Pat Beasley – one of Chapman’s signings – died 27 February 1986

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 1
Rutherford 1
Lee 8
Hoar 15 34 6
Peel 5 8
Jones 36 22
Bastin 14 42 36 42 28
Williams 6
Beasley 3 14
Jack 2
John 1

Pat Beasley who appears at the end of our table, signed for Chapman aged 17 for £550.  When Alex James was injured Bastin moved into James’ slot and Beasley played left wing – but without success as Arsenal lost all three games near the end of the season.

Not many players survived such a start under Chapman, but in 1933/34 Joe Hulme was out of the side and Beasley came in and helped the club win the league.   He played 79 times for Arsenal in the league (90 including cup games)m scoring 25 goals.

Pat was born in Stourbridge, Worcs, and started with Kidderminster and then his home town team.

Although Pat remained in the team for 1934/5 he missed out on the 1936 Cup Final win and in October 1936 was sold to Huddersfield Town for £750.

After three years with Huddersfield Town, and playing in the cup final of 1938 he gained one England cap.

During the war he guested occasionally for Arsenal and after the war moved on to Fulham for whom he played 153 games, followed by 66 for Bristol City for whom he was player manager from 1950 to 1958.  At that point he became manager of Birmingham City for a year before returning to London to work again for Fulham, later managing Dover.

He is not the most remembered of players, and yet he he managed to get two League Champions medals with Arsenal, a Cup runners-up medal with Huddersfield, and a second division champions medal with Fulham.

As a manager he won the Third Division South with Bristol City and was runner up in the the Inter Cities Fairs Cup with Birmingham.

He died in Taunton on 27 February 1986 aged 72.  As always we honour the memory of an Arsenal man, and offer good wishes to his family.

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