AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
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 Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) A little over 6 months after moving into their new stadium at Highbury the Arsenal directors took the unilateral decision to shut the ground due to a subsidence problem. It’s unclear whether this was a defect caused by the builder or lack of supervision by Archibald Leitch, the architect. Leitch had …
Read More “20 March 1914 – Highbury closed due to subsidence”
Billy McCullough (born 27 July 1935 – full name William James McCullough) was born in Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland. He played initially for Portadown a club in the Province with a long history and tradition. The club was formed in 1887, and for much of its history, it was a regular run of the mill …
Read More “Billy McCullough, who played his last Arsenal game on 19 March 1966”
by Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) Woolwich Arsenal had been incorporated as limited company in May 1893. The club had had financial problems during the Boer War due to falling crowds but was helped through this lean period with loans from directors such as George Lawrance and George Leavey. A couple of unusual fund-raising events in the …
Roger Ord was the Woolwich Arsenal goalkeeper from 1897 to 1900. He was born in Northumberland in 1871 (I don’t have a date of his death) and played for Hebburn Argyle, Middlesbrough Ironopolis, Hebburn A (for a second time) and then Woolwich Arsenal. After leaving Plumstead he went to Luton Town in September 1900 …
Read More “Roger Ord – Arsenal keeper who made his last appearance 17 March 1900.”
by Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) Herbert Chapman is credited with trying to introduce floodlit football to England. Arsenal played a couple of floodlit games behind closed doors during the early 1930s but the football authorities were not favourable to it. Floodlit football was finally given the go ahead in the 1950s and it has been assumed that …
Read More “16 March: Arsenal’s first floodlit game – but what year?”
by Andy Kelly (@Gooner_AK) 100 years ago Woolwich Arsenal were coming to the end of the club’s annus horriblis. Prior to this date the Reds’ league record read: Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points 29 2 9 18 18 55 13 They were bottom of the First Division table, seven points from safety. The …
Read More “15 March 1913: Woolwich Arsenal’s last win in Plumstead”
Mark Andrews @royalarsenalMRA 14 March 1908: Torpedo Boys set fire to Nottingham Forest Grandstand with fireworks The Torpedo Factory role in the early years of the club was uncovered during my research for “The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC”. They were a fundamental part of the giant club excursions to away games where many times 2,000-3,000 Arsenal fans travelled …
Read More “14 March 1908 Torpedo Boys set fire to stand after letting off fireworks”
By Tony Attwood Andrew Neil joined Arsenal from Brighton & Hove Albion for £3,000 on March 13 1924. He was born in Kilmarnock on 18 November 1892 and died in 1941 – sadly I don’t have the date or knowledge of why he died so young. He played for Kilmarnock, Galston, Stevenston United, and Brighton …
Read More “Andrew Neil: joined and left Arsenal on 13 March”
by Andy Kelly On Monday 12 March 1900, about 600 people with a free afternoon paid to watch Woolwich Arsenal play Loughborough. The reason it was played on a Monday afternoon was that the game had originally been played on the previous Boxing Day but had to be abandoned after 75 minutes due to fog …
By Tony Attwood Peter Nicholas was one of Terry Neil’s most effective signings, seemingly turning a team that couldn’t buy a win into a team that couldn’t be beaten – and all this for £500,000. He had started out with Crystal Palace as a youth player, and was part of their second division title winning …
By Tony Attwood On 10 March 1919 The Arsenal were elected to the First Division of the Football League. Arsenal has been in the top division ever since. We have dealt with this issue of Arsenal’s election at great length many times – the most comprehensive article being Andy Kelly’s piece which you can find …
Read More “10 March 1919, Arsenal elected. Find the bribery and get the reward”
by Andy Kelly 9th March 1935 saw the top two teams in the First Division play each other at Highbury. Free scoring Arsenal were averaging almost 3 goals per game and going for their third consecutive title. They had just beaten neighbours Tottenham 6-0 at White Hart Lane. Sunderland, although not as potent in front …
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 Tony Attwood I guess we mostly focus on this site on events from 30 years ago or more, because that is what we are taught history is about. The past, and the further back in the past, the better. But this match in 2012 does need to be remembered, not least for the phenomenal …
Read More “7 March 2012. Arsenal 3 Milan 0. A victory, a defeat”
By Tony Attwood I have a memory as a child being given a copy of Tottenham Hotspur’s last programme of their Double Winning season, which (if my memory is correct, and it was a long time ago) had the headline “An Eventful Season”. If remembered aright, it was a masterpiece of understatement, and I think …
Read More “Tottenham Hotspur 0 Arsenal 6: March 6th 1935. An eventful season”
By Tony Attwood Ask an Arsenal supporter to name Arsenal’s worst ever player and the answer is likely to be Gus Caesar (or Pogus Cassius Caesar as Wikipedia totally erroneously calls him – unless they have changed it, having seen this article). The birth register (dutifully consulted by Andy Kelly of the Arsenal History Society …
By Tony Attwood The Football League confirmed on 1st March 1913 that it would not stop Woolwich Arsenal moving to Highbury, by rejecting the final appeal of Tottenham against the move. So the way was clear for Arsenal to move, and Henry Norris made his first public statement on the matter on 4th March 1913 …
Read More “Why Arsenal should celebrate March 4th as HIGHBURY DAY”
By Tony Attwood Our one recent encounter with Birmingham in the league cup final, is not only not one to remember, it is also one that has nothing to do with March 3rd – so we’ll move on. Because Birmingham on March 3rd has an importance of its own. March 3rd 1906 Woolwich Arsenal 5 …
Read More “March 3: beating Birmingham, losing to Birmingham; worst runs without trophies”
By Tony Attwood The season 1998/9 ended with Manchester United as champions and Arsenal one place and one point behind. It was a season in which part of the new order began to be established, with Manchester City gaining promotion from the second division (ie level 3) to the first division (level 2) by coming …
Read More “2 March 2000. Arsenal 5 Deportivo la Coruña 1, but sadness was to come”
By Tony Attwood Continuing with the events of 100 years ago, to the day, I noted previously that no sooner had the story come out in the press that Arsenal were moving to Highbury, than Tottenham Hotspur and Clapton Orient went to the management committee of the Football League, demanding action. But as the League …
Read More “1 March 1913: Woolwich Arsenal defeat Tottenham without a ball being kicked”
By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader you will know that the Arsenal History Society has managed to influence Arsenal FC occasionally. The two biggest such influences being the Arsenal Uncovered series that we provided for the club programme last season, to mark 125 years of Arsenal’s history, and the Arsenal statues. The …
By Tony Attwood Albert Beasley, known as Pat, was one of Chapman’s signings, as he worked on creating his perfect team. Here is an analysis of the number 11 slot during the Chapman reign 25/6 26/7 27/8 28/9 29/30 30/31 31/32 32/3 33/4 Haden 25 14 Toner 2 Lawson 5 Hulme 7 Voysey 1 Paterson …
Read More “Pat Beasley – one of Chapman’s signings – died 27 February 1986”
The idea behind the Arsenal Anniversary Files is to give us something to celebrate or remember with affection, each day of the year. The file is being compiled on a daily basis, as we move through the year, and the whole file can be seen on the link above. Sometimes when we reach a date …
Read More “The Anniversary Files – Arsenal’s history day by day”
by Andy Kelly Having turned professional in 1891, Royal Arsenal organised a number of high-profile friendlies against the big clubs from the north and Midlands. They also, contrary to popular belief, continued to play friendlies against clubs from London and the south. The friendlies proved to be lucrative for Royal Arsenal but the committee knew …
Read More “24 February 1892: Arsenal attempt to form the Southern League”
