I met a lovely chap called Keith Thomas who's dad had a couple of games for us in the 1930s, His name was Robert Sherwood Thomas (Bob Thomas), he knew very little about his dad's career but I managed to come up with some snippets for him which I emailed to him, I received this lovely email from this morning with a bit of background about his dad's past plus he's also added some photos, unfortunately it was a short lived career but I'll let Keith explain why.... Thanks Roy, I really do appreciate that. I have just forwarded it to my 2 brothers, my daughters and their families. It is probably getting hammered as none of us really knew much about his football career. We are still trying to back track. During his time at Tranmere Rovers he used to buy his cigs from the corner shop opposite the main gate ran by my grandfather whose daughter worked behind the counter and eventually they eloped to Gretna Green. As a professional footballer during the WW2 he was classed as a public entertainer but served as an engineer making armaments and aircraft parts in between matches but in his last game for Tranmere he was kicked in the face and smashed his jaw in 4 places but he managed to play to the end of the game. His jaw was wired up for a few months apparently but continued his engineering tasks locally then moved to Birmingham until the factory in Birmingham was bombed. Returning to Birkenhead my grandfather who ran the corner shop decided to try his hand as a temporary pub landlord at The Silver Springs in Hyde introduced my father in to the pub landlord business around 1943. He was a pub landord for Threlfalls Brewery in 4 different pubs. I was born in Floweryfield Hotel Hyde. He was so busy we hardly saw him but for an hour a day so we didn’t get to ask him that much. He became a very muscular chap lugging crates of beer from the cellar and lifting massive barrels onto trestles. Boy did they drink a lot of beer in those days! He talked frequently about his earlier meetings with Dixie Dean when he was a youngster and listened to his advice. He was a very popular guy and the pub was always busy 7 days a week. On a few occassions I would come home through the front doors only to see drunkards unceremoniously being thrown out by my dad. He would then greet me hand on my shoulder smiling asking what sort of day I had. I always respected him as I did not want the same treatment! Sadly long hours, smoking and sampling the product took its toll and he died of angina aged 55 on May 13th 1967. I had so many questions to ask and didn’t. This link helps considerably for which I am very grateful. I have a few old photos and news articles my mum used to keep, but struggled to connect them. many thanks Keith
