Thomas Arthur Eldridge (22 September 1923 – 18 January 2006) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with Carlton in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL).

Family

The son of Alfred William Eldridge (1893-1982), and Minne Elizabeth Eldridge (1897-1970), née Long, Thomas Arthur Eldridge was born in Melbourne on 22 September 1923. He married Joyce Theresa Hopgood (1925-1960) in 1943. He remarried in 1964. His second wife was Dorothy May Maxfield (1934-2007).

Military service

Eldridge enlisted to serve in the Australian Army during World War II in late 1941, soon after his eighteenth birthday. He served with the 59th Battalion, a unit trained for the defence of northern Australia, and served in New Guinea for six months in 1943. He was wounded in action in 1943. At the end of the war he returned to Melbourne and was discharged in February 1946.

Football

Carlton (VFL)

Soon his discharge, Eldridge was listed in the Carlton squad. He made his senior debut, at full-forward, in the match against Geelong, at Princes Park, on 17 June 1946. Carlton won comfortably but Eldridge managed just one goal, and was dropped to the reserves bench the following week. All but one of his remaining Carlton appearances were from the bench.

Yarraville (VFA)

In 1947 he transferred to

Yarraville Football Club The Yarraville Football Club, nicknamed the Eagles, was an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville. It founded in 1903 and competed in Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1928 until going into recess in ...

— without a clearanceVFA Put Clock Forward, ''The Argus'', (Friday, 23 May 1947), p.12.
/ref> — where he served as captain in 1951 and 1952.

Death

He died at

Clontarf, Queensland Clontarf is a coastal Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It is in the south-west of the Redcliffe Peninsula, approximately by road north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital. In t ...

on 18 January 2006.

Notes

References

* *
World War Two Nominal Roll: Private Thomas Arthur Eldridge (V310706), ''Department of Veterans' Affairs''.

World War Two Service Record: Private Thomas Arthur Eldridge (V310706), ''National Archives of Australia''.

External links

* *
Thomas Eldridge, at ''The VFA Project''.

Tom Eldridge's profile
at Blueseum 1923 births Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Carlton Football Club players Yarraville Football Club players 2006 deaths Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army soldiers Military personnel from Melbourne {{AFL-bio-1920s-stub