AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
James Henderson was born in Thornhill, Dumfries in 1867 He first played for 5th Kirkcudbright Rifle Volunteers whom I have founded recorded playing in the Scottish Cup in 1891 and who are generally thought to have played between 1879 and 1896. Entries on the internet showing the club existing between 1881-3, can’t be right. He …
Read More “James Henderson: Rifle Volunteer, Champions medal, Arsenal, then…”
This is a series of articles about the team that started the very first league game against Newcastle United in 1893/4. If we had trouble with David Howat in the last article, this one is even worse. Duncan Gemmell was born in Glasgow in 1870 He is recorded as first playing for Elderslie Rangers Swifts. …
Read More “Duncan Gemmell: three games for Wednesday, five games for Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood And so to the mystery that is David Howat. He was a left half, born in Preston on 1 October 1870 who played for Fishwick Ramblers, Preston North End, Woolwich Arsenal and Third Lanark. His Arsenal career is recorded by the club as 1889 – 1896, and we know that he played …
By Tony Attwood This article was updated 17 December 2013 Robert Buist (recorded in some reports as “Bob” and elsewhere as “Bobby”) was born in Glasgow in 1870. He initially played for Fairfield Rangers (Glasgow), Cowlairs, and Clyde before joining Woolwich Arsenal. I have nothing on Fairfield Rangers that helps in putting the Bob Buist …
By Tony Attwood Poor Daniel Devine. Played in our very first match in the league, and thus worthy a place in history, but then only managed one more league game and one cup game (the Ashford United game we won 12-0 where we had a mix of reserves and first teamers) before seeming to vanish …
Read More “Daniel Devine: played in our first league game, but then lost to history”
By Tony Attwood There are moments when doing research into Arsenal’s past that one finds a fact which has been completely overlooked. Not, I must admit, a major fact, but nevertheless a fact which really ought to be mentioned. That’s the case we have here. William Jeffrey was born in Dalerby, a small village in …
Read More “How all the stories of Arsenal’s history tend to repeat the same mistake”
Joseph Joshua Powell known as Joe was Woolwich Arsenal’s captain for their first ever league match in 1893 at the age of 23. He was born in 1870 and died on November 29, 1896 after playing against Small Heath just two weeks earlier. Joe was born in Bristol, and played initially for Walsall and the …
Read More “Joe Powell, our first captain who died as a result of injuries on the pitch”
By Tony Attwood Charlie Williams was born in November 1873 and died in South America in 1952. He played in goal in Woolwich Arsenal’s first ever league match, at the age of 19. Prior to joining Royal Arsenal in 1891 he played for Phoenix, Clarence, and Erith. Quite which Phoenix FC Charlie played for is …
Read More “The great nephew of Arsenal’s first league keeper now plays in Brazil”
By Tony Attwood This is the start of a new series on the Woolwich Arsenal site. The weekly review of 100 years ago will continue, but we are also going to run a series from the very start of Arsenal in the league – 1893-4. At the end of the 1892/3 season there had been …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal from the start. Entering the league in 1893”
Somehow you would expect Manchester United to be rivals of Manchester City (even if most Manchester IOU fans are based in Cornwall and Surrey.) You’d expect Liverpool and Everton fans to be rivals, since Liverpool split from Everton and tried to take over Everton’s fixture list when they did so. Besides both sets of supporters …
Read More “The reason Tottenham are our bitter rivals is not because the grounds are so close”
By Tony Attwood 100 years ago, three games played, two draws and a defeat. (A bit of a contrast with the season 100 years later). Two goals scored (both by Rippon) and three let in. Next up Aston Villa away. Villa won the league in 1909/10 and so were the reigning champions. Little did they …
Continuing my recent theme on programmes, by 1934 Arsenal’s programme had grown. It cost 2d (under 1p in today’s money) and had a cover that said “Official programme Season 1933-34” but didn’t say which match it related to. The back cover was a map of the London underground system. This last was because a major …
By Tony Attwood Paul Matz, of Arsenal Independent Supporters Association has kindly answered my request for a photocopy of the oldest Arsenal programme that could be found in his collection. It is Arsenal v Blackburn on Saturday November 13th, 1920 The programme is numbered Volume IX Number 16 and costs two pence (that is 2d, …
By Tony Attwood Saturday September 10th, 1910. One hundred years ago. The crowd was 14,000 and the goalless draw left Arsenal with two draws and a defeat from the first three games, having scored 2 goals and let in three. At least having already lost three key players in the first two games there were …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal 0 Sheffield United 0. Sept 1910.”
Arsenal in the 70s By Ian Brookes I first stared to go regularly to Arsenal when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I don’t actually recall my very first game, it just seems to be that I have been watching Arsenal for so long and it’s what I do. Sadly the day it …
Read More “Arsenal in the 70s – my first footballing memories”
By Tony Attwood Now with update from Maryhill FC – see below Matthew Thomson is one of those Woolwich Arsenal players about whom it seems impossible to find very much at all. He joined the club from Maryhill, his home town, where he was born in 1887. Maryhill. Maryhill FC date back to 1884, when …
Read More “Does anyone remember Matthew Thomson? He played for Arsenal 100 years ago.”
The 1910/11 season started poorly with a home defeat to a very strong Manchester United side: 1-2. 15,000 in the crowd. The second game two days later was seemingly uninspiring, although I have not found direct reports on the game. Bury 1 Arsenal 1. 10,000 there to see it. Next up, Sheffield United at home …
By Tony Attwood The Arsenal History site has so far started to record three areas of Arsenal History… 1. What happened to Arsenal 100 years ago 2. Supporters’ memories of their first ever time seeing Arsenal live. 3. Special topics (in which we have covered such issues as the rivalry with Tottenham, Arsenal in wartime, …
Read More “Arsenal History Project records your funniest, and worst, moments as an away supporter”
By Tony Attwood It may seem unlikely now, but Bury played Arsenal in the first division 100 years ago – on September 3rd. There is some background information on the state of Bury FC at this time in relation to the match in November 1909. So rather than repeat that, we can look at what …
Read More “Bury v Arsenal in the first division? 100 years ago it was exactly that”
By Tony Attwood No transfer window, no internationals interrupting the week by week flow of the games, no European competitions, no “25” registered players, no safety certificates for the grounds, no alcohol restrictions, no pub licensing procedures, no smoking bans…. It makes you wonder sometimes what there was 100 years ago. For Woolwich Arsenal there …
My First Arsenal match live Daniel Clark I remember my first Arsenal match- to use an old phrase- as if it were yesterday though mainly due to the build up of the actual game itself. It was 7 years ago when I was at the tender age of 9 and it was my dad and …
Read More “The train is evacuated, the taxi takes us to the wrong ground… its my first game.”
Woolwich Arsenal launched their first division campaign 100 years ago, on September 1, 1910, with a match against Manchester United. And the team that was put out was quite remarkable. Here it is E Bateup A Gray …
Read More “The team to face Man U. Where they came from, where they went”
100 years ago… Woolwich Arsenal resume league football – 1 September 1910 By Tony Attwood In the 19th century league football started on the first saturday in September. Not exactly the start of autumn but away from the “summer month” of August, which was given over to cricket. In fact cricket had the four months …
Read More “Arsenal prepare for the new season – 100 years ago!”
By Andy Barnett, Kent Both sides of the family were staunch Arsenal fans, eminating from the original Woolwich Arsenal days, so I was born a gooner. My first ever game was at Highbury on a freezing Saturday afternoon in October 1972. We played Man City, in what turned out to be a very dull 0 …
Read More “Man City; it’s freezing; 0-0; I loved every second”
MY FIRST TIME by Lucas On April 1st 1972 Arsenal were due to play Nottingham Forest at home. Forest had been a poor side for a few years, but this season they were particularly dire and bound for relegation. Now although Arsenal had been experiencing an up and down post-double season this was a real …
Read More “Arsenal v Forest 1972: my first time of seeing Arsenal live”
