AISA’s Chapman Celebration Day: the personal reflections and pictures

ByTonyAttwood,  AISA  Arsenal  History Society

The pictures put up in the previous article concerning the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association visit to the church where Herbert Chapman is buried, were those taken by others not least as I don’t consider myself a photographer.

But the day meant so much to me I felt I wanted to offer up the pictures I took, not because  I consider myself a particularly fine photographer – self-evidently I am not – but because they caught the essence of the day as it was for me.

I’ve been writing about Chapman and Arsenal for many many years, and indeed coming as I do from an Arsenal family, my father and grandfather were there on the terraces watching the Chapman team transform Arsenal and the image of the Arsenal, for ever more.

So as I walked around the churchyard and indeed the interior of the church I took these pictures which for me capture the essence of the church.  A church that has within its grounds the resting place of the most

famous mn in the history of Arsenal, the man who single-handedly transformed two clubs, and with one of those left it in a position where it would go on being at the very top of football, (in contrast to the way it was when he took over – at the very bottom, and liable to descend into the abyss).

In fact so powerful is the force of what Arsenal is, it is noteworthy that so much effort has been and is still, put into trying to discredit the club, with tales of having “bought” its 1919 promotion to the 1st division, and indeed cheated in other ways.

It is all untrue of course, and these myths have long since been put to bed by those who are interested in what really happened

Now, I have already posted an article about the day at the church, but these pictures I think help convey a real sense of what the church (at which Chapman worshipped) is really like, and how very much aware the church is, concerning the importance of the man buried in a position of honour in the churchyard.

You can perhaps also get a picture of the arrangements so kindly made by the vicar and her team to allow us to take our celebration of Chapman’s life, and his arrival at Arsenal 100 years ago, into the church that was such a central part of his life.

Of course, we all know that the role of the church and the way in which the church is regarded in

our society has changed dramatically over the years, but the calm and splendour of this building, combined with the kindness of the vicar in making us so welcome, and the displays arranged by members of Arsenal Independent Supporters Association did, most certainly for me, make the history of our club seem ever more relevant.

We rounded off the activities of the day with a pub quiz in a bar that our chairman Drew Grey had, with enormous forethought, reserved exclusively for AISA.

I can say the team I was on did quite well, but we didn’t win.   Perhaps it was because, knowing that I then had to drive home along the M1, I very dutifully restricted myself to just the one drink!

So there we are.  It was the most fantastic, wonderful day out and I now know and feel that I have paid my personal respects to the man who was persuaded to leave his job as manager of the most successful 1st division team of the time and become manager of the least successful 1st division team of the time.

Thank goodness he did, and a multitude of thanks to the vicar of St Mary’s Church Hendon for being so utterly kind, considerate and welcoming for the day.

The history of Arsenal is, as I have tried to show in the articles on this site published since we started out in 2009, is a history that has not always been written with complete accuracy, and indeed often seems to have been written by people who have more interest in showing Arsenal in a bad light than actually in revealing the truth.

To a degree I feel we have actually done something to show that the Arsenal portrayed in many football history accounts is not the real Arsenal, and that many of the tales we read are those written by people who have their own personal axe to grind.

I am hoping that in a small way our visit to the church where Herbert Chapman is buried was another step forward in righting the wrongs in terms of the way the Arsenal story is told.

I have certainly learned across the years that pointing out the facts, providing evidence and indeed giving multiple details, doesn’t always help correct misunderstandings that arise from sloppy journalism.  Nor indeed do such activities help correct deliberate falsehoods.

And so there will be people who continue to believe that somehow Arsenal cheated its way into the first division, won the FA Cup and League twice under Chapman through some rather clever sleight of hand, and indeed pulled off every trick under the sun to get those three titles in a row under three different managers.   Arsenal cheated, the argument seems to be, because that is what Arsenal do.

The reality of course is utterly different.  Chapman was a determined man, but he was also an honourable man; a Christian who would have nothing to do with anything underhand or in any way amiss.

We are rightly proud of having a club that Chapman took hold of, and which he turned from being near certainties for relegation into Cup winners and League Champions.  Let us celebrate 100 years since he came to Arsenal, and let us go on celebrating what he did for the club.