Tommy Benfield
Thomas Charles Benfield was an English professional football forward who played in the Football League for Leicester Fosse and Derby County.Career
An outside right and inside forward, Benfield played for local Leicester clubs before joining Second Division Leicester Fosse in July 1910. Over the course of the following four seasons he made 111 appearances and scored 23 goals and was notable for scoring the first goal scored at Arsenal Stadium on 6 September 1913. Benfield moved to local newly-relegated Second Division rivals Derby County in June 1914 and had an excellent 1914–15 season, scoring 15 goals and helping the Rams to immediate promotion back to the First Division. The suspension of competitive football at the end of the 1914–15 season brought Benfield's professional career to an end, but he remained with the club and played his final match on 16 March 1918.Personal life
Prior to becoming a professional footballer, Benfield served in the Leicestershire Regiment. As of 1914, he was living in Leicester with his wife Elsie. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Benfield re-enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment and was serving as a sergeant when he was shot by a sniper in the area of Équancourt and Heudicourt, Somme on 11 September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive. He died of his wounds on 19 September, just under two months before the Armistice and was buried in Varennes Military Cemetery. As of November 2012, Ben Swift, Benfield's great-grand-nephew, was an employee of Leicester City.Honours
Derby County
