Tom’s Lisbon letter legacy...
Glasgow brickie’s family kept his cards
TOM DODDS was one of the thousands of Celtic fans who travelled to Lisbon 50 years ago for his team’ s greatest moment.
It was the excited 21- yearold’s first trip abroad and at every stop on his journey he sent a postcard home.
But just a year later, Tom was killed in a road accident and the series of enthusiastic notes he posted took on new meaning to his family.
Now, to mark the 50th anniversary of that day, his siblings and niece have decided to share the correspondence, with Sunday Post readers.
“My mum, Jean, who was Tom’s sister, kept the postcards and when I read them later I became aware of just how big a deal this was for a young man of 21,” said Isabel Crilley, Tom’s niece.
“They hold strong emotions for my mum and my uncle Johnny, Tom’s wee brother.”
Tom was an apprentice bricklayer in Glasgow at the time of his team’s European run.
“He seemed a very nice young guy,” continued Isabel. “My dad was a Rangers fan and Uncle Tom would always get me to say things about Celtic to my dad to wind him up. “He had a steady girlfriend, Liz, who he later got engaged to, and he went to see Celtic home and away. My gran was a great baker and his friends used to come to the house, where they’d sit in the kitchen. Tom had managed to get a ticket for the final and it was round the dinner table they hatched a plan to go to Lisbon.
“About six of them from work took the train to London, and then they went their separate ways. I think some of them came home because their money had run out, but Tom continued on.”
The first postcard, showing an image of Admiralty Arch, stated: “Arrived in London safely at 7am. Tube is fascinating. Heading for Dover.”
Tom then hitch-hiked to the coast and, once he was in France, wrote: “Making great progress. Weather beginning to get warm. Money running short.” But he soon discovered it wasn’t so easy to hitch a ride on the opposite side of the water.
Writing from Calais, he said: “It is impossible to get a lift here. I’ve met Celtic supporters and we are hiring a car. It will cost us each about £16.”
In his next letter, writing from the town of Alencon in Normandy, he explained: “The hire car is a beauty and holds six very comfortably.
“In this café where we are
eating we’ve just met a local man who knows about the Rangers, but we have converted him!
“The food is rubbish and very expensive but we are all managing.”
Tom and his new friends spent a night in the town and then drove on to Spain, before finally reaching Portugal.
In his final postcard, he wrote: “We’ve done it. We arrived at one o’clock on Wednesday afternoon. The weather is getting better, food brilliant. Money almost finished.
“Cigarettes are 1/ 3d for 20. Coffee like tar. Loving this.”
The next day, Tom watched his team defeat Inter Milan 2-1 and become the first British club to lift the European Cup.
Isabel smiled: “Mum and Dad watched the coverage on the edge of their seats, checking the crowd to see if they could catch a glimpse of him. It seems very innocent now, but I suppose it was new and exciting back then.”
Isabel doesn’ t know how Tom made it back to the UK after the match, but her mum had to go to Thomas Cook and transfer money to London so he could make it home.
After two weeks on the road, he returned to work and later asked Liz to marry him.
But tragedy struck oone Saturday night in 1968.
“He was in the passenger seat of his friend’s sports car when they collided with a lorry,” Isabel said. “The driver walked free but Tom had fatal injuries. I was just seven at the time.
“We’re not a family of hoarders but for some reason the letters were kept at the time and now they hold such strong emotions for us.”