By Tony Attwood
We regularly get emails from readers looking for information about relatives who may have played for Arsenal. While the list of players who played for the club is published in several places (Wiki has a list, and we have a list with links to articles on this site (Arsenal players A-K and Arsenal Players L to Z) and indeed many other sources do, but generally these only include players who played for Arsenal in the League.
Players who only played friendlies, FA Cup games early on, wartime games etc are often missing although TheArsenalHistory has a very comprehensive list of players although it has to be searched year by year. But as yet even here, with such a vast database, there is nothing on London Combination and Football Combination games. At least not that I have been able to find. Indeed if you have or know where to find details of London Combination games up to 1927 I’d be particularly please do see that.
When I get these requests, if I have the information of course I reply, but I don’t think it would be at all right to pass on email addresses of other people who have written in, and when I have tried to put people in touch I’ve found it takes me too much time.
So what I thought I would do when I get such requests for information is this. I’ll put them up as an article along with the suggestion as where to look, and if information does come to the fore I will add the player to the two indexes on this site noted above.
Today’s request if for information on Harold James Watson, known as Jim, believed to be a goalkeeper playing either in the 1930s or in the wartime leagues between 1939 and 1946. Other information is that he moved to Coventry and played for a works team (perhaps Jaguar or Rolls Royce) and was later a scout for Coventry City.
If you have any information please do write in using the comment box below.
If you are looking for a person associated with Arsenal and there is nothing on the internet please do drop me a line at Tony@schools.co.uk with anything you know including obviously the full name, the period when you think the person was associated with the club, what the individual did and any other clubs associated with that person.
If any information does come in I will then set up an article on that particular player which will then appear on the main Arsenal news services, and will also be findable by anyone else searching for the same person, via the normal search engines.
I hope that helps.
Have found a Herbert Watson who played for Bristol Rovers from 1936 to ’37 making 19 appearances. No position given but did not score any goals so could well be a goalkeeper.
That would appear to discount another theory I had that he could have played for Arsenal in the London Combination league under 19’s which was formed during the war especially to help youth football of which I have no statistics.