by Tony Attwood
Chair, AISA Arsenal History Society.
As you may know, I run an Arsenal history website, as well as Untold Arsenal, and normally keep the two quite separate. However because of the importance of this season’s anniversary – 100 years in the top division – I recently ran a series of articles on how Arsenal were elected to the first division 100 years ago.
The whole series of articles is permanently on this site, and you can find them on the 100 Years page.
You may also have recently seen an advert for a book which claims that everything we thought we knew about football is untrue – and it appears to have something about Arsenal being elected to the top division in 1919.
I ordered a copy of the book as soon as it was announced, but it hasn’t turned up. An email to the publisher brought a reply to the effect that I have to wait for ten days before I can request a replacement copy.
I imagine their story is a re-hash of the old tales that Henry Norris somehow fixed the election of Arsenal in 1919, and if you want to read a full rebuttal of that with evidence rather than wild assertion, then do have a look at the 100 Years page noted above.
In the meanwhile we have had our 100 Years celebration at Islington Town Hall. Our guests of honour were Bob Wilson and Alan Smith, along with two directors from Arsenal FC, and of course a great collection of fans all of whom are members of AISA.
You can read about the 100 Years event itself on the AISA blog and if you are interested in joining AISA and thus supporting Arsenal in a most positive way then our membership page is here.
Of course the AISA Arsenal History Society functions all the year-round building its database of memorable events in Arsenal’s history and also researching key events which are written up on this website.
Among our recent series we have
Henry Norris at the Arsenal: There is a full index to the series here.
Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever
Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.
But those are just three of the major series we have developed. There are many, many more and you can read details of those series on the home page of the Arsenal history site.
Tony Attwood
AISA Arsenal History Society
