Tommy Ryan (Australian footballer)

Not to be confused with Tom Ryan (Australian footballer).

Tommy Ryan
Personal information
Full name	Thomas Herbert Arrowsmith
Date of birth	(1873-08-12)12 August 1873
Place of birth	Sydney
Date of death	29 August 1948(1948-08-29) (aged 75)
Place of death	Mont Park, Victoria
Original team(s)	Richmond City
Position(s)	Rover
Playing career^1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1893, 1895–1896	Richmond (VFA)	43 (14)
1896	Carlton (VFA)	1 (0)
1899–1902	Melbourne	55 (63)
1904	St Kilda	11 (8)
Total		110 (85)
^1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1904.
Career highlights
VFL premiership player: 1900 Melbourne leading goalkicker: 1900
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Thomas Herbert Arrowsmith (12 August 1873 – 29 August 1948), also known as Tommy Ryan,[1][2] as was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Family

The son of William Alexander Arrowsmith (1827–1911),[3] and Henrietta Arrowsmith (1832–1920), née Hull,[4] Thomas Herbert Arrowsmith was born in Sydney on 12 August 1873.[5]

Both his parents were well-regarded, experienced actors; his mother had been known professionally in the 1850s and 1860s as "Henrietta Montrose",[6][7] and his father, a Shakespearian actor, had been known professionally as "William Ryan".[8]

He married twice: to Martha Elizabeth Hollman (1878–1936) in 1897 (they were divorced in 1905),[9] and to Blanche Stella Dolphin (1884–1952), on 15 February 1913.[10][11]

Football

Melbourne Football team 1900.
Tommy Ryan, extreme right, front row.

Ryan, a rover and forward, spent 1893, 1895 and 1896 playing in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) for both Carlton and Richmond.[12]

Melbourne (VFL)

On 3 May 1899, he was cleared from Richmond to Melbourne.[13]

On his VFL debut, Ryan kicked five goals as Melbourne defeated St Kilda by 93 points at the MCG on 13 May 1899.[14]

He was the club's leading goal-kicker in their premiership year of 1900 with 24 goals, one of those in the 1900 VFL Grand Final which he played from a forward pocket.

VFL

He was part of the VFL team that played Interstate Football against South Australia, in Adelaide, on 26 June 1902.[15][16]

St Kilda (VFL)

On 4 May 1904 he was cleared from Melbourne to St Kilda.[17]

Death

He died on 29 August 1948, at Mont Park, Victoria.[18][19]

Notes

1. "Divorced couple in court". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 18, 350. Victoria, Australia. 9 May 1905. p. 7. Retrieved 21 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
2. No doubt following his father, William Alexander Arrowsmith, the famous Shakespearian actor, known professionally as "William Ryan".
3. Deaths: Arrowsmith, The Age, (Saturday, 7 October 1911), p.5.
4. Deaths: Arrowsmith, The Argus, (Monday, 19 April 1920), p.1.
5. Births Deaths and Marriages New South Wales: Registration No.2016/1873.
6. Links with the Past: Actresses of the Old School, The (Melbourne) Herald, (Tuesday, 27 April 1920), p.5.
7. Her Last Curtain, Smith's Weekly, (Saturday, 15 May 1920), p.20.
8. Men and Women, The (Sydney) Sun, (Monday, 9 October 1911), p.6.
9. Arrowsmith v. Arrowsmith, The Weekly Times, (Saturday, 26 November 1904), p.23.
10. Angry Arrowsmiths, The (Melbourne) Truth, (Saturday, 16 September 1916), p.3.
11. Deaths: Arrowsmith, The Age, (Monday, 12 May 1952), p.7.
12. In 1894 he returned to Richmond City, and resumed his career at Richmond in 1895 (Pennings, 2016, pp. 323, 397, 463).
13. Football, The Argus, (Thursday, 4 May 1899), p.10.
14. Melbourne v. St. Kilda, The Age, (Monday, 15 May 1899), p.7.
15. The Victorian Team (photograph), The Adelaide Observer, (Saturday, 5 July 1902), p.26: Tommy Ryan is second from left, front row.
16. Interstate Football, The (Adelaide) Register, (Friday, 27 June 1902), p.2.
17. Migratory Footballers, The Argus, (Thursday, 5 May 1904), p.9.
18. Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria: Registration No.12354/1948.
19. Deaths: Arrowsmith, The Age, (Monday, 30 August 1948), p.2.

References

• Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.
• Pennings, Mark (2016), Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's early History: Volume 4: Tough Times: Victorian Football loses its Way, 1891 to 1896, Brunswick, Victoria: Grumpy Monks Publishing. ISBN 978-0-646-93604-8

External links

• Tommy Ryan's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Tommy Ryan at AustralianFootball.com
• Tommy Ryan, at Demonwiki.
• Jeremiah "Tommy" Ryan, at Blueseum.
• Tommy Ryan, at The VFA Project.
• Thomas Ryan, at Tigerland Archive (VFA PLayers).