Comments on: The two men who turned Dial Square into Arsenal

By: Andy Kelly

Andy Kelly — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 09:44:39 +0000

I’ve done some further investigation and it appears that the Smith that played in Arsenal’s first two games was G.Smith.

Joseph Smith may have been involved in an earlier attempt to form a football team at the Royal Arsenal which may have been called Woolwich Union.

Sorry about the ambiguity but there are virtually no records of the club in 1886 – 1887. Most of what has been printed comes from memories of people who were involved with the club in the early years.

By: Andy Kelly

Andy Kelly — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 20:56:48 +0000

Robby, Joseph Smith is recorded as having played in Royal Arsenal’s first two games – 11 December 1886 v Eastern Wanderers and 8 February 1887 v Erith. I’ve not found any record of who played in the remaining 8 games of that season. He played up front so it was likely that he scored in one or both of these games which produced 12 goals. As he played in these two games it is likely that he would have been one of the first players to pay his subscription which went towards buying the club’s first football.

According to Brian Belton’s “The First Gunners”, a Joseph Smith approached the Woolwich Arsenal cricket team in early 1886 (i.e. before the formation of Royal Arsenal Football Club) to allow part of their pitch to be used for football. The cricket club refused. I’m a bit sceptical about this as Belton’s book is a re-hash of other stories that have not been researched. That’s not to say that there isn’t some truth in it, though.

Have you got any more information on your great-grandfather? I may be able to dig up some more information.

By: Robby Wright

Robby Wright — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:15:33 +0000

Sorry I meant 1886 not 1866!

By: Robby Wright

Robby Wright — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:58:15 +0000

Hi Do you know of any reference to Joseph Smith with regard to Dial Square being set up and 6d from each player being collected to form the team in 1866? Joseph Smith was my great-grand father and I have been told that he approached the local cricket club for the first team games – if you have any information it would be lovely to know.

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:22:58 +0000

Philippa, I have dropped you an email to explain the background of what we are doing, and some plans, which I think might interest you. If you would like to write a summary for us of what you know about your ancestor that would be wonderful.

As I have made clear on this site before, I think Jack Humble was our founder, and I am trying to put together a complete case to prove my point.

By: Philippa Dawson

Philippa Dawson — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:02:29 +0000

Jack Humble was my great grand dad and I have a great unpublished photo of him with his family

By: Andy Kelly

Andy Kelly — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:14:55 +0000

Post some names on here and I’ll let you know if they were involved with the club.

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:25:39 +0000

There is a list of every player who ever played for Arsenal, in alphabetical order, on Arsenal.com in their history section. Obvioiusly this site has only covered a tiny number of these players, but where we have we have generally added quite a lot of info that is not on the Arsenal site. My suggestion is to start with the Arsenal site, and then if you find a player with the right name, put it into Google with the word “football” after it. If he played for Arsenal there is a chance either we have covered him, or maybe someone else has.

By: Beaumont

Beaumont — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 00:20:50 +0000

hey just wondering if there’s any way to find out if my ancestors had any involvement in the club? any records of players etc… they had a long history working in the Arsenal so just interest

cheers