tommy Lawton
Former
Player Profile
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. In 1935, he signed for Second
Division club Burnley. Despite flat feet and needing to wear
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 First Division
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 in the international against 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 army as a
physical training instructor. Post-war, he joined 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 Third Division Notts County for a record transfer fee of
£20,000, probably attracted by manager Arthur Stollery, who had
formerly been physiotherapist at Chelsea. At County, he
immediately realised an iconic status and real rapport with the
Nottingham public, scoring 103 goals in 166 appearances for the
club over five seasons and helping them win promotion to 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 but
enjoyed little success. In November 1953 he joined Arsenal for
£10,000 and saw out his professional playing career there. 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.
A second attempt at the player/manager role at non-league
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. In 2003 Lawton was inducted into
the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his talents.
The Hall of Fame is also housed at the National Football Museum.
