Theodore Cecil Thompson (12 July 1926 – 19 July 2011) was an English professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He was born in County Durham, the son of a mother from

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, and a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

His father was a master painter-decorator who had arrived in England as a corporal in the British West Indies Regiment, and was stationed in County Durham, where he met Cec’s mother, a miner’s daughter. Cec’s father died in Leeds, where he had been contracted to put gold leaf on the walls of Leeds Town Hall, a contract that included a house and relative prosperity. His father’s death at the age of 39 saw his mother return to her family home in the northeast to give birth to Cec before she moved back to Leeds. Alas, through poverty, she was unable to bring up four children alone, and Cec and his siblings were subsequently scattered across England. Cec was fostered in Warminster in Wiltshire, and then spent the rest of his childhood in a series of orphanages in Somerset, Cheshire and the northeast.. His father died before he was born. With his mother, Florence Greenwell, the daughter of a miner, he soon moved to Leeds. With four children, she struggled and he was fostered at a few months old. His childhood was spent in a succession of orphanages. Thompson took up

when working near

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central parliamentary ...

. In 1951, the rugby commentator

Eddie Waring Edward Marsden Waring, MBE (21 February 1910 – 28 October 1986) was a British rugby league football coach, commentator and television presenter. Early life Waring was born on 21 February 1910 in Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire to Art ...

wrote: "If Cec Thompson is not chosen for the Great Britain squad to face New Zealand, the selectors must be racists." Four years after his potential was spotted by a Hunslet scout, he played for Great Britain in 1951, only the second black player to do so (the first was

Roy Fisher Roy Fisher (11 June 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English poet and jazz pianist. His poetry shows an openness to both European and American modernist influences, while remaining grounded in the experience of living in the English Midlands. ...

). However, his debut in the game with New Zealand was headlined in the '' Daily Herald'' as "Hunslet's Darkie one of Britain's heroes." In 1953, he transferred to

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 a ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

. All of Thompson's games for

, and in representative matches were as a . For

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

in Cumbria he played 164 games as a , twenty-two as a , and six as a . Cec Thompson played right- in

's 9–13 defeat by

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

in the 1958 Challenge Cup Final during the 1957–58 season at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on Saturday 10 May 1958. At Barrow, with the side plagued by injury, he played two games as a second-row against Bramley and

Blackpool Borough Blackpool Borough was a rugby league club based in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, that played in the Rugby Football League from 1954 until 1993. The club moved to Wigan in 1987 and was renamed Springfield Borough; to Chorley in 1988 and was ...

, to make up the numbers.Thompson, Cec (14 October 1995) ''Born on the Wrong Side'', The Pentland Press. In the last two years of his career, he was coach of Barrow becoming the second black coach in the sport. In this, he once more followed the lead of Roy Francis. He was one of the founders of the

Student Rugby League The University and College Rugby League (UCRL), formerly known as ''the Student Rugby League'', is the organisation which administrates university and college rugby league football in the United Kingdom, on behalf of the Rugby Football League and Br ...

in the United Kingdom, when along with Andrew Cudbertson and Jack Abernathy, he founded a team at the

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

in 1967. Thompson built up his own window cleaning business in Workington, and then qualified to teach Economics with a degree from the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, and a teaching diploma. Initially he taught at Dinnington Comprehensive School, and then at Chesterfield Grammar School, where he was head of economics and master in charge of rugby. He received an honorary MA degree from Leeds University in 1994 for services to the community, and the freedom of the borough of

Allerdale Allerdale is a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council is based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census. The B ...

in the Lake District in 2003.

References

External links

Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org
*(archived by web.archive.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Cec 1926 births 2011 deaths 20th-century English businesspeople Alumni of the University of Leeds Barrow Raiders coaches Barrow Raiders players Black British sportsmen British Empire rugby league team players English businesspeople English sportspeople of Trinidad and Tobago descent English rugby league coaches English rugby league players Schoolteachers from County Durham Schoolteachers from Yorkshire Great Britain national rugby league team players Hunslet F.C. (1883) players Sportspeople from Durham, England People from Hunslet Rugby league locks Rugby league players from County Durham Rugby league second-rows Rugby league utility players Rugby league wingers Workington Town players Rugby league players from Yorkshire