BIO

Thomas Beacham (12 Aug 1878 - 1 Sept 1947)

After playing in the 1903 VFL Grand Final for Fitzroy, Thomas Beacham(aka Beauchamp) moved to Adelaide. A highly regarded centre-man, he had already played interstate football for Victoria. Scrupulously fair, and possessing great skills, he had been a popular member of the Fitzroy team. While in Adelaide he used the alias Beauchamp and was popularly known as Tammy Beauchamp

Residing in the Sturt area from October 1903, Beauchamp then moved into the Norwood zone a few weeks before the start of the 1904 season. A permit for him to join Norwood was granted, but was withdrawn when Sturt complained that Beauchamp was residentially tied to them, and that he had not served the necessary 12 week qualification period, which would have automatically allowed him to play for Norwood.
Beauchamp was eventually cleared after 12 weeks and made his Norwood debut in late May. He was rated highly enough by the club to immediately be appointed as Vice-Captain.

Sadly, he missed playing in Norwood's famous 1904 Grand Final win.  He went into the semi-final clash carrying a knee injury and had to come off at quarter time when the injury worsened. Somewhat amazingly however, South Adelaide allowed Beauchamp to be replaced, and Norwood won the game by three points, and then the Grand Final against Port Adelaide by four points, after being 35 points down at three quarter time.

"Tammy" Beauchamp then returned to Melbourne and played a major role in Fitzroy's 1905 Grand Final win.

After his playing days were over, he umpired in the Victorian Football League for a few seasons.

R Cialini April 2014