Burden: Thomas David (Tommy)
1948-1955
(Player Details)
Wing Half
Born: Andover: 21-02-1924
Debut v Sheffield Wednesday (a): 11-09-1948
5’81/2” 11st 5lb (1951)
#83 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever
He played for Somerset County Boys and was recommended to Wolverhampton Wanderers, then
managed by Major Frank Buckley, by his headmaster. He was only sixteen when he played for
them in War-time football. He served with the Rifle Brigade and Royal Fusiliers and despite
being injured in the D-Day landings, completed a PT course at Loughborough College. He had
been with the Third Division North side, Chester City, for two seasons when Major Buckley
signed him for Leeds in July 1948. He was at that time a goalscoring inside forward as his
forty goals in eighty-two League games whilst with Chester might suggest. After initially
playing in the inside forward role he moved back to the left half spot and made it his own.
He was a natural leader of men, leading by example and he was an obvious choice as captain
in his last four years with United. His inspirational leadership was a major factor in
United’s famous FA Cup run in 1949-50 and making the team one of United’s best-ever to that
point in time. He left Leeds after a difference of opinion with Raich Carter. Carter had a
self confidence that some of the players at Elland Road felt bordered on arrogance. There
was a dressing room row, following a bungled free kick routine that cost Leeds a goal,
during a 5-3 defeat at Bury early in 1954-55. It made Captain Tommy Burden decide that he'd
had enough. "Carter was blaming the goalkeeper John Scott. I thought 'This isn't fair …' so
I turned round and said, 'You're the one who's bloody well to blame.' We fell out. I think
Raich suffered from thinking that there weren't many better players than he." Burden, who
had regularly made the marathon five hundred mile round trip to matches at Elland Road from
his home in Somerset for more than six years, was transferred to Bristol City. He was not
alone in finding the new Leeds manager hard going. The official stance was that he wanted to
move to his beloved West Country. He was sold to Bristol City for £3,000 in October 1954. It
was Leeds’ sad loss, as he went on to captain Bristol City, playing almost two hundred and
fifty games. He made two hundred and thirty-one League appearances and scored twenty goals
whilst at Ashton Gate. He gained a Third Division South Championship Medal in 1954-55, his
only tangible reward for a dedicated career. He retired in June 1961. He later worked for
Clark’s shoes in Street, Somerset. He died in Taunton in 2001.