Thomas Highest was born in 1853 in Ayr, his father from Tarbolton, a plumber and slater and his mother from Paisley. And it was in that town at Ayr Academy that his football was said to have been formed, before first working in his home-town as an Iron Merchant before moving to Glasgow to learn the ironmongery trade but also in 1873 at twenty poining Queen's Park as a forward. The timeline is in itself interesting because it confrims that football, but, of course, not yet Asscoation football was already being played at school level in Ayr by 1869, if not earlier.   

And at Queen's Park Highet was to have a seven year on-field career that included three Scottish Cups - 1875-, 1876 and 1880 - and between 1875 and 1878 four caps and a single goal. That is before retiring at just twenty-six, going into business on his own right as an ironmonger, having in 1882 married Agnes Inglis in Stair back in Ayrshire. They were then to settle in Kinning Park, where they were to have two boys.  

However, Thomas Highet was  to die young from his Kinning Park home but in Victoria Infirmary a short distance from the three Hampdens. He was fifty-three, to be buried in Cathcart Cemetery and survived by Agnes. She would, having moved back to Ayr, die in 1920 once more at Stair, at the age of sixty-four to be buried in the village churchyard.