Formation

royal-arsenal

A group of workers at the Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich – David Danskin, Elijah Watkins, John Humble and Richard Pearce decided to form a football club in 1886. They called themselves the Dial Square after one of the factory’s workshops. The group, fifteen in total with a couple of Nottingham Forest players, pooled six pence each to buy a football and played their first game against Eastern Wanderers in December 1886, which they won 6-0. Fred Beardsley, the Nottingham Forest player who arrived to Woolwich with Morris Bates, asked his contacts back in Forest to send spare kit, which they duly obliged, thus giving the club its red colour. Soon, the club dropped Dial Square and took the name Royal Arsenal. The club made good progress at that time, winning the Kent Senior Cup and London Charity Cup in 1889–90 and the London Senior Cup in 1890–91. They also played in the FA Cup for the first time in 1889–90. However, being an amateur club, many professional clubs came calling for the gifted players of the squad. The only way the club could avoid talent drain was to turn professional, which it did in 1891. That’s when the club decided to rename themselves to Woolwich Arsenal. Two years later, the Football League invited the club to join the association and played in the Second Division. The club won promotion to the First Division in 1903-04. However, the club’s location and an extended period without success led to the club facing bankruptcy by 1910. It was Fulham Chairman Sir Henry George Norris who bought the club and changed its shape forever. Norris realised that for the club to survive, it must earn higher gate revenues and for that to happen, the club must move to a different location.

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Formation

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