Jacko Jones was one of the most revolutionary of football journalists in the first 30 years of the 20th century.
He first became interested in journalism when serving as a soldier with the British forces in southern Africa, where he met Winston Churchill who was himself working as a war journalist in the region.
Back in London and earning his living with the Daily Chronicle Jones developed a new style of writing about football. As a result of this he was given the job of following the developments at Woolwich Arsenal.
This led him to stumble onto the strange story of the removal of the torpedo factory from Woolwich, and that in turn led to a renewed acquaintance with Winston Churchill, by this time Home Secretary.
From this point on Jones pursued two stories – the takeover of Woolwich Arsenal by Henry Norris, and a set of political events on which he had informants within the government.
An unlikely trio, Jones, Churchill and Norris continued to interact over the years until Norris was removed from football after a set of alleged misdemeanors. During their closest time together the three came together to help with recruitment and the war effort between 1914 and 1918, for which Norris was knighted while Churchill and Jones together created “journalism of the street” as it was called.
The three men were never close and had many major fallings-out. But all three were journalists – Churchill during the Boer war, Jones after returning from the war, and Norris through his football life and that brought them together. What’s more each needed the other. Churchill provided information for Jones, Jones supported both of the others during the first world war, and Norris was the eternal story for Jones during his career.
Thus by a chance meeting in Southern Africa, and the chance discovery of the torpedo factory incident, Jones found himself at the very heart of the events that changed Arsenal from a bankrupt backwater club with no future into the most famous club in the world, and became one of the leading political journalists of the era.
His diaries are not complete, nor are they always clear, but with diligent work and additional research I’m pleased to present the published edition of the early years on the Woolwich Arsenal website and in the published book MAKING THE ARSENAL.
Recent Comments