Gipps Tommy Image 2 Manchester United 1913

Description

Walthamstow, Essex born wing half Tommy Gipps played for junior club Walthamstow Avenue in 1906, before joining Southern League Tottenham Hotspur in 1907. During his time at White Hart Lane, Gipps was a reserve player and his first team appearances of which there were two, with Gipps scoring once, were in Western League and other matches. He joined Lancashire Combination club Barrow in 1911. In his one full season at Barrow, Gipps helped his side to fourth spot in Division One of the Combination and caught the attention of a number of bigger clubs after some impressive performances before being signed by First Division Manchester United in May 1912.

He made his Football League debut at Chelsea on Christmas Day 1912 but was a fringe player during his time at Old Trafford, playing 23 matches for the club in the remaining three seasons before the suspension of peacetime football due to the advent of the First World War. Gipps continued to play for United in the new Wartime League and played 34 times during the 1915-16 season. Gipps joined the Army Service Corps in mid-1916 and subsequently served overseas.  He was demobilised in 1919 and returned to the north west to rejoin Manchester United but never made any further appearances before retiring.