Jumpers for Chapman’s Iconic Kit Design By Mark Andrews (@RoyalArsenalMRA) and Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) Recently, Andy and myself had a long chat with Patrick Barclay about Arsenal stories for his impending and eagerly awaited new book on the greatest manager of all time: Herbert Chapman. One of the topics we discussed was the change of the shirt design from red …
Read More “Jumpers for Goalposts…No! Jumpers for Chapman’s Iconic Kit Design”
By Mark Andrews @RoyalArsenalMRA Arsenal Committee man and Director: 1891-1901 and silent saviour of the 1893 schism The 1893 schism focused on Royal Ordnance Factories FC (ROFFC)– a vanity project run by ex-directors of Royal Arsenal who couldn’t get their way at Royal Arsenal FC, and who perceived themselves to be of the gentlemanly class. …
Read More “George Lawrance: Born 27 April 1851 – First Benefactor of the Club”
By Mark Andrews @royalarsenalmra Yesterday at Colindale while we were searching for evidence of very early results and fixtures, Andy Kelly set a fiendishly difficult twitter question: “Who was the first Invincible to sign for the club?” With that in mind here is the information we have on the chap, a very interesting fellow called Alexander …
Read More “Royal Arsenal Foundations: Sandy Robertson – The Club’s First Invincible”
Mark Andrews @Royal Arsenal MRA Caesar Jenkyns – First Arsenal player to appear in an international match. 21 Mar 1896: Caesar Jenkyns became the first player at the club to play international football, when he appeared for Wales v Scotland. The flamboyantly named Caesar Augustus Llewellyn Jenkyns was born in Builth Wells, Wales in 1867. …
Read More “21 March 1896: Arsenal’s “Victorian Souness” plays for Wales”
By Mark Andrews @royalarsenalMRA Richard Thomas Horsington: 1889-1890 On the anniversary of Royal Arsenal’s defeat in their first London Senior Cup Final on 8th March 1890, we highlight the player whose serious injury at the start of the game unfortunately contributed to their defeat by Old Westminsters 0-1. It is worth mentioning that all the …
Read More “8th March 1890 – Royal Arsenal Players: Richard Horsington, the injury prone businessman”
By: Mark Andrews @royalarsenalmra H Simmons – The one armed reserve As part of the research into the new book we have uncovered previously unknown, unheard of and some strange events and people. Here is the first player’s story. We have included H Simmons for one major and quite incredible reason, despite him never …
Read More “Royal Arsenal Players: H Simmons, the one armed reserve”
Mark Andrews – @royalarsenalmra As part of the ongoing research into our next book in the next few months we will be producing a series of historiographies and reviews of issues and books that have been written about Arsenal in their early years. Among the items covered will be: What kit the club wore in their …
Read More “Royal Arsenal : Foundations – Ta ra ra Boom de ay The Arsenal’s Won Today”
Mark Andrews (twitter: @royalarsenalmra) & Andy Kelly (twitter: @gooner_ak) Tony published a welcome update for those of us not able to go yesterday to the House of Commons event and made reference to the team photo taken at the first match at Highbury, on 6 September 1913. This photo appears to have been used in the past …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in 1913 or is it?”
By Mark Andrews. Last year we reviewed the Woolwich Arsenal Christmas programmes from 1904 and 1905 in http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/2011/12/23/christmas-scheduling-past/ For this festive season we are looking at Royal Arsenal’s scheduled Christmas programmes in a snowy 1890, a beery 1891 and a fractious 1892. Being an organised amateur club and “Champions of the South” they were in touch with Northern …
Read More “A Right Royal Arsenal Christmas”
By Mark Andrews We at the AHS have always championed John Wilkinson Humble because he was associated with the club from the start of the 2nd season as a player in 1887 until leaving in a Norris inspired cloud in 1927. 40 years at a club as player, committeeman, director and supporter is very impressive. However, …
Read More “Too Humble an Umpire?”
Tony, In the season ticket article from http://afchistory.wordpress.com/ you asked what the prices were in 1905. Well earlier in the pre-season on 30th June 1905 they were advertised in the Kentish Independent. Please see below. At this time the skilled Royal Arsenal artisans would have been paid up to approx £3 a week, and the unskilled labourer at the …
Read More “Season Ticket Prices 1905/1906”
by Mark Andrews Now that the wait is over and the quite revolting new purple and black striped away kit is revealed, and given that we are only days away from the publication of the publication of the definitive book on the early years of Arsenal as a professional club, I thought it would be …
Read More “Another away kit shocker”
Mark Andrews At the front of the blog is a caveat “This site represents very much a forum for knocking around ideas and seeking out issues that can be debated. As such we openly acknowledge that some of the notions expressed here might be wrong, and will need correcting. Indeed if you can help us …
Read More “Arsenal possibly played its first match on the Isle of Dogs. Revised 2012 version”
By Mark Andrews and Andy Kelly After our last post regarding shareholdings we were sent some very interesting 1910, 1911 and 1914 registers of shareholders. While various sources on the net have alluded in the past to Glasgow Rangers holding shares in The Arsenal, these lists show that they did purchase 2 shares sometime in the latter part of 1910 and early 1911. …
Read More “Shareholding: When Tottenham “liked us so much they bought the company””
Hello, In the past Tony has requested information from readers who knew or thought they knew that their relatives played for Woolwich Arsenal. As we are nearing the drafting section of the book, this is a similar request but concerning anyone whose relative was a director or who has been told their ancestor was a …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal – Directors and Shareholders family information”
By Mark Andrews and Tony Attwood Twice in the first 25 years of its existence Arsenal football club came to the very brink of going out of existence. Yet in virtually all the histories of the club the first of these disasters (in 1893) is written (if at all) as a minor incident of no …
Read More “Iconic Moments from Arsenal’s past 2: when they tried to shut us down”
By Mark Andrews The upcoming threat of a tube strike has led to the Boxing Day game being postponed for 24 hours. However while travelling to the rescheduled Wolves game, spare a thought for the players, officials and fans in 1904. With Woolwich Arsenal having been promoted to the first division for the first time, …
Read More “Christmas Scheduling Past: when Arsenal played four games in five days”
