CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Tommy Cheetham

footballer (1910-1993)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 6, 2025
Entity authorityQ7819299
Source-derived summary

Thomas Miles Cheetham (11 October 1910 – 23 December 1993) was an English professional footballer. He scored 118 goals from 181 appearances in the Football League playing as a forward for Queens Park Rangers, Brentford and Lincoln City.

Football career

Cheetham was born in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne. A late entrant to the professional game, he played local football before joining the Army and played for his regiment while serving in the Royal Artillery. In August 1935, aged nearly 25, he signed for London club Queens Park Rangers, then playing in the Football League Third Division South. He made his debut on 4 September 1935 in a 1–1 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion. Although he did not score in that first game, his next two games brought six goals, a six-game spell running up to Christmas produced 11 and from the 35 games he played in his first League season as a professional footballer, Cheetham scored 36 times. He set a new club record by scoring in 9 consecutive games at QPR's home ground, Loftus Road.

His performances earned him an invitation to play for the Possibles against the Probables in March 1936 in a trial match for selection for the England national team. The quality of the Probables' defence, with Alf Young outstanding, meant Cheetham had little chance to shine – The Times' correspondent reported that "Cheetham did not receive a pass for nearly half an hour", but "considering the brilliance of Young, the play of Cheetham could hardly be considered unsatisfactory".

Editorial summary

“Tommy Cheetham” enters the record as footballer (1910-1993). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tommy, Cheetham and footballer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1910, 1993, 1935, 1936—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1910-10-11. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Tommy, Cheetham and footballer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Tommy Cheetham” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Tommy, Cheetham and footballer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 6, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7819299. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1993, 1935 and 1936.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tommy Cheetham”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tommy Cheetham primary sources, Tommy Cheetham archive and Tommy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tommy Cheetham”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Tommy Cheetham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.