How Henry Norris secured Highbury for Arsenal in 1913.

By Tony Attwood In previous articles (see details at the end of this article) we have seen that Henry Norris had a clear vision of where he wanted Arsenal to move to, and we know that he had an extensive knowledge of the issues relating to building in London.  It was, after all, where he …

Arsenal anniversaries 31 July, and the first camera to land on the moon.

Welcome to the daily review of Arsenal anniversaries.  This one is for 31 July, and prepared on 31 July 2017. The Arsenal anniversaries are 31 July 1951: Ian McPherson sold back to Notts County.  He had played 152 games for Arsenal, and won a league winners medal in 1958.  After County he moved to Brentford …

Arsenal anniversaries for 30 July, and the day of the FA’s one major achievement.

Today is also the anniversary of the passing of the man who more than anyone created the modern Arsenal – Henry Norris.  He rescued Arsenal when it had run out of money, moved the club to Highbury, and ultimately brought in Herbert Chapman. It is often said that he fixed the promotion of Arsenal to …

10 Arsenal anniversaries 29 July, and Bob Dylan’s motorcycle accident

By Tony Attwood From Malcolm MacDonald to Wojciech Szczęsny, the anniversaries for 29 July 29 July 1912: David Neave transferred to Merthyr. He had played for Arsenal in two separate spells between 1904 and 1912, making 168 appearances (154 in the league) and scoring 32 goals (30 in the league). 29 July 1956: Viv Anderson born. …

13 Arsenal anniversaries for 28 July from Bill Seddon to Calum Chambers

Here are today’s anniversaries for the club, prepared by the Arsenal History Society. 28 July 1901: Bill Seddon born in Clapton and after playing junior football moved to Gillingham, and had an unsuccessful trial with Villa before coming to Arsenal in December 1924. 28 July 1951: Ray Kennedy born. He was initially rejected by Stanley …

Norris at the Arsenal 14: Arsenal relegated amidst allegations of match fixing

By Tony Attwood, with thanks to Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews. In the previous article in this series we have seen how Henry Norris specifically chose a location for Arsenal in north London that was roughly equidistant from both Tottenham’s and Clapton Orient’s grounds in the belief (based on his experience at Fulham, and his …

Arsenal anniversaries on 27 July, from Billy McCullough to David Ospina, via the Highbury clock

Here is a list of Arsenal anniversaries from 27 July. You can read the full Arsenal anniversary files containing over 5000 events on this site – at Arsenal on this Day.    Details of many other series of articles about Arsenal’s history are given on the home page of this site.   27 July 1913: Albert …

Norris at the Arsenal Part 13: Amid protests from the locals Arsenal’s future is secured

By Tony Attwood It is sometimes wondered, and indeed I have wondered it myself, why Henry Norris did nothing in the early part of the 1912/13 season to bring in new players to help pull the club away from the relegation zone. The answer I think is that he was convinced that the salvation of …

The first time Arsenal won every pre-season friendly: Arsenal anniversaries 26 July

26 July 1887: James Maxwell, was born in Kilmarnock for whom he first played before moving to Sheffield Wednesday and then Arsenal.  At Wednesday he competed with Harry Chapman (the brother of Herbert) for the right wing position.   26 July 1919: Henry White signed from Brentford.  He was Arsenal’s top scorer with 15 and …

Who was the only player to play in every game for the Invincibles? AFC anniversaries 25 July

Here are the Arsenal anniversaries for 25 July – including the answer to the question above: who was the only player to play in every game for the Invincibles. These are the stories from the Arsenal History Society Archives for Arsenal FC on 24 July.   There is more about our archives at the foot of the …

Norris at the Arsenal 12: How Henry Norris chose Highbury as Arsenal’s new ground

By Tony Attwood The summer of 1912 was the time when Henry Norris’ ideas on the future of Arsenal solidified.   It is quite possible that when he first became involved in early 1910 he thought he might be able to lend a hand to Arsenal, help sort out their finances and then exit; a …

Arsenal On This Day. What happened to Arsenal on 24 July across the years.

These are the stories from the Arsenal History Society Archives for Arsenal FC on 24 July.   There is more about our archives at the foot of the page. 24 July 1870: Harry Storer born.  He became Arsenal’s first ever player to win representative honours, and the first player to be transferred for disciplinary reasons …

Henry Norris at the Arsenal 11: 1912 and Arsenal plan to move away from Plumstead

By Tony Attwood In the last article we reached the transfer of Dick Roose to Arsenal while Arsenal struggled to recapture the form that led to a mid table finish in 1910/11. The arrival of Dick Roose in 1912 was a masterstroke by Norris, putting Woolwich Arsenal back on the back pages, as it were.  The …

Henry Norris at the Arsenal part 10: the summer and autumn of 1911

By Tony Attwood Arsenal had had a run of 11 games without defeat at the end of the 1910/11, and an overall increase in attendances of almost 10% over the previous season.  This was not enough to scoop back the huge losses in crowd numbers Arsenal had suffered from their heyday when they were the …

Matthew Shortt: 4 games and 4 defeats with Arsenal, but then a success in America.

By Tony Attwood Matthew Shortt was born on 5 February 1889 in Dumfries and started playing football with his home town club Dumfries before moving on and playing with Dalbeattie Star situated just 13 miles down the road. That club was founded in 1905 and played until 1948 when it folded.  In 1976 a new …

The tragedy of James Quayle

  James A. Quayle was born in Charlton in 1890 and played left back with Fossdene Old Boys, Old Charlton and Woolwich Polytechnic. He joined Woolwich Arsenal as an amateur player on 24 August 1907, and although he re-signed for another year on 2 June 1908, he then received an offer from Northfleet, and so moved onto there, …

Roddy McEachrane: played 346 games for Arsenal and never scored a goal.

by Tony Attwood Roderick John McEachrane known as Roddy was born in Inverness in 1878.  His first club was Inverness Thistle and then, he moved to Canning Town in London to work at Thames Iron Works and naturally joined the works team, then playing in the 2nd division of the Southern League. There he stayed …

Duncan McDonald: the Arsenal player who maybe did or maybe didn’t go to Hartlepools

By Tony Attwood We’re continuing the series on the players of the 1910/11 season as part of the “Henry Norris at the Arsenal” series.  A list of all the players used in this season appears at the end of the article. Duncan McDonald was born in Bo’ness (Borrowstounness), on the south bank of the Firth of …

Henry (Harry) Logan: played 11, only on the winning side once.

By Tony Attwood We’re currently looking at the players who were used during the early days of Henry Norris’ time at Arsenal.  It is an interesting point, I feel, not just because of the historical record, but because the accusation was made many years after Norris’ death that Norris himself restricted his managers work in …

Athletic News: the leading sports journal of the day, previews Woolwich Arsenal 1910/11

by Tony Attwood This is a copy of the 1910/11 season preview of Woolwich Arsenal from the pre-eminent football magazine of the day: Athletic News.   You may recall in earlier articles how we described the attempt by Henry Norris and others to set up a southern rival to Athletic News (itself published in Manchester, …

Gordon Rahere Hoare: the Arsenal player who transferred 23 times.

by Tony Attwood According to Wikipedia Gordon Rahere Hoare (18 April 1884 – 27 October 1973) was “an English amateur footballer” – and that’s all you get.  Which is rather sad given the extraordinary nature of his engagement with the game. Now if you are a regular reader of this site you might recall that we …

Jackie Chalmers: the man who rescued Arsenal, but then rode back to the north.

By Tony Attwood John Chalmers was born in Beith in 1885 or 1886 (sources differ), and played initially for Rutherglen Glencairn. Rutherglen Glencairn FC were formed in 1895 at the wonderfully named ‘Old Jail’ office in Rutherglen, and they are still in existence.  The club played at Southcroft Park – a stadium that lasted 110 …

Arsenal’s team in Norris’ first season overseeing the club: George Burdett

by Tony Attwood As part of the series of articles covering Henry Norris at Arsenal we’re now looking at the players who played in the first season under Henry Norris’ chairmanship – 1910/11.  A list of all the players and their number of games, with links to the articles on those players already covered, appears …

Two of Arsenal’s most mysterious players: missing from the official list, but they certainly played.

By Tony Attwood 1910 was the summer that Woolwich Arsenal FC were on the edge of extinction surviving only because of the intervention of Henry Norris.  He paid off the debts, negotiated with the existing shareholders, offered the club back to the local community, and indeed guaranteed the club’s solvency. He also guaranteed that the …

Today’s Arsenal anniversaries: 3 July

Arsenal Anniversaries on this day   3 July 1925: Charles Buchan, the man who helped develop WM, re-signed by Arsenal in £100/goal deal.  He played 102 games scoring 49 goals before finally retiring in 1928.   Buchan’s first signing for Arsenal. For many years it was reported that Arsenal ended up paying more for Buchan through …