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[Albion] Tommy Cook



Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
49,855
Faversham
Our only other 100+ goalscorer. My thoughts went to him after Muzza's 100. My understanding is he was wounded in WW2, and committed suicide a few years later. His Wikipedia entry is frankly disrespectfully meagre (posted below). Perhaps someone skilled in the wiki arts might consider upgrading this?

Thomas Edwin Reed Cook (5 January 1901 – 15 January 1950) was an English cricketer for Sussex County Cricket Club.[1] He was also a professional footballer with Brighton & Hove Albion and Bristol Rovers, who made one appearance for England in 1925.[2] He later became manager at Brighton.

A right-handed batsman, he played 460 first-class games for Sussex, making 20198 runs with 32 centuries. He was prolific in the seasons of 1933 and 1934 where Sussex were runners-up.

Cook served in both world wars, suffering serious injuries in the latter when part of the South African Air Force.[2]

He committed suicide ten days after his 49th birthday.[2]
 








Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
49,855
Faversham
There used to be a fanzine called the Tommy Cook Report, coincidntally???. I am scoping around and found this:

http://cuckfieldmuseum.org/people/cook

Tommy Cook (1901-1950) was born at 30 South Street, Cuckfield where his parents Alfred and Eliza ran a sweet shop. He showed early promise as a footballer and was only 12 when he started playing for Cuckfield Football Club.

He enlisted in the Royal Navy during World War One and was awarded a gallantry medal for rescuing a shipmate from the waters off the Russian port of Archangel.

In August 1921 Tommy joined Brighton and Hove Albion, making 209 appearances for the club and scoring 114 league goals, including 8 hat-tricks. He was capped for England in 1925, unheard of for a player in such a low division – as it would be today.

Tommy wanted to keep fit during the football off season, and to supplement his modest club wages, so he turned to cricket, where his athletic skills were no less impressive. After only one game for Cuckfield Second XI, he was invited to play for Sussex. As a county player he scored 20,000 runs including 32 centuries and was considered very unlucky not to have played for England. He retired from his sporting career at the age of 36.

Eliza Cook was Tommy’s greatest supporter: once when he made a spectacular catch she jumped up and shouted at the top of her voice “I’M HIS MOTHER!”
 
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Sussexscots

Sussexscots

Fed up with trains. Sick of the rain.
Aug 13, 2016
1,269
Sunny Sussex, occasionally Leith
Harry Wilson's tackle said:
Our only other 100+ goalscorer. My thoughts went to him after Muzza's 100. My understanding is he was wounded in WW2, and committed suicide a few years later. His Wikipedia entry is frankly disrespectfully meagre (posted below). Perhaps someone skilled in the wiki arts might consider upgrading this?

Thomas Edwin Reed Cook (5 January 1901 – 15 January 1950) was an English cricketer for Sussex County Cricket Club.[1] He was also a professional footballer with Brighton & Hove Albion and Bristol Rovers, who made one appearance for England in 1925.[2] He later became manager at Brighton.

A right-handed batsman, he played 460 first-class games for Sussex, making 20198 runs with 32 centuries. He was prolific in the seasons of 1933 and 1934 where Sussex were runners-up.

Cook served in both world wars, suffering serious injuries in the latter when part of the South African Air Force.[2]

He committed suicide ten days after his 49th birthday.[2]
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I thought about this also. There is more info out there about him. I'll try and post it when I'm home. Can't do it off my ancient mobile.
He also served as a boy seaman aboard HMS Glowworm and saved a man's life by diving into the freezing sea near Archangel.

Some of his friends were badly burned in the 1943 accident while he was serving with the South Africa Air Force. Of course, no recognition of PTSD in those days but seems he wasn't the same man when he returned to England. There's a terrible pathos about such a talented individual finally deciding to take his own life.
 




Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
49,855
Faversham
And the club, of course, has a page (and how very sad indeed):

https://www.brightonandhovealbion.com/news/2012/july/record-scorer/



Albion’s record goalscorer is Tommy Cook and he has eight Albion hat-tricks to his name too…
Cook hit a magnificent 123 goals in 209 games and was top scorer in 1923/24, 1924/25 and 1927/28.

Amazingly, the potent striker started his career at centre-back before moving to midfield, but there was no turning back once Cook made the transition to centre forward.

Cook was also the first Brighton & Hove Albion player to win an England cap and on top of all of his exploits for the Albion, Cook went on to score 20,198 runs for Sussex County Cricket Club over a sixteen year career.

In 1929 Cook’s passion for cricket saw him move to South African to take up a cricket- coaching post but his affiliation with Albion had not finished. Although he never returned to play for the club, he did make a comeback as manager in 1947.

Sadly for the Cook, he was unable to be as successful at the helm as he was in the box and after a fans demonstration following a 4-0 home defeat to Walsall, the writing was on the wall. A week later Leyton Orient consigned Albion and Cook to another defeat, which signalled the end to his managerial reign.

Tragically, between his playing and managerial stints at Brighton, Cook was involved in a horrific plane crash after he had enlisted with the Royal South African Air Force due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Cook was the sole survivor and spent months in hospital rehabilitating but the truth was he never fully recovered from the mental scars of the accident and suffered with terrible nightmares and bouts of depression afterwards.

Sadly the Albion legend passed away aged just 48 but his impact on Brighton & Hove Albion will remain forever.
 




Napier's Knee

Napier's Knee

New member
Mar 23, 2014
1,099
West Sussex
When I left work a few years ago I set out to write a biography of Tommy Cook. It was possible to get details of his early years in Cuckfield but the records for his service in WW1 are missing. Despite his place in Albion history he was much more a cricketer really. He emigrated to South Africa in 1938 and there are no substantial records i could find of this period, although his second wife divorced him at pretty much exact!y the time he joined the SA air force and remarried. He returned to the UK to manage the Albion. Reading between the lines i think he was suffering from PTSD and he took his own life with an overdose of the barbiturates prescribed to him. His personal life was messy and his is a tragic story. I've written up his early life and sacking by the Albion if anyone is interested (pm me). Sussex treated him better than the Albion.
 






Napier's Knee

Napier's Knee

New member
Mar 23, 2014
1,099
West Sussex
Cook did indeed go to South Africa in 1928 to coach cricket but this was only for a few monfhs. It was because incidents during this trip that Tommh's first wife, Ivy, divorced him. On his return to England he played first for Northfleet United (then a nursery club for spurs - he almost joined Fulham at this time) but then signed for Bristol rovers. Whi!e in Bristol he married the woman he had met in South AfricA. I haven't got dates in front of me right now but he quit football around 1932 after getting a shoulder injury. He continued to play for Susssx until 1938.
 


Pevenseagull

Pevenseagull

Anti-greed coalition
Jul 20, 2003
19,605
studio150 said:
The greatest all round Sussex sportsman given his excellence at two sports ?
Click to expand...

Glad I checked C.B.Fry's biography before making a fool of myself.

....saddened to find out he was born where he was born. :(
 




GT49er

GT49er

Well-known member
Feb 1, 2009
46,700
Gloucester
studio150 said:
The greatest all round Sussex sportsman given his excellence at two sports ?
Click to expand...

Cook was great, but the greatest accolade would have to go to C.B. Fry. Cricket for Sussex and England, football for England and an FA Cup finalist, world long jump record holder, and played rugby to a pretty high level too, I believe.
 


Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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Jul 11, 2003
73,638
West west west Sussex
GT49er said:
Cook was great, but the greatest accolade would have to go to C.B. Fry. Cricket for Sussex and England, football for England and an FA Cup finalist, world long jump record holder, and played rugby to a pretty high level too, I believe.
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He could also do a standing jump backwards on a mantelpiece.
 


















studio150

studio150

Well-known member
Jul 30, 2011
29,606
On the Border
GT49er said:
Cook was great, but the greatest accolade would have to go to C.B. Fry. Cricket for Sussex and England, football for England and an FA Cup finalist, world long jump record holder, and played rugby to a pretty high level too, I believe.
Click to expand...

And born in Croydon?
 


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