The Arsenal man who passed away playing cricket at Lords

The Arsenal Anniversary Files

Our headline story today comes from 1942


Just published by the Arsenal History Society

Oct 1924. The press attack Knighton (wrongly), an Arsenal star is born, and changing the offside law


Below are the Arsenal (and occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the complete files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website.  An index to the Anniversary files can be found in the left column of this site under “Pages”

The current historical series on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal.   An index of all our series can be found on the home page.

You can find an index to all the anniversary files in the Pages section on the right… we’ve changed the home page around a bit to make it more readable.

The AISA Arsenal History Society is part of the work of the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association.  If you want to join AISA contact them at membership@aisa.org

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23 July 1865: Henry Norris born.  Utterly maligned by Leslie Knighton’s libellous and inaccurate autobiography but praised by George Allison (who knew him from 1910 onwards) in his book, Norris was the man who rescued Arsenal from bankruptcy, honoured all the club’s debts (not just the “football debts”) moved the club to north London, built Highbury, and ultimately brought Herbert Chapman to the club.  The AHS is currently publishing the most detailed history of Norris at the Arsenal ever – the index to that is here.

23 July 1893: Charles Ambler signed for Woolwich Arsenal having played five games for Royal Arsenal since 1891.  He left Woolwich Arsenal without playing a league game, but then returned on 22 November 1895 from Tottenham, and played his one and only league game on 30 November 1895

23 July 1920:  14 people died and over 100 were injured in continuing rioting and rebellion in Belfast.

23 July 1942: Andy Ducat, suffered a heart attack and passed away while at the crease at in a wartime match at Lords.  He played 175 times for Woolwich Arsenal and his transfer to Villa in 1912 signalled the financial desperation of the club.

23 July 1945: Jon Sammels born in Ipswich.  He supported Arsenal as a boy and joined the club as youth player, winning seven youth caps for England.

23 July 1956: Bill Dickson sold to Mansfield.  He had played 29 games between 1953 and 1956, having been signed from Chelsea.  In later life he was a joiner and a part-time scout for Arsenal.

23 July 1973: Liam Brady signed as a pro for Arsenal.  He went on to make 235 appearances scoring 43 goals.  Sadly he joined the team just as a serious decline set in, and left in 1980 for Juventus.  His one trophy with the club was the 1979 FA Cup.

23 July 1984: Viv Anderson signed from Nottingham Forest.  He had played 328 games for Forest, but he felt the need to move on as the club appeared to be in terminal decline. He displaced Colin Hill and played 120 times for Arsenal.

23 July 1988:  Arsenal beat Yeovil 5-0 in Alan Skirton’s Testimonial, with Steve Bould making his first start.

23 July 1996: Kevin Dennis was given a free transfer from Arsenal to Brentford.  He never played for Arsenal, and only played 17 times for Brentford before dropping into non-league football.

23 July 2001: Junichi Inamoto signed from Gamba Osaka for £3.5m. He played in the Carling Cup and Champions League, and despite a good 2002 World Cup he moved on to Fulham, before playing in Turkey, Germany and France.  

23 July 2004: Ray Parlour sold to Middlesbrough. Few players are ever universally loved by fans, but Ray Parlour came closest, and Arsenal lost more than a player when he left.  He won the league three times and the cup four times with Arsenal under Wenger.

23 July 2007: Freddie Ljungberg sold to West Ham for whom he played 25 games before moving onto Seattle Sounders, Chicago Fire, Celtic and Shimizu S-Pulse.

23 July 2010: Arsenal History Society published the article “Where is the statue of Herbert Chapman at the Emirates?” which led to discussions with Ivan Gazidis and finally the erection of a series of statues around the ground.

23 July 2014: Thomas Eisfeld left Arsenal for Fulham after making just one first
team appearance for Arsenal in the league.  He signed a two year contract with
Fulham.

23 July 2011: Cologne 1 Arsenal 2 (Gervinho 2).  Arsenal went on to draw with Boca Juniors and New York Red Bulls before beating Benfica in the final pre-season game.

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