The Arsenal Anniversary Files
Our headline story today comes from 1934; today we mark the 84th anniversary of the death of Sir Henry Norris, the man who rescued Arsenal in 1910, moved the club to Highbury and built the new ground, steadied the club’s shaky finances, and finally brought in Herbert Chapman to revolutionize not just Arsenal but English football.
Through a very successful campaign, started by Leslie Knighton, the Arsenal manager Sir Henry sacked to make way for Chapman, Sir Henry’s reputation has been seriously sullied over the years. If you would like a very quick take on what Sir Henry actually did for Arsenal, do take a look at the opening of our series on Norris at the Arsenal. It gives a flavour of how his history has been manipulated.
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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.
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30 July 1912: William Garbutt, ex-Arsenal man, appointed manager of Genoa CFC. Genoa was seen to be an English town in Italy, and Garbutt sought work in the docks – but within weeks he was given the job of being head coach of the club.
30 July 1915: Archie Macaulay born in Falkirk. He played at first with Rangers and then West Ham, served his country in the Army Physical Training Corps, and later signed for Brentford from whom he was signed by Arsenal in July 1947 for £10,000.
30 July 1923: Arthur Hutchins was given a free transfer to Charlton then of Division III South, having played 108 league games for Arsenal.
30 July 1934: Death of Lt Colonel Sir Henry Norris – the man who rescued Arsenal in 1910, built Highbury in 1913, and hired Herbert Chapman in 1925. Contrary to his current reputation he was very generous to the club’s staff, and always fought for Arsenal against vested interests elsewhere. See Henry Norris at the Arsenal for the full story of his work with the club.
30 July 1938: The first edition of the Beano comic went on sale while those who liked slightly more serious matters would have been eagerly reading the new summer publications including “Brighton Rock” (Graham Greene), “Scoop” (Evelyn Waugh) and the hit novel of the year “The Code of the Woosters” by PG Wodehouse.
30 July 1962: Jon Sammels signed as a professional. He scored on his debut in 1963 and went on to play 212 games all told, including making 21 appearances in the first Double season.
30 July 1969: Kaiserslautern 2 Arsenal 2 (15,000) (Radford, George). The third of four pre-season games.
30 July 1974 Brian Clough became the new manager of Leeds United, but his assistant Peter Taylor remained at Brighton as manager. Brighton had finished two places off relegation from the 3rd division under Clough, which is exactly where they ended the following season under Taylor.
30 July 1975: Hearts 0 Arsenal 2 in front of 11,000 fans. Kidd was injured on 20 minutes and replaced by Radford, but not before putting Hornsby through to score. Eddie Kelly ran the defensive side of the team excellently and Hearts hardly had a chance to get anywhere near the Arsenal goal.
30 July 1976: Arsenal 2 Notts C 0 (Ross, Macdonald). It was the first friendly ahead of the new season.
30 July 1985: Windsor and Eton 0 Arsenal 1 (Woodcock). First of four pre-season friendlies.
30 July 1989: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0 (Bould) Just 23,000 turned up at Wembley for the second of two games in the Makita Tournament.
30 July 1991: Arsenal 2 Celtic 2. Paul Davis Testimonial. He stayed with the club until 1995, making 447 league appearances all told and scoring 37 goals.
30 July 1997: PSV Eindhoven 1 Arsenal 0 in a pre season friendly.
30 July 2001 Real Mallorca 0 Arsenal 2 (van Bronckhorst, og). The fourth of seven pre-season games.
30 July 2007: Reyes, one of the Invincibles, left Arsenal. He had just had a season long loan with Real Madrid, playing 30 games for them, having played 69 for Arsenal across three seasons.
30 July 2008: Jens Lehmann, having moved to Stuggart, played his first match for them… against Arsenal. It ended VFB Stuttgart 1 Arsenal 3 (Vela, Bendtner, Wilshere)
30 July 2011: Arsenal signed midfielder Amaury Bischoff from Werder Bremen. Arsene Wenger admitted the signing was a gamble because of his injury record and indeed he only played one game for Arsenal, before moving on to Académica de Coimbra in Portugal. Also on this day Arsenal 2 Boca Juniors 2 (Emirates cup) (Van Persie, Ramsey)
30 July 2015: Jon Toral loaned to Birmingham City for the season. He played 36 games, scored 8 goals, and won awards for Goal of the Season award, Players’ and Supporters’ Player of the Season awards.
30 July 2017: Arsenal lost to Sevilla 2-1 in the Emirates Cup, with a goal from Lacazette.
