This is the first of many stories of the players from Villa’s 150 years as a football club. I want to help celebrate the club by telling some of the stories of footballers who pulled on the famous claret and blue shirt. I have chosen to start with Tommy Smart. In a fourteen-year career, Tommy was a hero to many Villa fans. A no-nonsense player who played hard but fairly. I have a particular affinity for Tommy as he lived in the same place as I did as a youngster, albeit at a different time. If you know about Tommy, then enjoy reliving the tales. For those who don’t know him, I think that you are going to love him.
Within sixteen months of entering professional football, Tommy Smart had a FA Cup winner medal and an England cap in his possession. More England caps came his way, but Tommy would not win more silverware. Spending his entire professional career at Aston Villa, Tommy’s 452 games put him in seventh place on the list of most appearances for the club.
Tommy’s meteoric rise began in January 1920 when non-league Halesowen Town sold him to Villa. The club had already brought in Frank Barson, Billy Kirton, and Billy Walker during the season. Tommy was a right back in the 2-3-5 formation that was commonly utilised at the time. His debut came, in February, against Everton in a 2-2 draw, and he kept the number two shirt. Tommy played fifteen matches in his first season, including an appearance in the FA Cup Final at Stamford Bridge. Villa’s opponents in the first post-war final were Huddersfield Town. The game itself was not a great one for the 50,000 spectators. With Tommy Weston, a veteran left back, the defensive pair kept Huddersfield’s forwards at bay. It was a tight affair, and the match went into extra time, with Villa winning the cup with Kirton’s scrappy goal. It was a remarkable achievement for Tommy after such a brief time in professional football.
Tommy was from the heart of the Black Country. He was born in the town of Blackheath in 1896 and was one of nine children. Tommy played schoolboy football for the area before joining the local team. His time at Blackheath Town would be disrupted, like so many across the country, with the onset of the First World War. Having joined the army, he was a member of the South Staffordshire Regiment, and he served in India, Greece, and Belgium. His love of the game was not lost, and he played army football like so many of the soldiers who were desperate for some normality at a time of tragedy and destruction. On leaving the army, Tommy joined his local non-league team Halesowen Town. He spent six months there before Villa came in and signed him.
Tommy’s physicality would have been one of the main reasons why Villa wanted him. He was an intimidating presence on the pitch at over six feet tall and weighing around 13 stones. In Peter Morris’ book about the club, he said that “wingers were reputed to be frightened of him before they took to the field.” Not to say that Tommy was a dirty player in any way; his positional sense was excellent, and his tackling was motivated by winning the ball. Any mistimed tackle, and resultant foul, was greeted with an apology. Tommy was gifted with speed despite his size, and this would surprise forwards hoping to knock the ball past what appeared to be a lumbering defender. Tommy would use his frame to clear the ball long down the field or safely into touch. It is alleged that these clearances were greeted with a cry of “thik hai!” which is a Hindu phrase, picked up during the war, meaning “it’s fine.”
Rob Bishop, the former editor of Villa’s matchday programme and accomplished author of many books about the club, retells a story about Tommy that had been passed on to him. Jack Watts was connected with the club in various roles from the late 1930s, who died in 2015, once told Rob of “an occasion when Tommy cleared the ball with such ferocity that he broke the clock of the old Witton Lane stand. Jack also claimed that the clock was mended - but that Tommy broke it again in the following home match!”
In 1922, Villa signed Tommy Mort from Rochdale and began a defensive partnership that would last for ten years. The pair were first-choice full-backs and became known as ‘Death and Glory’. I have tried to discover how the name came about without success. Perhaps it was a description of their bravery and attitude on the pitch. I like to think that it came from the terraces where Mort’s surname, which is French for death, inspired the choice.
Despite playing such a successful pairing at club level, “Death and Glory” were paired together just once for England. Perhaps a 2-1 home defeat to Wales in 1924 put paid to further opportunities for the partnership to play together. Tommy’s England career was limited to five internationals spread over eight years. His first match came at Hampden Park, in 1921, before a three-year gap. Tommy played twice in 1924, once in 1925, before his final appearance in 1929. That last game was a 6-0 defeat of Wales and the only time that Tommy was on the winning side for England.
Tommy’s League career would not be garnished with a league championship despite Villa coming close on several occasions. Villa would finish in the top half of the table every season that Tommy played apart from one. In 1924/25, Villa was a club in transition and finished in 15th place but proved to be temporary as Villa soon recovered to 6th place in the following season. 1928/29 (3rd) and 1929/30 (4th) were good seasons for Tommy and Villa, but a League Championship was still missing. 1930/31 would see a Villa team hand out several thrashings and score 128 goals. However, Herbert Chapman’s Arsenal would still take the title by seven points. Two seasons later, Villa would be denied by Arsenal again, but Tommy’s playing time at Villa was almost at an end at this point.
During the 1931/32 season, Villa signed Danny Blair from Clyde. The arrival of the Scotsman would eventually see Tommy replaced. The Villa faithful did not immediately like Blair. Although Tommy was a crowd favourite, he was in his mid-thirties and his best days were behind him, whereas Blair was younger as well as being an international. Tommy’s final season in the team was limited to two appearances as cover for Blair.
Tommy left the club in 1934 and went to Brierley Hill Alliance in a player-coach capacity. While at the club, fans flocked to games involving Brierley Hill just to get sight of Tommy. After two years, Tommy decided to hang up his boots once and for all.
After football, Tommy went back to manual labour. He had worked labouring jobs up to joining the army in 1915 and spent the rest of his working life in a local meat company before retiring. Tommy continued to live in Blackheath; it was rumoured that he named his house ‘Aston Villa’. He lived in that same house for over 30 years until he died in 1968.
What about Tommy’s legacy? Like many who pulled on football shirts over ninety years ago, there are not too many signs of their existence. There is not a plaque on his house to mark that he lived there. However, Tommy is visible in a JD Wetherspoon pub in Blackheath. ‘The Britannia’ has a photo collage and plate about Tommy’s career.
Tommy’s skill and ability for Villa are matched only by his sense of humour. After defeat in the 1924 FA Cup Final against Newcastle United, the Villa team were sitting in the dressing room feeling miserable at conceding two late goals. It was Tommy who lightened the mood, probably expectantly, with a typically Black Country comment. He turned to colleague Vic Milne and said, “It’s all right, Vic. I already have a winners’ medal, and I needed this one for the set.”