Laurie Millsom
Personal information
Full name Lawrence Millsom[1]
Date of birth (1901-05-03)3 May 1901[1]
Place of birth Rotherham,[1] England
Date of death 26 September 1959(1959-09-26) (aged 58)[2]
Place of death Torquay,[2] England
Height 5 ft 10+1⁄2 in (1.79 m)[3]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
192?–1924 Rotherham Amateurs
1924–1925 Rotherham County 5 (0)
1925–1926 Rotherham United 0 (0)
1926–1934 Torquay United[lower-alpha 1] 35 (0)
1934–193? Dartmouth United
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Lawrence Millsom (3 May 1901 – 26 September 1959) was an English professional footballer who made 35 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Rotherham County and Torquay United.

Personal life

Lawrence Millsom was born in Rotherham, in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the time of the 1911 Census, he was the eldest son of George Millsom, an agent for the Royal London insurance company, and his wife Elizabeth.[4] He married Mabel Margaret Curtis at Kimberworth Parish Church in January 1926.[5] The couple had a son, Brian.[6] Millsom was a keen cricketer at local level. He kept wicket for Kimberworth Wesleyans, and topped the batting averages in the 1925 Rotherham and District Sunday School Cricket League.[5]

The 1939 Register records Millsom and his wife living in Torquay, where he worked in customer service for the municipal electricity board and volunteered with the air raid service.[7] He remained in the same line of work: in the late 1950s, he was manager of the South Western Electricity Board's Paignton service centre, and he spent 13 years as branch secretary of his trade union, NALGO.[6]

Millsom died on 26 September 1959 in Torquay at the age of 58.[8][6]

Football career

Millsom kept goal for the Rotherham Schools team that played in the English Boys' Shield in 1914, in which they lost heavily to Grimsby Schools in the third round.[9][10] He was playing in the Sheffield Association League for Rotherham Amateurs by 1922,[11] and signed for Football League Third Division North club Rotherham County in 1924. The Sports Special's correspondent suggested that "Young Millsom has a lot to learn before he is fit for the senior team. Against Nottingham Forest Reserves last Saturday, he did well with a number of shots, but he made one mistake which deprived the Millmoor team of a Midland Combination point they had played well enough to merit."[12]

He made an unexpected Football League debut on 27 December 1924, replacing the regular goalkeeper, George Hopkins, for the home game against Accrington Stanley. On what the Sports Special described as "a sea of mud" – a rainstorm had forced the postponement or abandonment of many games that day – Millsom conceded one goal to "a cross drive which he had little chance to stop", and played well.[13] He kept his place for three more matches, including a 4–0 defeat against Halifax Town in which, according to the Daily Mirror, his "fine display of goalkeeping" saved his team from an even heavier defeat. The arrival of John Mehaffy in mid-January 1925 for a substantial fee restricted Millsom to just one more appearance that season and, after Rotherham County merged with Rotherham Town to form Rotherham United, none at all for the new club's first team in 1925–26.[14][1][5] He was not among the 14 players retained by Rotherham for the following season.[15]

In August 1926, Millsom joined Southern League club Torquay United.[3] As at Rotherham, he was primarily a backup goalkeeper.[1] Archie Bayes was first choice, but Millsom made occasional appearances as Torquay won their section of the 1926–27 Southern League and were elected to the Football League.[16][17][18] During a training match ahead of the coming season, Bayes suffered a cut to his finger which went septic, so Millsom took his place for Torquay's first ever Football League fixture, at home to Exeter City,[19] and "came out of the test creditably" with a 1-1 draw.[20] He played twice more before Bayes regained fitness, and then over the next four years made only 13 first-team appearances in total, as backup first to Bayes and then to Harold Gough and Joe Wright.[1][2] In February 1932, Wright was dropped in favour of Millsom. He performed well, Torquay beat Clapton Orient 3–0,[21] and he kept the place until the end of the season.[1] Ten new players came in over the summer, including Percy Maggs as first-choice goalkeeper,[22] and Millsom's first-team career was at an end. He remained with the club for one more season, and was awarded a benefit match in May 1933, at which the attendance was "disappointingly small", at under 2,000.[23]

Millsom moved on briefly to Dartmouth United, champions of the Plymouth and District League.[24] He then took up refereeing, and officiated at Southern League level.[8]

Notes

  1. ↑ Figures include Football League matches only.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Player search: Millsom, L (Laurie)". English National Football Archive. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "A–Z Past players (pre-1939)". Rotherham United F.C. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Football. Torquay United's team". Western Morning News. Plymouth. 10 August 1926. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "1911 England Census for Lawrence Millson". RG14/28082 RD 511 North-West Rotherham ED 09 – via Ancestry.co.uk.
  5. 1 2 3 "Rotherham goalkeeper weds. Lawrence Millsom married on Monday". Eckington, Woodhouse, and Staveley Express. 29 January 1914. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. 1 2 3 "Torquay funeral of Mr. L. Millsom". Herald Express. Torquay. 1 October 1959. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "1939 England and Wales Register for Lawrence Millsom". Torquay M.B. ED WGEJ RD 272-2 – via Ancestry.co.uk.
  8. 1 2 "United's first F.L. 'keeper dies". Herald Express. Torquay. 29 September 1959. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Schools football". Sheffield Independent. 23 January 1914. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ↑ "English Boys' Shield. Third round". Sheffield Independent. 26 January 1914. p. 9 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ↑ "Chesterfield unchanged". Sheffield Independent. 9 December 1922. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ↑ Cedric (18 October 1924). "Rotherham notes. Club directors doing much "scouting". Three new men". Sports Special ("Green 'Un"). Sheffield. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ↑ Admiral (27 December 1924). "County draw. Featureless draw with Accrington". Sports Special ("Green 'Un"). Sheffield. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ↑ "John Mehaffy". Dundalk Who's Who. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  15. ↑ "Rotherham United. Terms offered to only fourteen players". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 24 April 1926. p. 10 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  16. ↑ "Holiday Matches, Torquay United's programme". Torquay Times. 24 December 1926. p. 5 – via British Newspaper Archive. A.W. Bayes will be going home for Christmas and his place between the sticks will be taken by Millsom.
  17. ↑ "Torquay qualities. Defence proved sound against Lovell's". Western Morning News. Plymouth. 14 January 1927. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com. Millsom in goal was the saviour of his side, saving shots from all angles with a facility and certainty which suggested that he is an outstanding goalkeeper. His anticipation and judgment, like that of Rice and Mackrill, were superb, and these three players bore the brunt of many finely-conceived and quickly-repeated attacks by the virile Lovell's forwards.
  18. ↑ "Torquay United". Football Club History Database. Richard Rundle. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  19. ↑ "Torquay United's first test". Western Morning News. Plymouth. 26 August 1927. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Promising display by Torquay. Divide points with Exeter City". Western Morning News. Plymouth. 26 August 1927. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Home defence's fine display. United get the goals". Torquay Times. 26 February 1932. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  22. ↑ "City's first opponents. Several new men at Torquay". Midland Daily Telegraph. Coventry. 20 August 1932. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "Millsom's benefit. Torquay United present and past players meet". Western Morning News. Plymouth. 2 May 1933. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Plymouth District. Rest of League to oppose the champions". Western Morning News. Plymouth. 15 September 1933. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
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