Player

Tom Lewis was born in Adelaide in March 1891 and was just 19 years old when selected to play for SA in August 1910.

His father, Thomas Lewis senior, immigrated from Shropshire in England with his parents and siblings when he was 21 years. Thomas senior was a butcher in Wright Street, Adelaide and the family lived for a time above the butcher shop.

It is unknown whether the family introduced Tom to football given their English roots, if he played while at school, or whether he was simply attracted to the game as he grew up in central Adelaide. 

The program from the 1910 interstate series WA v SA played in Perth (photograph below) shows Tom listed as a member of the Adelaide club, 5’9” and 9 stone 5 pounds (59.4kg), relatively tall for this team but lean. He played as a centre forward and scored once during the tour of WA in 1910. Tom’s goal was in the only victory of the 5-game tour, a 1-0 win over Perth and Districts: “T. Lewis was the medium of our single-goal victory and the result of a long shot at goal from a back pass from the forward line”, Evening Journal, 26 August 1910. 

1910 was Tom’s first and last appearance for SA, with only three more state games played across 1912 to 1914 before the First World War disrupted state matches until 1920.

He worked for The Advertiser newspaper for more than 30 years, commencing in his early twenties. He was a general reporter for several years before he began court reporting, subsequently becoming a sub-editor and eventually appointed chief sub-editor. His obituary refers to him as an “outstanding court reporter”.

Tom married Lillian Kelly in October 1913 in Norwood and over the next 14 years they had six children. One of Tom’s relatives said in 2025 that she was told the family had a comfortable life and that he had a magnificent library. The marriage ended in 1935 and Tom is said to have provided 5 pounds each week for the family (equal to $600 in 2025), suggesting he was relatively well paid as a journalist.

In February 1943 he had “taken ill while at his work at the court table” and died two days later from myocarditis (heart inflammation often caused by viral infection), shortly before his 53rd birthday. The Adelaide Police Court Magistrate (Mr Muirhead) commented that court staff “had come to look on Mr Lewis almost as a fellow member of the court staff”. (The Advertiser, 13 February and 15 February, 1943)