AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
This article updated 15 November 2018 This article continues from the opening of the series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal. The full index to the complete series can be found here By Tony Attwood Henry Norris at the Arsenal: 1910. Arsenal were having a tough time in the 1909/10 season, but two home wins …
by Tony Attwood Revised 14 November 2018 Background note: If there is a man associated with Arsenal whose name is regularly decried it is Henry Norris; a man whose actions were, it is claimed, so outrageous and so awful that it is just a total embarrassment to the club that he should ever have been …
Read More “Henry Norris at the Arsenal: Part 1. How Arsenal fell from grace.”
by Tony Attwood In 1971, at White Hart Lane Arsenal won their first league title since 1953 and won the league with just one point less than the record breaking 66 points achieved in 1931 when Herbert Chapman won Arsenal the league for the first time ever, the club playing the same number of games. …
Read More “8 May 1971 Arsenal win the Double for the first time”
By Tony Attwood On 7 May 1938 the glorious run of triumphs that was Arsenal in the 1930s had its final bow as Arsenal won the league in the most dramatic fashion on the last day of the season. Even after their match ended they still didn’t know if they had got that fifth title, …
Read More “7 May 1938: Arsenal make it five League titles & two Cups in nine years”
By Tony Attwood Ernest Collett known universally as Ernie, was born on 17 November 1914 in Sheffield. He started out playing for Oughtibridge Working Men’s Club, a club that is still extant playing in the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior Football League. Ernie joined Arsenal in April 1933 and won the Football Combination six times …
Read More “Ernie Collett: the reserve player who stayed with the club for 37 years”
At the end of March 1935 Arsenal were top of the league – a position most people had got used to them occupying. They had been league champions for the previous two seasons, managed first by Herbert Chapman, then Joe Shaw, and now George Allison. The question was could Arsenal not only win the title …
Read More “5 May 1935: Arsenal win the league for the third time under three different managers”
By Tony Attwood 3 May is quite a day in the history of Arsenal for it was the day that Royal Arsenal transformed itself into Woolwich Arsenal. It meant being able to enter the Football League (the League insisted on clubs being limited companies, and limited companies cannot have a name that suggests royal approval …
Read More “3 May 1971: Arsenal won the league at WHL (for the first time)”
By Tony Attwood Gordon Bremner was the embodiment of a superb player who lost virtually all his playing career to the second world war. He was born on 12 November 1917 in Glasgow and started by playing for Cartha Athletic. Cartha Athletic Club, was founded in Glasgow in 1889, and was one of the largest and …
Read More “Gordon Bremner: a tremendous talent whose career was lost to the war”
By Tony Attwood Ronald (known as Ronnie) Wescott is a player who despite playing for Arsenal in the 1930s is a player whose entry here is going to be sadly very short, for he suffered a career ending injury in just his second game for Arsenal. He was born on 19 September 1910 at Wallesey …
Read More “Ronald Westcott: Arsenal’s unluckiest player ever of whom we know so little.”
Joseph Ebenezer Shaw – a name to conjure with, although in reality he was known as Joe Shaw. Joe Shaw was born May 7, 1883 (Arsenal, the football facts has 1882) and died in September 1963 aged 80 after a lifetime of service to Arsenal. He is one of the handful of men who need …
Read More “Arsenal’s forgotten manager Joe Shaw wins the league for Arsenal. 28 April 1934.”
This article is an extract from the Arsenal History Society complete series on Arsenal in the 1930s. Full details of the series are given at the end of the article. by Tony Attwood On 26 April 1930 Arsenal won their first ever F.A. Cup 2-0 v Huddersfield. And indeed on this day they won their first …
Read More “Celebrating the anniversary of Arsenal’s first ever FA Cup win on 26 April 1930”
by Tony Attwood Reginald Robert Stockill, known as Reg was born on 24 November 1913 in York. Although he only played a handful of games for Arsenal he should always be remembered for what he did on 27 August 1932. For on that day there was a football result which read Birmingham 0 Arsenal 1. …
By Tony Attwood This weekend Arsenal become the most successful team ever in the history of the FA Cup – and they will retain that crown no matter what happens on Sunday in the semi-final. After the conclusion of the FA Cup in 2016 the table for the number of appearances by the most successful …
Read More “Arsenal: the most successful team in the FA Cup of all time”
By Tony Attwood Joseph Williams was born in Rotherham on 4 June 1902, and started playing for Rotherham County (the club that merged with others to form Rotherham Utd in 1925). In 1924 he moved to Huddersfield Town, then managed by Herbert Chapman, and was part of Chapman’s league winning team of 1924/5. He stayed …
Read More “Joey Williams: the Arsenal man who won the league and got relegated at the same moment.”
By Tony Attwood Leonard Thompson was born on 18 February 1901 in Sheffield. His first club is recorded as Shiregreen Primitive Methodists, Shiregreen being a part of Sheffield, but then curiously there is a note of him playing for Norfolk Amateurs. I have found a few references to this team – including a programme showing them as …
By Tony Attwood Albert Humpish was born on 3 March 1902, and was one of eight players to make his debut for Arsenal in the 1929/30 season as Chapman gave the squad his final shuffle in order to win the illusive first trophy, which of course he did. Bert, as he was usually known, (although …
Read More “Albert Edward Humpish: Herbert Chapman’s mystery signing for Arsenal in 1929.”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal joined the Football League in 1893/4 and stayed in the second division for 11 years. The table below shows the growth (and in three years a decline) in the attendances for league matches at the club, and compares these not only with the club’s position in the league (the last column) …
Read More “The crowd at Woolwich Arsenal: Arsenal in the 2nd division 1893/4 to 1903/4”
By Tony Attwood In a previous post I published a copy of the 1930 Arsenal handbook in what I trust is an easy-to-read format. Much of the text is taken up with a history of the club, and it is a history that contains a few errors. My aim here is to clarify some …
Read More “The Arsenal Handbook 1930: the errors and the consequences”
By Tony Attwood The Arsenal handbook for 1930 (officially titled “The Arsenal Football Club History and Fixtures 1930/31”) has been on line for a while now courtesy of Andy Kelly but for those of us reaching a certain age it is not that easy to read, and so as part of the “Arsenal in the …
Read More “The Arsenal handbook 1930: after winning the first major trophy”
by Tony Attwood David “Dave” Halliday was born 11 December 1901 in Dumfries and trained initially as a motor mechanic playing for the works team of car maker Arrol-Johnston. The works team merged with two others in 1919 to form Queen of the South and the following year on 17 January Dave started playing for them, (and not …
Read More “David Halliday: top scoring centre forward who couldn’t make it at Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood Bill Johnstone is one of the Arsenal players of whom I have been able to discover so very little, and I would love to know more. Any help would be greatly appreciated. He was born in Fife 18 May 1900 and started out with Rosyth Juniors before moving on to Kings Park …
Read More “Bill Johnstone: a goalscorer but in a team awash with goalscorers”
How the first home of Arsenal FC developed across the centuries – and what is happening to it now. In 1513 Henry VIII set up a dockyard at Woolwich to build the royal ship which came to be known as the ‘Great Harry’. Later, in 1559 Elizabeth I came to Woolwich to launch the ship …
Read More “The site of Arsenal’s foundation to be transformed into an arts zone”
by Tony Attwood For the past 10 months I have been writing a history of Arsenal in the 1930s. The first draft is now finished and you can read the entire work as it stands at the moment, on this website. But as any author will tell you, the first run through of any …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s, the full story as never before told”
by Tony Attwood On 19 August 1939 on the eve of war, Arsenal beat Tottenham (away) 1-0 in a friendly – an event that was undoubtedly presaged by the same fixture as a pre-season friendly, but at Highbury, on the saturday before the first league match of the 1938/9 campaign. Whether the clubs also agreed …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s: Arsenal at the start of the 2nd world war (autumn 1939)”
by Tony Attwood Arsenal used 29 players in the 1938/9 season of whom 12 played fewer than nine league games. Here is the chart, as usual, along with appearance figures for the previous two seasons by way of comparison. Player Position 1938/9 Games 1938/9 Goals 1937/8 Games 1936/7 Games Cliff Bastin Outside Left 24 4 …
