By Tony Attwood
Minor amendment made to this article 29 Dec 2013
Frederick Gordon Coles, known as Fred was a centre half and right half who joined Arsenal in 1910 from Nottingham Forest
He is recorded by Dean Hayes ( l am struggling a bit here to find any other information and its all I have), as havingj previously played for Nottingham Post Office (yes, honest), Notts County, and finally Nottingham Forest, before heading south.
He appears to have been transferred in after the season had begun and made his début in the league in a 1-0 victory over Chesterfield on September 29 1900 in front of 5,500 people. Anderson who had been playing right half until this point, moved over to left half, making way for Coles.
Fred was obviously a player who could fit in as he also played at outside right once that season. He played 27 league games and scored two goals in that first season and three games in the FA Cup. In 1902/3 he played 32 games in the league out of 34 plus all three FA Cup games.
In 1902/3 he played the 17 of first 18 games, and then stopped after the 1 January game against Stockport. He did return for the last match of the season and made one final appearance on January 16 1904, his place having been taken over by John Dick. Fred Coles moved on to Grimsby Town in June, with Arsenal having won promotion but Fred playing almost no part in it.
Arsenal.com give us a few subsequent details saying that later he became a cricket and football coach in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was also trainer of Hague in Holland between 1910 and 1911. He died on 22 April 1947.
Addendum: Here’s a picture of Fred during the 1900-01 season.
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 FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
Anyone know of a link to a picture of Fred?
Have tried searching his Nottingham ‘roots’ etc but to no avail
Mark
I’ve added a picture of Fred for you.
Many thanks Andy.
As an aside, would you happen to have a picture of Joe ‘Judge’ Murphy, ex AFC (and Hibs, Raith and Stoke) He’s also one of a number I’m looking for but have not been able to find, to date
cheers
Mark
I’ll see what I can dig out. Was you hoping to see if he really did wear a wig?
Or a cap even? ha ha
There’s a typo in the script – Fred played 32 league games in 1901/2 not the following season. As stated in 1902/3 he suddenly stopped playing.