Right back Bob Thompson signed for Everton as part of a £750 joint deal that also saw winger George Harrison join Everton from financially stricken Leicester Fosse. It would prove to be a fine piece of business, with both footballers playing important roles in Everton’s second League Championship win in 1915.
He was a tough, uncomplicated defender as was the way with full backs of this era. Seldom did they venture past the halfway line and the attacking flourishes expected of today’s generation of defenders were beyond the comprehension of most fans.
With a growing reputation in the reserves, Thompson was given a chance six games into the 1913/14 season and his presence marked the end of William Stvenson’s tenure in the right back berth. He and John Macconnachie were, according to one local reporter, ‘a pair of very reliable backs’ and ‘misgivings’ about their ability were ‘rare’.
Thompson played in all but five of Everton’s matches as they lifted the League Championship. The intervention of war when he was still in his mid-twenties and on his return he was unable to hold off the challenge of Dickie Downs. He joined Millwall Athletic in the Southern League, before returning north to Tranmere where he made a further 35 appearances.