By Tony Attwood
Ehud ‘Tim’ Rogers was born in Chirk a town with a population of around 4000 in Wrexham County Borough in Wales on 15 October 1909.
He played football primarily as an outside right at Weston Rhyn, Llanerch, and then Chirk. Chirk was obviously his local team, but it was much more prestigious than it might sound – being founded 1876, ten years before Arsenal, and being a founder member of the Welsh FA and which won the Welsh Cup five times in the 19th century.
After this he moved on to Oswestry Town and Wrexham (of the 3rd Division North) before signing for Arsenal on 12 January 1935 (although one source makes this 1934). He made 16 league appearances and scored 5 goals.
His first game was certainly a game to kick off a career. It was 19 April 1935 and the result was Arsenal 8 Middlesbrough 0 and Tim scored two. He played in the last five games of the season but did not score again. Arsenal won the first four of these games scoring 15, but lost the final match having already won the league.
However despite this fine run Tim didn’t start in the opening games of the new season – and stayed in the reserves until 16 November. From then on played intermediately inside forward and outside left and right.
His last game was away to West Bromwich Albion on 13 April 1936. Arsenal lost 0-1.
Thus his overall record was five games and two goals in 1934/5, and then 11 games and three goals in 1935/6.
The reason for his lack of chances in the first team and his early release from the club is not too hard to see, for Arsenal already had Milne, Bastin and Beasley to play on the wings. Tim was brought in as a promising player from the third division, (who was by then also a Welsh amateur international) but it was then found he was not needed and he was transferred on 10 June 1936 to Newcastle United for £2500. He played 56 times for Newcastle before the outbreak of war.
During the second world war he played for the Welsh national team including playing in the war time international on 7 June 1941 against England at Cardiff. England won 3-2. After the war he played for Swansea and Wrexham.
I’ve no information at all on what Tim did after leaving football, but he did live a long, and I hope, fruitful and enjoyable life, after football, dying on 25 January 1996, aged 86. As always if you know more, please do write in and say.
The books
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
Ehud was my uncle after the 2nd world war he kept a newsagents in Chirk and
was as fit as a fiddle til he died. He used to give me some stick for eing an Evertonian and woe betide anyone who said “Arsenal” and not ” The Arsenal
Ehud’s grave in Chirk is now on FindaGrave along with some photos and a bio.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/238434092/ehud-rogers
Many thanks David