By Tony Attwood
Henry White is probably not a name you will know in terms of Arsenal.
He was born on 17 April 1892 in Watford, and played first as an amateur with Brentford before the war.
But in the first season after the first world war (our first back in the first division) he was our top scorer with 15 and again in the 1921/2 season when he got 19. He even had a trial for England.
He had come to us from Brentford and having served in the Royal Fusiliers moved to Arsenal after the war.
His first matchg was a home game against Newcastle on 30 August 1919 – we lost 0-1
But as Arsenal slumped at the end of the Knighton reign he was sold to Blackpool in 1923 having played 109 games and scoring 45 goals. Sadly his career ended on something of a low playing in a 7-0 away defeat to WBA on 14 October 1922, and then a 0-1 defeat to Everton away, on 4 November 1922, and then that was that.
He had two seasons at Blackpool (70 games, 18 goals), one at Fulham, then it was Walsall, Nelson, Walsall again, Stafford Rangers, and finally the short lived Thames Association (one of those clubs created to fill a stadium – which it never managed to do.)
He also played first class cricket for Warwickshire, and died in 1972 aged 77.
His story is therefore one of those many of a player of whom we have very little information, who played for Arsenal for a while – in this case with some distinction in a declining team – before moving on.
Presumably he then moved out of football to take up another career. We can’t even trace the end of his footballing career properly as it was with the doomed Thames Association, and I imagine their records have long since been lost.
It is, at least for me, sad, that so few details of these men are retained. If you know more, please do write in.
Here’s his records
Season | Competition | Appearances | Goals |
1919-20 | FA Cup | 1 | |
1919-20 | League Division One | 29 | 15 |
1920-21 | FA Cup | 1 | |
1920-21 | League Division One | 26 | 10 |
1921-22 | FA Cup | 6 | 5 |
1921-22 | League Division One | 35 | 14 |
1922-23 | League Division One | 11 | 1 |
He died 27 November 1972
See also…
——————
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 – crowd behaviour at the early matches
Other sites from the same team…
- Untold Arsenal
- Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?