AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
by Tony Attwood This article updated 4 April 2017. The full series is currently undergoing a revision, as well as having new articles on individual players added. A full list of the articles covering the whole of the 1930s is at the end of the article. Here is how the table looked at the end …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s Part 8: January 1931 – the biggest league win ever at Highbury”
by Tony Attwood The month started with a reminder of just how desperate the economic situation in Britain was as a result of the disastrous economic policies of the government, with 75,000 Scottish coal miners going on strike. The action was brought about by the introduction of the Coal Mining Act which only allowed mining companies a …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 7: December 1930. 3 games in 3 days; 14 goals.”
By Tony Attwood This article revised 17 April 2017 This is the sixth part in a series looking at Arsenal in the 1930s. The whole series has been written, and is now being updated step by step, incorporating information found along the way. Arsenal had ended up October top of the league two points ahead …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 6: November 1930. Scoring 5 in 3 games in one month.”
By Tony Attwood At the start of the month there was a reminder – as if one were needed – of how Britain’s economy was based on one of the most dangerous jobs there was: coal mining as on 1 October – 14 miners are killed in an explosion in the coal pit at Cannock. …
This article updated 28 March 2017 By Tony Attwood Having won their opening game of the new season 4-1, Arsenal were faced with seven games in September. They began with an away match against Bolton, with Chapman not surprisingly putting out the same team as had won away at Blackpool at the weekend. In the …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s part 4: September 1930: an amazing start”
By Tony Attwood This article revised 28 March 2017 In the last episode of this series I suggested that overall we can see that Chapman had got his ideal team more or less ready by the time of the Cup Final, and eight of those finalists played in the opening of the glorious 1930/1 season, …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 3. How Chapman put his triumphant 1931 team together”
By Tony Attwood This article updated 17 April 2017 This is part two of the series on Arsenal in the 1930s. Part one is here. With the FA Cup won, and the league fixtures completed, Arsenal played their friendly match against Northampton in support of the local hospital. There had been a devastating fire at …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s. The cup winners who dropped out and the players who came in”
This article revised 16 April 2017 to include enhanced details of the FA Cup semi-final and final. By Tony Attwood Arsenal in the 1930s. This is the start of a series of almost 100 articles relating to Arsenal in the 1930s, all of which are published on this site. This series is dedicated with the …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s Part 1. The 1929/30 season, and Arsenal’s place in the hierarchy.”
By Tony Attwood I’ve recently finished the series covering all the players who played in the first Arsenal league season of 1893/4, – the index to the whole series is on the home page. Prior to that we had the Arsenal in the 70s series, and there is a full index to that series of …
Read More “Where do we go next, and where have we come from. 9 May – a big day for Arsenal.”
Today we honour Joe Shaw who was born on this day in 1883. He became one of the most important men in the history of Arsenal spending virtually all his working life with Arsenal playing 309 times for the club, being club captain, and being reserve team manager. He is also known for being the …
Read More “Today we honour Joe Shaw, one of the greatest servants Arsenal has ever known”
By Tony Attwood The last of the 28 men who played in at least one league match for Woolwich Arsenal in the club’s first season in the football league (1893/4) is also one of the most mysterious. For while with most players we can at least trace their career a little before and after Arsenal, …
By Tony Attwood William McNab was born in Glasgow in 1870 and played first for Burnley, and then Woolwich Arsenal. There is a suggestion he next played for Leyton Orient, but this is hotly denied by sources at that club, and the alternative suggestion is put forward that he was another player who moved “over …
Read More “William McNab who played in the first league season, and a possible sighting thereafter.”
By Tony Attwood Walter Williams comes into that group of players who are almost impossible to track down. And then, just when one has got something on him, totally contradictory information appears. What I think is the case is that Walter Williams played just once in the league for Arsenal and once in a friendly, …
Read More “Walter Williams: could he really have played 58 friendlies for Arsenal?”
By Tony Attwood Another player of whom we know precious little, but nevertheless we can unravel a few of the comments made where sites to mention Thomas Bryan, simply by looking at the logic of the timescale. We are told he was born in London in 1873, and there is a suggestion that his first …
