By Tony Attwood Arthur George Worrall was born on 8 Sept 1869 and played centre forward for Arsenal. It is also written that he played inside right on occasion for other teams. He started with Goldthorne Villa, and then followed spells with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burton Swifts, and Leicester Fosse, before joining Woolwich Arsenal Worrall seems to …
Read More “Arthur George Worrall: a much travelled man who played 10 games in 32 days.”
By Tony Attwood My aim of writing something meaningful about every man who played a League game for Woolwich Arsenal in its first season in Division 2 is all very well – until it comes to people like Frank Kirk, of whom so very, very little is known. The bare bones are that he was …
Read More “Frank Kirk: a man who moved from Woolwich Arsenal to Royal Ordnance Factories”
By Tony Attwood Stanley Briggs was a centre half, born in Stamford Hill, in Hackney, north London, on 7 February 1872, and was signed by Arsenal on 23 October 1893 as an amateur from Tottenham where he had been playing since 1892. At some stage in his early years his family had moved to Kent …
Read More “Stanley Briggs; from Tottenham to Arsenal to Tottenham. But is the tale all it seems?”
By Tony Attwood The information we have on Joseph Cooper is limited in the extreme, and indeed even what we have is contradicted in some quarters. First, his name. It seems to have been Joseph Cooper, but is also noted in one source as Joe, but then seemingly noted on the Wolves heroes site …
Read More “Joseph Cooper: the most mysterious of all the mysterious Arsenal players”
By Tony Attwood Reginald William Tricker (known as Reg) was born on 5 October 1904 in Karachi (then part of Imperial India). He moved to England in 1908 with his family. He is first recorded as playing football in 1923 for Beccles Town and Alexandra Park FC before joining Luton in the 1924/5 season. Beccles …
Read More “Reg Tricker: came from India, signed by Chapman, moved on to Margate.”
by Tony Attwood Finding John Storrs, who played 12 league games and four FA Cup games for Woolwich Arsenal in the club’s inaugural league season, has turned out to be a bit of a problem. We know about his football: he came into the first team on 25 September 1893 for the fourth match of …
Read More “John Storrs who played in our first season, but then vanished.”
By Tony Attwood Joseph Frederick Heath, named in some places as “Billy” and once as “Joe” played ten league games for Arsenal and scored five goals. A remarkable achievement, and one that sent me scuttling around trying to find out more about this player. And wouldn’t you know it, there was something very special to …
Read More “Joseph Frederick (“Billy”) Heath; the man who scored the very first penalty”
By Tony Attwood Patrick (Paddy) O’Brien is one of the Arsenal players from the 19th century of whom we know only a little of his life outside football. However I think this is the most comprehensive review of his life and work yet published – but of course if you have more information, please …
Read More “Patrick O’Brien: more info than previously put together, but still not much on this Arsenal man.”
