Author lifts lid on Burnley's FA Cup winning captain (From Chorley Citizen)

Author lifts lid on Burnley's FA Cup winning captain

11:00am Thursday 28th July 2011 in Leisure By Peter Magill, Chief reporter

THE life story of the only Clarets captain to lift the FA Cup, has been captured in a new book.

Tommy Boyle received the trophy from King George V at Crystal Palace after a 1-0 victory over Liverpool in 1914.

And even after suffering terrible injuries in the First World War he returned to Turf Moor to lift the League Championship for the Clarets at the end of the 1920-21 season.

But his wartime experiences came back to haunt him and he was eventually committed to the Whittingham Hospital before his death in January 1940.

Lecturer Mike Smith, a lifelong Clarets fan, has been researching Boyle’s life for the past two years and has now produced ‘Tommy Boyle - Broken Hero’.

Boyle was signed for a then-record £1,150 from his hometown club Barnsley and played for Burnley between 1911 and 1923.

He enlisted in the army prior to the First World War and was badly injured while serving on the Western Front. But despite his ordeal he returned to the frontline, rejoining Burnley when he was demobbed.

Mike said: “He was a real sporting hero, only for the authorities to commit him to Whittingham, a former asylum.”

He married a Burnley girl, Anne Elizabeth Varley, in 1917, and is known to have remained in Lancashire after his playing career.

Boyle’s last major run in the team was during the title-winning season. Later he encountered financial difficulties and was committed to Whittingham, where he died aged 51.

Last year a campaign, backed by Burnley and Barnsley FC, saw a headstone finally erected on Boyle’s grave, at his last resting place in Hoyland, south Yorkshire.

The book has been published by Grosvenor House Publishers, Guildford. It is priced £11.99.