Tom Lakey played for Stockton AFC when they won the FA Amateur Cup in 1899, when Stockton beat Harwich and Parkston 1 – 0. This is a photograph of Tom in his Grimsby strip.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ben Brown.
Thomas (Fanny) Lakey
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This link on Wikipedia might be of interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lakey
Martin this article gives some information on my Granddad Thomas Fanny Lakey but is way out on his death Tom Died in 1962. He worked until his late eighties ,He worked as a bookies runner into his late eighties. He was a very fit 90 years old when he broke his hip but recovered but on his last day in Hospital he tried to get his case off the shelf by standing on a chair slipped and broke the other hip and never recovered. In his day as a bookies runner, he would walk from Tilery to the Talbot Hotel High street Stockton. There is a photograph on this site of Tom as a 89 years 0ld at his Great Grand Daughters Wedding with His Daughter Hilda my mother and my Dad Ben Brown Senior.
Tom had an unusual Nick name of Fanny this name came about as I have been told was from his older sister who was watching him play in a match at Darlington and he was receiving a rough time from the full back who was marking him , It is recounted Fanny jumped over barrier and laid about the offending full back with her umbrella, for his fouling of her young brother. This account was told to me when I was about 11 years old coming home from Newham Grange school; along Appleton rd Primrose Hill when and old chap who lived there and who used to tell me stories about Granddad as he was a keen Stockton AFC supporter. He also told me he was the best outside left he had ever seen and he once broke the crossbar at the Stockton Ground with a shot. I do not know if this was the Victoria Ground or some other. The wood must have been rotting, if true.
Tom lived to be nearly 90 years of age and only succumbed after falling and breaking a hip which was successfully repaired then on his day of release from hospital he tried to retrieve his case from on top of the wardrobe by standing on a chair and slipping once more breaking his hip from which he never recovered that was in 1963. Up until this time he was very active acting as a Bookies runner each day he would walk between Tilery the Talbot Hotel in Stockton High Street gathering up Bets for the bookie he worked for then walking all the way back to the Bookies office in Tilery. Tom and his wife Elizabeth had eight children, three girls Hilda, Lily, Francis and five boys Jack, Arthur, Bill, Herbert and and Robert (Rocka). It must have been a hard life in professional football in those days as he once showed me his shins which were covered in old injury scars. Tom was a non drinker but did enjoy his pipe. As a young man he also competed in professional foot races.