One of the most welcome and unexpected extras that has arisen from our work in exploring Arsenal’s ancient history is that from time to time relatives of men who played for Arsenal in the early days get in touch.
Such a case is that of extraordinary career of inside forward Thomas Tindal Fitchie (11 December 1881 – 17 October 1947) who was transferred 16 times and signed for Woolwich Arsenal on no less than five occasions.
We ran the story on the Arsenal History site back in July 2010…
www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/2010/07/05/the-only-player-signed-five-times-by-arsenal/
…and to our delight and surprise in December his grandson wrote a long piece about his own research into the life of his remarkable grandfather. You can read the comments from Andrew Fitchie under the original article on the site – and indeed you’ll find a lot more by way of explanation as to what TT Fitchie was doing with all those signings.
Not only is this hugely exciting for anyone who loves bringing history to life, but it is also something new – such detail has never been made public before, and is a major new edition to the Arsenal archives.
Andrew Fitchie got in touch with AISA because of the Arsenal History site – which shows the enormous power and benefit of exploring history in this way.
There’s a new article on the Arsenal History site most days of the week – I do hope you will come along and explore Arsenal history with us. And you never know – you might suddenly find you had a relative playing for the club in the dim and distant!
Tony Attwood
Arsenal History Project.
www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk