26 July 1887: James Maxwell, was born in Kilmarnock for whom he first played before moving to Sheffield Wednesday and then Arsenal. At Wednesday he competed with Harry Chapman (the brother of Herbert) for the right wing position. 26 July 1919: Henry White signed from Brentford. He was Arsenal’s top scorer with 15 and …
Read More “The first time Arsenal won every pre-season friendly: Arsenal anniversaries 26 July”
Here are the Arsenal anniversaries for 25 July – including the answer to the question above: who was the only player to play in every game for the Invincibles. These are the stories from the Arsenal History Society Archives for Arsenal FC on 24 July. There is more about our archives at the foot of the …
Read More “Who was the only player to play in every game for the Invincibles? AFC anniversaries 25 July”
By Tony Attwood The summer of 1912 was the time when Henry Norris’ ideas on the future of Arsenal solidified. It is quite possible that when he first became involved in early 1910 he thought he might be able to lend a hand to Arsenal, help sort out their finances and then exit; a …
Read More “Norris at the Arsenal 12: How Henry Norris chose Highbury as Arsenal’s new ground”
These are the stories from the Arsenal History Society Archives for Arsenal FC on 24 July. There is more about our archives at the foot of the page. 24 July 1870: Harry Storer born. He became Arsenal’s first ever player to win representative honours, and the first player to be transferred for disciplinary reasons …
Read More “Arsenal On This Day. What happened to Arsenal on 24 July across the years.”
By Tony Attwood In the last article we reached the transfer of Dick Roose to Arsenal while Arsenal struggled to recapture the form that led to a mid table finish in 1910/11. The arrival of Dick Roose in 1912 was a masterstroke by Norris, putting Woolwich Arsenal back on the back pages, as it were. The …
Read More “Henry Norris at the Arsenal 11: 1912 and Arsenal plan to move away from Plumstead”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had had a run of 11 games without defeat at the end of the 1910/11, and an overall increase in attendances of almost 10% over the previous season. This was not enough to scoop back the huge losses in crowd numbers Arsenal had suffered from their heyday when they were the …
Read More “Henry Norris at the Arsenal part 10: the summer and autumn of 1911”
By Tony Attwood Matthew Shortt was born on 5 February 1889 in Dumfries and started playing football with his home town club Dumfries before moving on and playing with Dalbeattie Star situated just 13 miles down the road. That club was founded in 1905 and played until 1948 when it folded. In 1976 a new …
Read More “Matthew Shortt: 4 games and 4 defeats with Arsenal, but then a success in America.”
James A. Quayle was born in Charlton in 1890 and played left back with Fossdene Old Boys, Old Charlton and Woolwich Polytechnic. He joined Woolwich Arsenal as an amateur player on 24 August 1907, and although he re-signed for another year on 2 June 1908, he then received an offer from Northfleet, and so moved onto there, …
Read More “The tragedy of James Quayle”
by Tony Attwood Roderick John McEachrane known as Roddy was born in Inverness in 1878. His first club was Inverness Thistle and then, he moved to Canning Town in London to work at Thames Iron Works and naturally joined the works team, then playing in the 2nd division of the Southern League. There he stayed …
Read More “Roddy McEachrane: played 346 games for Arsenal and never scored a goal.”
By Tony Attwood We’re continuing the series on the players of the 1910/11 season as part of the “Henry Norris at the Arsenal” series. A list of all the players used in this season appears at the end of the article. Duncan McDonald was born in Bo’ness (Borrowstounness), on the south bank of the Firth of …
Read More “Duncan McDonald: the Arsenal player who maybe did or maybe didn’t go to Hartlepools”
By Tony Attwood We’re currently looking at the players who were used during the early days of Henry Norris’ time at Arsenal. It is an interesting point, I feel, not just because of the historical record, but because the accusation was made many years after Norris’ death that Norris himself restricted his managers work in …
Read More “Henry (Harry) Logan: played 11, only on the winning side once.”
by Tony Attwood This is a copy of the 1910/11 season preview of Woolwich Arsenal from the pre-eminent football magazine of the day: Athletic News. You may recall in earlier articles how we described the attempt by Henry Norris and others to set up a southern rival to Athletic News (itself published in Manchester, …
Read More “Athletic News: the leading sports journal of the day, previews Woolwich Arsenal 1910/11”
by Tony Attwood According to Wikipedia Gordon Rahere Hoare (18 April 1884 – 27 October 1973) was “an English amateur footballer” – and that’s all you get. Which is rather sad given the extraordinary nature of his engagement with the game. Now if you are a regular reader of this site you might recall that we …
Read More “Gordon Rahere Hoare: the Arsenal player who transferred 23 times.”
By Tony Attwood John Chalmers was born in Beith in 1885 or 1886 (sources differ), and played initially for Rutherglen Glencairn. Rutherglen Glencairn FC were formed in 1895 at the wonderfully named ‘Old Jail’ office in Rutherglen, and they are still in existence. The club played at Southcroft Park – a stadium that lasted 110 …
Read More “Jackie Chalmers: the man who rescued Arsenal, but then rode back to the north.”
by Tony Attwood As part of the series of articles covering Henry Norris at Arsenal we’re now looking at the players who played in the first season under Henry Norris’ chairmanship – 1910/11. A list of all the players and their number of games, with links to the articles on those players already covered, appears …
Read More “Arsenal’s team in Norris’ first season overseeing the club: George Burdett”
By Tony Attwood 1910 was the summer that Woolwich Arsenal FC were on the edge of extinction surviving only because of the intervention of Henry Norris. He paid off the debts, negotiated with the existing shareholders, offered the club back to the local community, and indeed guaranteed the club’s solvency. He also guaranteed that the …
Read More “Two of Arsenal’s most mysterious players: missing from the official list, but they certainly played.”
Arsenal Anniversaries on this day 3 July 1925: Charles Buchan, the man who helped develop WM, re-signed by Arsenal in £100/goal deal. He played 102 games scoring 49 goals before finally retiring in 1928. Buchan’s first signing for Arsenal. For many years it was reported that Arsenal ended up paying more for Buchan through …
Read More “Today’s Arsenal anniversaries: 3 July”
By Tony Attwood By the start of 1911 Henry Norris was fully ensconced at Woolwich Arsenal. He did not own the club, but owned shares in the club, was the lead director of the club, and had guaranteed the club’s financial well being. He had arranged for the club’s debts to be cleared so the …
Read More “Henry Norris at the Arsenal part 9: 1911 – Arsenal escape relegation.”
by Tony Attwood Continuing from the last episode we have now got to the point where the new season was almost upon the club. The directors continued to sort out the debts of the Woolwich Arsenal club which had existed until this summer. The bank overdraft, and the second mortgage on the ground were …
Read More “Norris at the Arsenal part 8: July to December 1910. Bad news all round.”
Patrick Vieira: Arsenal’s Missing Rib With Arsene Wenger remaining at Arsenal as manager for another two seasons, the odds on the North London club, as shown on Ladbrokes free bet, to win the Premier League next season is high. At the time of writing Arsenal are available as a big as 16/1 and sixth in …
Read More “Patrick Vieira: Arsenal’s Missing Rib”
By Tony Attwood All through the tumultuous period that we’ve been looking at in the previous articles, the fund-raising committee that had been set up before the full extent of this financial crisis was appreciated, had continued its activities. However on 6 June at a meeting in Rotherhithe, the committee resolved not to hand …
Read More “Norris at the Arsenal 7: Completing the takeover and preparing for the new season”
This is part six of our series on Henry Norris at Arsenal. The previous articles are Part 1. How Arsenal fell from grace. Part 2: heading for liquidation and the first thought of moving elsewhere Part 3: March and April 1910 – the crisis deepens Part 4: the proposed mergers with Tottenham and Chelsea. Part …
Read More “Norris at Arsenal 6: It’s agreed, Arsenal stay in Plumstead for one (no two) years”
This is part 5 of the Henry Norris Files – the complete story of Henry Norris at Arsenal. The previous sections are Part 1. How Arsenal fell from grace. Part 2: heading for liquidation and the first thought of moving elsewhere Part 3: March and April 1910 – the crisis deepens Part 4: the proposed …
Read More “The collapse of Woolwich Arsenal: how the rescue took shape.”
by Tony Attwood This article updated 5 Dec 2018 This series of articles covers the 17 years in which Henry Norris was involved with Arsenal football club. The story so far: How Arsenal fell from grace. Heading for liquidation and the first thought of moving elsewhere March and April 1910 – the crisis deepens …
Read More “Henry Norris at the Arsenal part 4: the proposed mergers with Tottenham and Chelsea.”
This article updated 15 November 2018 By Tony Attwood The previous article in this series is Norris at the Arsenal part 2: heading for liquidation and the first thought of moving elsewhere The full index of the series is here By March 1910 it was being widely reported in local newspapers, the national press …
Read More “Norris at the Arsenal 3: March and April 1910 – the crisis deepens”
