The final farewell to Woolwich Arsenal: 26 April 1913

The first ever Arsenal league game the newspaper report

It is time to expose the errors in the early history of Arsenal

Did clubs in London and the south actually snub Arsenal? by Andy Kelly

It is well documented that Arsenal were the first club in the South of England to turn professional. It is also well documented that when they adopted professionalism they were expelled from the London FA and snubbed wholesale by the amateur clubs in London and the South of England. Every book written about the history of Arsenal states this. The earliest reference I have found to this claim is the Arsenal handbook of 1914-15. The handbook was edited by George Allison who, at the time, was the editor of the clubs match day programme. This was the first handbook produced by the club and included a history of the club written by Allison. This story was reprinted in all subsequent Arsenal handbooks. The next book that told Arsenals story was Bernard Joys Forward, Arsenal!. Joy was a former Arsenal player that turned to journalism when his playing days finished. He wrote Forward, Arsenal! in 1952. Joy simply re-stated the story. So, now we have histories of the club written by two respected football men who were also respected journalists. And since that day, every Arsenal history has quoted the same story. Lets take a look at the George Allison account. Allison was only 7 years old when Arsenal turned professional and living in Durham. It was highly unlikely that Allison would have heard this first hand. As a journalist, he started reporting on Arsenal matches in 1906 and became editor of the match day programme in 1913. Therefore, Allisons account would have been based on the views of others and would have been from memories of 20 years previous. This was back in the days before the internet, newspaper libraries and other such resources. It has already been proved that he got the first part of the story wrong. According to Allison, after the FA Cup game against Derby County on 17 January 1891, John Goddall allegedly approached Peter Connolly and Bob Buist and offered them professional terms at Derby. What Allison failed to realise was that Buist didnt play in that game. In fact, he didnt join Arsenal until September 1891 8 months later! Bernard Joy also makes the same mistake which means he must have sourced his version from Allisons account. OK, lets take a look at an article written much closer to the time of the event. The Woolwich Gazette reported on the Royal Arsenals Annual General Meeting that took place on 23 May 1891. The item was written 2 or 3 days after the AGM so the details were pretty fresh in the mind of the reporter and he must have taken extensive notes as it is very detailed. The first item discussed was whether or not the club should become a limited liability company the motion was declined. The next item of interest is this: In accordance with the resolution adopting professionalism, the Club had resigned from

the Kent and London Associations, but they had not yet received letters accepting their resignations. What had happened here was that two weeks previous to the AGM, the club had held an Extraordinary General Meeting where the members of the club had voted in favour of adopting professionalism. The club was aware that the competitions run by the Kent and London FAs were only open to amateur clubs so they did what they had to do and resigned. Two weeks later they had heard nothing from either FA. Surely if these organisations waxed wrath they would have wanted it be known pretty quickly that Royal Arsenal were persona non grata? Either way, the club was not expelled from either Association. They resigned. In fact the club was not particularly happy with the way they had been treated by the Kent FA during the 1890-91 season. The club had entered the London Senior Cup (runners-up in 1889-90) and the Kent Senior Cup (holders). They had progressed in both competitions and had been scheduled to play in both competitions on 21 February 1891. The club asked for the Kent Senior Cup tie to be postponed to a later date but the Kent FA refused. The upshot being that a reserve team was fielded for this fixture and was trounced 0-4. Now lets move on and see how Royal Arsenal was ostracised to an extent by the South, how most of the Southern teams removed Arsenal from their list of fixtures and were virtually boycotted by the Southern clubs. A good starting point would be the Royal Arsenals 4th Annual Dinner which was held in 2 May 1891 two weeks before the club decided to turn professional. At this event, Mr G.H. Osborne (the club secretary) confirmed that the following teams had agreed to play Royal Arsenal during 1891-92 (remember, this is before the club had announced their plans to turn professional): St Bartholomews Hospital, Old Carthusians, Casuals, Crusaders, Cambridge University, Chiswick Park, London Caledonians, Clapton and Chatham. There were other non-southern clubs that also agreed fixtures but this is not significant as we are looking at the Southern clubs boycotting Arsenal. During 1891-92 Royal Arsenals opponents included: St Bartholomews Hospital, Casuals. Crusaders, Cambridge University, Chiswick Park, London Caledonians, Clapton and Chatham. I make that 8 out of 9 clubs from London and the South that agreed to play against the amateur Royal Arsenal club that also played against the professional Royal Arsenal club. But theres more. Royal Arsenal also played the following Southern teams during 1891-92: 2nd Royal West Kent Regiment, 2nd Scots Guards, Ashford United, Borough Road College, City Ramblers, Cray Wanderers, Edmonton, Erith, Folkestone, Foxes, Gravesend, Great Marlow, London Polytechnic, Maidstone, Manor Park, Millwall Athletic, Old St Lukes, Royal Artillery (Shoeburyness), Royal Engineers Training Battalion, South Eastern Rangers, South West Ham, Southampton St Marys, Upton Park, Uxbridge, Windsor Phoenix, Woodville and Woolwich & District League. That makes a total of 35 opponents from the South. During 1892-93 Royal Arsenal played a further 16 opponents from the South of England. A pretty poor boycott, I think youll agree. In fact, Arsenal had played a fair amount of these

clubs in the London FA and Kent FA cup competitions in the preceding seasons. If the London FA and Kent FA were so incensed with Arsenal I doubt that their members would have been happy playing against Woolwich Arsenal for fear of reprisals from their governing bodies. I think it is clear to see that George Allisons account is flawed and has been readily accepted without challenge. It seems that journalists 100 years ago were no different form those of today writing articles on hearsay, not checking the facts and sensationalism. Is it time to re-write Arsenals history and tell it like it really was? Todays feature on Untold: How many more broken bones before the FA act Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Arsenal History: the index Making the Arsenal: the only book about Arsenal and Norris. Arsenal Worldwide for supporters of Arsenal outside the UK. Fact! Untold Arsenal Index: silly stuff, serious stuff, and lots of facts! Arsenal Independent Supporters Association ShareThis
October 5th, 2010 | Category: Arsenal

6 comments to It is time to expose the errors in the early history of Arsenal

dan
October 5, 2010 at 1:13 pm Thanks for clearing this up AK! Fantastic research.

Mark Wilkins
October 18, 2010 at 12:51 am Not a comment; rather questions. You mention the 0-4 loss in the Kent Sr Cup. I wonder if you have & could provide the results of Arsenals progression through the Kent Sr cup in 1890/91. I have not come across that in any of the various sources that Ive consulted to get Arsenals historical records. Im aware of the 1890 results, culminating with victory over Thanet Wanderers, but was not aware we competed in 1890/1. Furthermore, you mention a number of opponents from 1891-92 that dont show up in these sources (these sources are Fred Ollier, the Soar & Tyler yearbooks, the old Boring Boring Arsenal website). Do you have the full results from this year? Sorry to bug you, but the Gunners history just absolutely fascinates me. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of Arsenals historical results, from 1886 to present, & would love correcting it if its wrong or incomplete. Im strictly a typical obsessive fan; no other motivation. Also, I would be remiss if I didnt take this moment to praise you for a fabulous site. Truly one of my favorites.

Andy Kelly
October 18, 2010 at 1:50 pm

Mark We put out a reserve team in the early rounds and decided to play the first team in the semi-final which is why it didnt appear in Fred Olliers book which only has 1st team matches. The games in the Kent Senior Cup 1890/1 were: 1st Round Bye 2nd Round 8 Nov 1890 Maxim Nordenfeldt (H) 2-0 3rd Round 24 Jan 1891 Beckenham (H) 6-1 Semi-final South Eastern Rangers (A) 0-4 For the 3rd round, Beckenham conceded the tie when they arrived at Plumstead so the game became a friendly. Some of the opponents that I listed played against Arsenal in reserve team friendlies. Ive got fairly comprehensive records of the reserve team but need time to convert them into a format for publishing on the web. Keep an eye on my website: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andy.kelly/arsenal/ Ill try to get something up in the near future but Im concentrating on adding first team friendlies at the for now. Fred Olliers books are fantastic, Soar & Tyler I would not take as 100% accurate the first edition left out the left-winger for the whole of one season and boringboringarsenal got the fixtures from me Ive noticed a few errors since I gave them to Richard though. Arsenal History & Full Record by Colin White & Scott Grant lists most reserve team results but not line-ups. Its a difficult book to get hold of and quite pricey. Here are the reserve friendly results for 1891-92 12/9 Upton Park A 3-0 19/9 Uxbridge A 7-1 3/10 Upton Park H 10-0 10/10 Old St. Lukes A 5-0 17/10 Polytechnic H 3-0 24/10 Cray Wanderers H 3-2 31/10 2nd Battn. Coldstream Gd H 6-0 7/11 Woodville H 4-0 14/11 Gravesend A 7-0 21/11 Edmonton A 2-0 28/11 Ashford United A 1-0 5/12 Edmonton Albion A 8-1 26/12 Highland Light Infantry H 0-7 2/1 Folkestone A 3-2 9/1 South West Ham A 4-1 16/1 Gravesend H 5-2 23/1 Maidstone A 7-1 30/1 Foxes A 1-2 6/2 Manor Park H 3-1 13/2 Maidstone H 4-2 20/2 Old St. Lukes A 9-2 27/2 Southampton St. Marys A 6-2 5/3 Manor Park A 3-1

12/3 Edmonton Albion H 11-0 19/3 Old St. Lukes A 2-0 26/3 Erith A 0-1 1/4 Woolwich District League H 4-0 2/4 Cray Wanderers A 2-1 4/4 London Polytechnic H 0-0 9/4 Kettering Town A 2-5 18/4 South Eastern Rangers H 4-0 23/4 Millwall Athletic A 4-0 30/4 Old St. Lukes H 2-1

Mark Wilkins
October 18, 2010 at 11:03 pm Fantastic! Thank you so much for clearing up my question about the Kent Cup, and for all the other information. I will definitely be checking out your link. Thanks again!

Andy Kelly
January 28, 2011 at 2:37 pm This months Arsenal magazine has an article written by Jon Spurling titled Turning Professional. Not only has he regurgitated the same incorrect information but he has added some more into the mix. According to Spurling: * David Danskin was instrumental in pushing the club towards professionalism and entering the Football League * Royal Arsenal was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy between turning professional and joining the Football League * Caesar Jenkyns was Arsenals first England international * Royal Arsenal hardly played at all during 1891-92 and 1892-93 How much more can these journalists make up?

Jon Spurling
June 7, 2011 at 12:33 pm For the attention of Andy Kelly. Read this piece with great interest, and clearly you have been sourcing Arsenals early history with gusto. It may well be that many Arsenal historians (me included), as you point out, have relied on previously accepted accounts of what happened during those early days, and that there may be some innaccuracies in what we have written. Would take issue with the points above however. 1. Danskin, based on my research, was, given his and Jack Humbles activities all those years ago, of the opinion that the club would do well to turn professional. 2. Royal Arsenal played a series of friendlies during the early 1890s, but only 6 FA Cup matches ie competitive games 3. Those early Arsenal sides struggled desperately with low crowds,and were unable to

attract a large array of talent. Accept that Mr Jenkyns was Welsh not English though! I am disappointed though that you talk of regurgitating incorrect information. It makes it sound as if the entire article were inaccurate, which I know from my own research isnt the case. You also ask the question: How much more can these journalists make up? Andy I dont make up stories, and neither am I a journalist. Im a freelance writer, who is a full time History teacher. As a historian, Im more than happy to accept that history can be revised, and that new facts can come to light all the time. Id have preferred it if you had maybe contacted me and pointed out any points you might have, rather than post a quite unpleasant, and factually untrue comment on an Arsenal related blog. I dont think it reflects especially well on you to engage in a spot of one upmanship on a blog, either. Id request that you remove that final comment from the blog above asap. Regards. Jon Spurling