Tom Farrage (footballer)
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Thomas Oysten Farrage[1] | |||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 3 November 1917[2] | |||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Chopwell, County Durham, England | |||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 23 September 1944 (aged 26) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Arnhem, German-occupied Netherlands | |||||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Outside left | |||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||||||
| Walker Celtic | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1937–1944 | Birmingham[a] | 10 | (3) | |||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||||||||
Thomas Oysten Farrage (3 November 1917 – 23 September 1944) was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Birmingham.[3] He was killed in action during the Second World War.
Farrage was born in Chopwell, near Rowlands Gill, which was then in County Durham,[5] to Robert and Isabella Farrage.[1] He began his football career with Walker Celtic in the North Eastern League, and joined First Division club Birmingham in November 1937. Described as a "promising young player with an eye for goal",[5] Farrage made his debut on 7 September 1938 in a 2–1 win at home to Leicester City, and kept his place for five of the next six games, in which he scored twice. He played once more that season,[4] and in the opening three games of the 1939–40 season which was abandoned because of the Second World War.[6]
He made guest appearances for Leeds United, Luton Town and Middlesbrough in the wartime leagues, though he did not play again for Birmingham.[7]
Farrage was a member of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) (his last station was at Dover) until May 1943, when he commenced training with the Parachute Regiment.[8] He was killed in action on 23 September 1944 by German machine-gun fire in Arnhem (see the Battle of Arnhem), serving as a private in the 10th Battalion, Parachute Regiment during Operation Market Garden, and is commemorated on the Groesbeek Memorial.[1][9]
