AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews (@Gooner_AK) (@RoyalArsenalMRA) Post World War Two – A tale of two families The vacant position of Arsenal chairman was filled by a man who was as famous as his predecessors. Sir Bracewell Smith had joined Arsenal’s board in July 1938 having recently purchased a considerable slice of the club. …
By Tony Attwood Charles Murray Buchan was born in Plumstead on 22 September 1891 and was brought up in the homeland of Woolwich Arsenal. Naturally he started with the club, but an argument with George Morrell relating to his expenses while he was training to be a teacher caused him to decline a professional contract …
George Eastham was not only an Arsenal captain but also the man who did more to reform the transfer system than anyone with the possible exception of Jean-Marc Bosman. Starting in 1885 players had to register at the start of each season with one club. The player could then change clubs only if his existing …
By Tony Attwood This site is the day to day outlet for the AISA Arsenal History Society. For the most part it is written by three members of the Society – Mark Andrews, Andy Kelly and myself, but it is never meant to be exclusive. If you have any thoughts on any specific aspect of …
Read More “Do you have historic Arsenal memories or information or news or…”
When looking for footballers and managers who have been involved with Arsenal, I do a few searches of books and web sites trying to find the relevant information. If there is very little then the chances are that the player played 100 or more years ago. So to find a player whose life seems to …
Derek Robert Tapscott was born in Barry 30 June 1932 and died 12 June 2008. He was one of sixteen children. After leaving school at 14 he worked as a delivery boy, TV repairman’s assistant and bricklayer (during which period he also played with Barry Town). At the age of 18 he was called up …
By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly, Mark Andrews 28 June 1913: Woolwich Arsenal gain possession of the Gillespie Road site and have 10 weeks before the first match of the season to make it ready. We know this dateof 28 June 1913 as it was taken from a comment in the programme for the first match. …
Read More “28 June 1913: Woolwich Arsenal gain possession of “Highbury””
Tony Attwood “His sparkling displays nearly gave him an England professional cap as well as amateur ones.” So said Bernard Joy of Reg Boreham, and that might lead you immediately to conclude that there would be a fair amount of material available about Reg. In fact there is currently no Wiki page on him (and …
Read More “Reg Boreham: the invisible man, another victim of Knighton’s story telling”
By Tony Attwood Each summer an update is done on the Manager by Manager file on this site, taking into account the latest activities of the current manager. And then we look again to judge who is the most successful and least successful of managers in Arsenal’s history. Taken at its simplest our most successful …
Read More “Arsène Wenger remains Arsenal’s most successful manager ever”
by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews (@Gooner_AK) (@RoyalArsenalMRA) The first instalment of this series showed that there was a high turnover of chairmen at Woolwich Arsenal during the first 17 years. The next 17 years saw just two men lead the club. The part they played in the club’s history cannot be understated. Woolwich Arsenal …
by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews (@Gooner_AK) (@RoyalArsenalMRA) The Golden Years and the nobility The events of 1927 decimated the Arsenal boardroom with Sir Henry Norris, William Hall, Jack Humble and George Peachey leaving. That left just Sir Samuel Hill-Wood, George Allison and John Edwards to run the club during the 1927-28 season. Sir Samuel …
By Tony Attwood Minor amendment made to this article 29 Dec 2013 Frederick Gordon Coles, known as Fred was a centre half and right half who joined Arsenal in 1910 from Nottingham Forest He is recorded by Dean Hayes ( l am struggling a bit here to find any other information and its all I …
Read More “Fred Coles, Arsenal 1900-1904 before moving to Sweden”
Emmanuel Laurent “Manu” Petit was born 22 September 1970 and was one of the early classic signings by Arsène Wenger, who brought Petit from his earlier French club, Monaco. Petit was born in Dieppe and was signed by Arsène Wenger at the age of 18 and soon became a regular player in the midfield. By …
It is strange that a man who played 176 games for Arsenal and got an FA Cup winners medal for the win against Manchester United in which Alan Sunderland scored in the last minute, is somehow not quite remembered. I’ve been working on the forthcoming book “Arsenal in the 70s” these past few months, and …
Read More “David Price: 176 games, and yet not quite remembered”
Robert Hamilton “Bob” Turnbull was born on the 1st anniversary of the foundation of Woolwich Arsenal (well, the anniversary of their first ever AGM) on 22 June 1893. He had a military training with the Royal Corps of Signals, and played initially for the Royal Engineers AFC – a club with a most illustrious history, …
Read More “Bob Turnbull born 22 June – Arsenal’s record scorer.”
by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews (@Gooner_AK) (@RoyalArsenalMRA) Following the recent announcement that Sir Chips Keswick had replaced Peter Hill-Wood as chairman we thought it would interesting to look at Arsenal’s previous chairmen. With 22 people having held this position we have broken this down into more readable articles. Royal Arsenal (1886 – 1893) During …
Alan Hudson was born 21 June 1951 and played for Arsenal for two seasons. Although he left us after arguments with the management he did bring an extra flair and solidity, if not stability, to a side that was starting to exert its presence once more thanks to the extraordinary development of Liam Brady. He …
Two of Arsenal’s most remarkable goal scorers Arsenal’s record during the 1930s was something to behold: League Champions five times, Runners Up once, Cup Winners once, losing finalists once. The question was asked more than once, could anything stop Arsenal? The answer of course was yes, but it wasn’t a football club. It was the …
Read More “Reg and Ronnie: Two of Arsenal’s most remarkable goal scorers”
By Tony Attwood At 10pm on Saturday 22nd June the commercial radio station Talk Sport are doing a programme about the history of football. I don’t have much in the way of details about the programme but I do know a little because in preparation for the programme Talk Sport came and interviewed me about …
Read More “Arsenal History Society on Talk Sport this weekend”
Edward John Paul McGoldrick known as Eddie was born in Islington 30 April 1965 (although he played for the Republic of Ireland) and is one of the continuing line of people from Herbert Chapman onwards who has been involved with clubs in Northamptonshire and with Arsenal (you will recall Chapman’s first managerial post was with …
Ray Daniel war born in Swansea on 2 November 1928and died 6 November 1997. He started at his local club Swansea Town and in 1946, as clubs started to get themselves together for the first post-war championship he was signed by Arsenal. He elder brother had also played for Arsenal and died in the …
Read More “Ray Daniel, the man who left Arsenal for an illegal opportunity”
Lee Harper was perhaps the most curious signing of George Graham – or maybe George Graham saw something in the goal keeper that no one else could see. Here is his Arsenal career in brief: He was signed by Graham in June 1994and cost the club £150,000 – apparently one of the biggest fees paid …
Read More “Lee Harper – the Arsenal keeper who never let in a goal”
Jovan “John” Lukic was born on 11 December 1960 who played for two spells with Leeds and two spells with Arsenal playing 668 league games in total, across four decades. He was also an England under 21 and England B international. He played first for Leeds as a schoolboy and then started with the first …
Read More “John Lukic shares a remarkable record with Stanley Matthews, Shilton and Ogrizovic”
This article is based on the more detailed approach provided in “Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed football” Everyone who was involved in professional football in 1910 knew one thing: Woolwich Arsenal FC were in severe financial trouble. The white knight who had so often ridden in and save them in the past, George Leavey, …
Read More “13 June: The day Arsenal came within five minutes of extinction”
Ian Buchanan McPherson was born 26 July 1920 and died in St Albans in March 1983). He is one of those Arsenal players who tends to be forgotten despite his vital contribution to one of the club’s league winning sides. Indeed he does not even warrant any text on Arsenal.com. He started with Rangers but …
