Thomas French was an amateur English footballer, who won the FA Cup with Old Etonians in 1882, playing as a full-back.
[3] His first competitive football came in the 1879–80 FA Cup, representing Oxford University in the first round against Great Marlow,[4] against Birmingham in the second (in which his back play was particularly praised),[5] and the Royal Engineers in both the semi-final and the replay.
In the 1881–82 FA Cup, he played for the Etonians in every round except for the fourth round win over Maidenhead, and his "grand kicking" in the final was a major factor in the Etonians beating Blackburn Rovers by the only goal;[6] a strong French shoulder-charge on Geoffrey Avery put the smaller forward out of the game for ten minutes.
[16] French married Louisa Acton at Iwerne Minster in Dorset on New Year's Day in 1890,[17] at which time he was a schoolmaster in Yorkshire.
[18] He eventually moved to British India as a teacher at Rajkumar College, Rajkot, where he taught the children of the Maharajah of Baroda;[19] he died when up-country on 8 November 1908, leaving an estate worth £4,774.