Tom Eldridge

Thomas Arthur Eldridge (22 September 1923 – 18 January 2006)[1] was an Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL).[2]

Tom Eldridge
Personal information
Full name Thomas Arthur Eldridge
Date of birth (1923-09-22)22 September 1923
Place of birth Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Date of death 18 January 2006(2006-01-18) (aged 82)
Place of death Clontarf, Queensland
Original team(s) Carlton District
Height 182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 72 kg (159 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1946–47 Carlton 07 (1)
1947, 1951–52 Yarraville (VFA) 16 (3)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1952.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

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.[3] At the end of the war he returned to Melbourne and was discharged in February 1946.[4]

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 — without a clearance[5] — where he served as captain in 1951 and 1952.

Death

He died at Clontarf, Queensland on 18 January 2006.

Notes
  1. AustralianFootball.com.
  2. Holmesby & Main (2009), p.243.
  3. Service Record; also: Army Casualty List: Australia and the Islands: Wounded in Action, The Argus, (Wednesday, 1 September 1943), p.7.
  4. Cullen (2015), p.308.
  5. VFA Put Clock Forward, The Argus, (Friday, 23 May 1947), p.12.

References
  • Cullen, Barbara (2015). Harder than Football: League Players at War. Richmond, Victoria: Slattery Media Group. ISBN 978-0-992379-14-8.
  • Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2009). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (8th ed.). Seaford, Victoria: BAS Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921496-00-4.
  • 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.
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