AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood Stephen J Stonley [but see the note in the comments about his middle name] was a centre forward, born in Sunderland in 1891. He played for… Seaham. I only have the information that Stonley played for “Seaham” but it appears there are several teams now with the Seaham name, however none date …
Read More “Stephen Stonley: continuing to score as the Arsenal were relegated”
This article continues the series dedicated to the men who played in the final ever game at Plumstead. Today, WA Spittle. There’s a list of the team for the final game of the 1912/13 season at the foot of the page. William Spittle was an inside forward, born in Southfields April 1893. He played for …
Read More “WA Spittle: seven games for the first team but never once on the winning side”
By Tony Attwood Note: this is one of a series of articles that researches the history of the eleven players who played in the last ever Woolwich Arsenal match at Plumstead Angus McKinnon, was born in Paisley on 6 December 1885. His Arsenal career covered the period 1908 to 1922 and included 217 appearances for …
By Tony Attwood George Grant had an Arsenal career spanning Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal and Arsenal, ending with the cessation of football for the first world war. A career that ran from the Norris takeover in 1910 to 1919. In all he made 57 appearances and scored four goals. Unlike most of our team in …
Read More “George M Grant: played for Woolwich, The Arsenal and Arsenal and against Arsenal!”
By Tony Attwood This article is one of the series on the players who played in the last ever Woolwich Arsenal game in Kent on 26 April 1913. Joseph Fidler was a left back born in Sheffield in 1885. His playing career is not well charted, and I have not been able to find details …
Read More “Joseph E Fidler: played the last game at Woolwich and first game at Highbury”
When exactly did Royal Arsenal become Woolwich Arsenal? By Andy Kelly There is some confusion as to when Royal Arsenal changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal. Most club histories say that the name changed when the club adopted professionalism in 1891 whereas some say that the name changed when it became a limited liability company …
Read More “Royal, Woolwich, The Arsenal, Arsenal – when, what, where, who?”
By Tony Attwood There are millions of stories about Arsenal that appear everywhere. But as we have already found on this site, sometimes those stories are just a little bit short of the truth. Here is another one. It is the story that says that Herbert Chapman changed the name of the club from The …
Read More “The proof: Herbert Chapman did NOT change the name of Arsenal”
I recently did an article on Arsenal’s first ever league match – against Newcastle. Rather curiously the return match of this fixture was in the same month (obviously the 19th century fixtures computer worked in a different way from today). Here’s what the Newcastle paper of the day made of it all… “There was a …
Read More “What the papers say: Newcastle v Arsenal 30 September 1893”
We have just published a couple of articles in the “My grandfather played for Arsenal” series. Third third story has been published in outline before, and following the article I received this note… Hugh MacDonald was my grandfather. I never knew him as he died in 1920 after suffering the effects of poison gas in …
Read More “Hugh MacDonald was my grandfather and he played for Arsenal”
By Simon Weir. Background research by Tony Attwood My great great uncle PATRICK BOYLAN played for Woolwich Arsenal in the 1896/97 season. Patrick signed in 1896 and played one season in the first team and reserves before returning to Greenock Morton. His photo in his Arsenal kit can be seen here: http://weir223.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=weir223&view=63&bview=19&pid=37&rand=50026290 Also a wee …
This is a start to another series of articles on this blog: in each case starting from the point that a correspondent writes about his/her relative who played for Arsenal. I’ve no idea how many entries we will get, but my main thought is to get some insights. If you want to join in, email …
Read More “My grandfather played for Arsenal: William Fairclough”
By Tony Attwood The final Woolwich Arsenal game played in Kent took place on April 26th 1913. Just over three months later Arsenal opened up at Highbury. The match was a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough, and Woolwich Arsenal were relegated, having failed to win any of their previous eight games. A crowd of 3,000 turned …
Read More “The final farewell to Woolwich Arsenal: 26 April 1913”
Did clubs in London and the south actually snub Arsenal? by Andy Kelly It is well documented that Arsenal were the first club in the South of England to turn professional. It is also well documented that when they adopted professionalism they were expelled from the London FA and snubbed wholesale by the amateur clubs …
Read More “It is time to expose the errors in the early history of Arsenal”
Woolwich Arsenal’s first League Game: 2nd Div: 4 Sept: 1893. By Tony Attwood In recent posts I have been looking at the individual players who played in our first ever league game in the last decade of the 19th century. Now, here’s a match report, from the Newcastle Daily Journal found by Newcastle blogger Eddy …
Read More “The first ever Arsenal league game – the newspaper report”
Charles Booth was born on 15 August 1869 and died September 1898 aged just 28. Booth was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and started at Gainsborough Trinity. There is a tantalising insight into Charlie on http://fredspiksley.blogspot.com/ and I am really hopeful of finding out more from this source. This source has a reference to the fact …
Read More “Charlie Booth: the final member of our first ever league team”
Arthur Elliott was an inside left, who like all the players in this series, played for Woolwich Arsenal in the first ever game that the club played in the league. But unfortunately, like so many members of that side, the details that we have about him are sketchy. He was born in Nottingham in 1870 …
Read More “Arthur Elliott: Arsenal’s untraceable record holder”
By Tony Attwood Walter Shaw scored the first ever league goal for Arsenal, scoring the first goal in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle United on 2 September 1893. He was a centre forward who also played inside left. Born in Birmingham in 1870 and played for… Singers FC (the original name of Coventry City), Unity …
Read More “Walter Shaw: the man who scored the first ever Arsenal league goal”
James Henderson was born in Thornhill, Dumfries in 1867 He first played for 5th Kirkcudbright Rifle Volunteers whom I have founded recorded playing in the Scottish Cup in 1891 and who are generally thought to have played between 1879 and 1896. Entries on the internet showing the club existing between 1881-3, can’t be right. He …
Read More “James Henderson: Rifle Volunteer, Champions medal, Arsenal, then…”
This is a series of articles about the team that started the very first league game against Newcastle United in 1893/4. If we had trouble with David Howat in the last article, this one is even worse. Duncan Gemmell was born in Glasgow in 1870 He is recorded as first playing for Elderslie Rangers Swifts. …
Read More “Duncan Gemmell: three games for Wednesday, five games for Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood And so to the mystery that is David Howat. He was a left half, born in Preston on 1 October 1870 who played for Fishwick Ramblers, Preston North End, Woolwich Arsenal and Third Lanark. His Arsenal career is recorded by the club as 1889 – 1896, and we know that he played …
By Tony Attwood This article was updated 17 December 2013 Robert Buist (recorded in some reports as “Bob” and elsewhere as “Bobby”) was born in Glasgow in 1870. He initially played for Fairfield Rangers (Glasgow), Cowlairs, and Clyde before joining Woolwich Arsenal. I have nothing on Fairfield Rangers that helps in putting the Bob Buist …
By Tony Attwood Poor Daniel Devine. Played in our very first match in the league, and thus worthy a place in history, but then only managed one more league game and one cup game (the Ashford United game we won 12-0 where we had a mix of reserves and first teamers) before seeming to vanish …
Read More “Daniel Devine: played in our first league game, but then lost to history”
By Tony Attwood There are moments when doing research into Arsenal’s past that one finds a fact which has been completely overlooked. Not, I must admit, a major fact, but nevertheless a fact which really ought to be mentioned. That’s the case we have here. William Jeffrey was born in Dalerby, a small village in …
Read More “How all the stories of Arsenal’s history tend to repeat the same mistake”
Joseph Joshua Powell known as Joe was Woolwich Arsenal’s captain for their first ever league match in 1893 at the age of 23. He was born in 1870 and died on November 29, 1896 after playing against Small Heath just two weeks earlier. Joe was born in Bristol, and played initially for Walsall and the …
Read More “Joe Powell, our first captain who died as a result of injuries on the pitch”
By Tony Attwood Charlie Williams was born in November 1873 and died in South America in 1952. He played in goal in Woolwich Arsenal’s first ever league match, at the age of 19. Prior to joining Royal Arsenal in 1891 he played for Phoenix, Clarence, and Erith. Quite which Phoenix FC Charlie played for is …
Read More “The great nephew of Arsenal’s first league keeper now plays in Brazil”
