Feature
[Arsenal Media](/author/arsenal-media-2) 11 Nov 2025
Every Remembrance Day, the country pays its respects to those who served, and tragically lost, during conflicts, and Arsenal Football Club have our fair share of heroes to pay tribute to.
Many players, coaches and administrators connected with us were killed in action or died while on military service during both World War I and World War II, and thanks to Mark Andrews and Andy Kelly, we will always remember them:
World War I
-----------
**John Thomas ‘Pat’ Flanagan**
Scoring 28 goals in 121 competitive games for Woolwich Arsenal from 1911 to 1915, the inside forward additionally appeared in five wartime games. Enlisting at Woolwich in December 1915, he remained in reserve employment as a shell machinist at the Royal Arsenal, but after playing his final Arsenal game in March 1917, he was sent to German East Africa (Tanzania) with the Army Service Corps. In August 1917, he reported sick and succumbed to dysentery at the end of the month, aged 30, while on active service. Private Flanagan was buried at the DaresSalaam War Cemetery, Tanzania.
**Robert Houston**
Enlisting on December 18, 1914, the same day as his teammate George Ford (himself badly injured in the war), he was the 47th man to sign up for the Footballers '17th Middlesex' Battalion. Born in Lanark, Scotland, he was an Arsenal reserve between 1913 and 1915, playing as a half-back in at least 10 games. Disembarking in France on November 17, 1915 he was killed in action, aged 22, on November 13, 1916 on the front line, near the end of the Battle of the Somme. Lance Corporal Houston is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial, France.
**Spencer Thomas Bassett**
Playing once for the Woolwich Arsenal first-team in a top-flight game at Notts County in 1909, the Blackheath-born half-back also appeared in more than 100 matches for the reserves between 1906 and 1910. When football was suspended in 1915 he was at Southend United and joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in December that same year. Bombardier Bassett was killed in action at the Battle of Arras on April 11, 1917, aged 31. Badly wounded, he died from his injuries, being buried at the Pozieres British Cemetery, France.
**Albert ‘Bert’ Beney**
Signed by us in February 1909, the Hastings-born forward made 17 first-team appearances and scored six goals, and also hit 18 goals in 20 reserve games. In the summer of 1910, he left south London for Carlisle, and then on to Bury, before ending his playing career at Tunbridge Wells Rangers. Beney joined up in the early part of the war into the 2nd Home Counties Royal Engineers before being killed in action on April 20, 1915, dying from his wounds at the age of 32. Corporal Beney was buried in Poperinghe Old Military Cemetery, Belgium.
**Joseph ‘Joe’ Dines**
Our reserves defeated Portsmouth reserves 2-1 in January 1910 in the centre back's only game for the Gunners. Born in Kings Lynn, he was a multi-capped England amateur international and also won a gold medal at the 1912 Olympic Games with the British team. Enlisting in November 1915, he served with a number of units before gaining a commission to the 13th Battalion, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. Second Lieutenant Dines was killed in action close to the end of the combat on September 27, 1918 at the age of 32. He was buried in the Grand Ravine British Cemetery in Havrincourt, France.
**James Morton Maxwell**
A high-profile signing from Sheffield Wednesday, the Scottish outside right played twice for Woolwich Arsenal against Everton and Sunderland in the First Division during the 1908/09 season. He enlisted early in the war, being sent to France in August 1915 before his unit, the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, was relocated to Mesopotamia at the end of the year. He was killed in action in Mesopotamia on April 21, 1917 while taking part in the Samarrah Offensive at the age of 29. The name of Lance Corporal James Maxwell was recorded on the Basra War Memorial, Iraq.
**Charles Edward Randall**
Woolwich Arsenal's joint-leading scorer in the 1912/13 season, the centre-forward from Durham scored 12 times in 44 matches for the first-team, and also appeared in 39 games for the reserves between 1911 and 1914. Moving to North Shields FC just prior to the war starting, he joined the Coldstream Guards before being sent to France in November 1915. While fighting during the Battle of the Somme, he was killed in action on September 27, 1916, at the age of 32. Private Charles Randall was buried at the Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, France.
**Leigh Richmond Roose**
A Welsh international, this famous and highly popular goalkeeper was at Woolwich Arsenal during the 1911/12 season, making 13 appearances for the Gunners. During the Battle of the Somme, just after winning the Military Medal for bravery with the Royal Fusiliers, he was seen running at full speed in no man’s land while firing his gun in an attack on enemy lines. Lance Corporal Leigh Roose was killed in action on October 7, 1916, at the age of 38, and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
WORLD WAR II
------------
**Henry Bennett Cook**Taken onto our books during the war, the amateur half-back did not get the chance to play for the club at any level. The Lancastrian born near Ashton was working at the Lord Chancellor’s Department at the beginning of the Second World War, and joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a Fleet Air Arm pilot. On February 26, 1943 at HMS Landrail – a Royal Naval Air Station in Scotland – he died in a flying accident while training for ship landing, aged 21. Sub-Lieutenant Henry Cook is commemorated on the Lee-on-the-Solent memorial in Gosport, Hampshire.
**Robert Norman Victor ‘Bobby’ Daniel**
The elder brother of our post-war Wales international Ray Daniel, he was only 15 when making his one first-team appearance for us in a wartime friendly at Cardiff City in September 1939. Joining 156 Squadron, Royal Air Force he flew as part of a crew of a Lancaster based at RAF Warboys. After over 30 operational flights, Daniel went missing while serving as a gunner. His Lancaster bomber was lost without trace during a Pathfinder mission to Berlin on Christmas Eve 1943. He was 20 years old. Flight Sergeant Bobby Daniel is remembered on the Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede.
**William Benjamin ‘Bill’ Dean**
The Londoner made three appearances for us during the conflict over consecutive weekends in October 1940. An Arsenal supporter, he later stated that he had fulfilled his ‘life’s ambition’ upon making his debut, and we won all three wartime games with the amateur goalkeeper between the sticks. Joining the Royal Navy, he served on HMS Naiad as a stoker in the engine rooms. On operations, the ship was hit by a torpedo from a U-boat on March 11, 1942 and sank in the Mediterranean Sea with all hands. Dean, aged 20, is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial.
**Hugh Glass**
Signed by George Allison at the start of the 1938/39 season, the inside-left did not feature in the first team but played in the reserves on five occasions, scoring twice. He also scored four goals in 29 appearances for the Arsenal ‘A’ team. Just after the outbreak of war, he returned to his native Scotland, joining the Merchant Navy. On November 26, 1942, while working in the engine room, he drowned at sea, aged 21, when the SS Ocean Crusader was sunk with all hands by a U-boat north-east of St John’s, Newfoundland. He is remembered on the Tower Hill memorial.
**Harold Cecil Jacobi**
Born at Rochford, near Southend-on-Sea, his family moved to Paddington soon afterwards, and then to Gillespie Road in Islington. Working for us from the mid-1920s, he eventually became assistant groundsman at Highbury. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he immediately enlisted in the Royal Artillery. Regimental Sergeant Major Harold Jacobi, who was a Japanese prisoner of war in Borneo from December 1941 onwards, died of malaria while still in captivity on March 26, 1945 in Ranau, Borneo, aged 38. He is remembered on the Singapore Memorial for all the Commonwealth Forces.
**Leslie Martin Lack**
The Islington-born teenager was playing for Tufnell Park before being signed by us in May 1939 as an amateur outside-left; however, he never got the chance to appear for us at any level. Joining the Royal Air Force for the war, flying Spitfires with 118 Squadron, he was sent to Canada for training and returned to England in April 1942. While returning from a mission in the Netherlands, his Spitfire was hit by ‘friendly fire’, causing the plane to crash into the sea off Felixstowe on March 18, 1943. Aged 21, Flight Sergeant Leslie Lack is remembered on the Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede.
**Jack Lambert**
Signed by Herbert Chapman in June 1926, the Yorkshireman amassed 109 goals in 161 competitive games. Our leading goalscorer for three seasons in a row, he was instrumental in the 1930 FA Cup final and 1930/31 First Division championship victories. Together with Jimmy Brain, he holds the club record of 12 hat-tricks. Back at Highbury in mid-1938, he partnered Herbie Roberts managing the Arsenal ‘A’ team until the Second World War. Lambert died aged 38 on December 7, 1940 in a car accident. At the time of his death, he was carrying out civil defence duties as a Battersea Borough Council PT instructor.
**Albert Ernest ‘Bert’ Maynard**
Born nine days before the end of World War I at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, he appeared twice for the Arsenal 'A' team in the Southern League in January 1939. Jack Lambert bought him in from his works team, Weald Electricity, and he ably assisted the club during a goalkeeper crisis. Joining the Royal Navy soon after war was declared, he died at sea when the submarine HMS Turbulent was lost in the Mediterranean on March 23, 1943. Leading Stoker Maynard was 24 when he died fighting for his country and is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial.
**William Wilfred ‘Billy’ Parr**
A gifted England amateur international from Blackpool, he was signed as an outside-right in April 1939. Scheduled to appear against Derby County later that month, a pulled muscle denied him a competitive start, and his only Gunners first-team appearance came in the wartime league at Southend United in April 1940. Parr joined 233 Squadron, Royal Air Force flying as part of a Hudson crew at RAF St Eval, Cornwall. Flight Sergeant Parr was killed on March 8, 1942 when his Hudson aircraft crashed into a field in St Ervan, Cornwall, during a night mission. He was buried, aged 26, in Marton Church, Blackpool.
**Sidney James ‘Sid’ Pugh**
Welling-born, he joined us from school and worked in the club office as a telephonist. The versatile left wing-half appeared in 11 reserve matches before his first-team debut at Birmingham in April 1939. Unfortunately, it turned out to be his last Arsenal match owing to a serious injury necessitating a protracted hospital stay. After joining the Royal Air Force, he was killed on April 15, 1944 when his Wellington, flying out of RAF Seighford in Staffordshire, crashed soon after take-off. Flying Officer Pugh was buried in Llanharan and Peterston-Super-Montem Joint Cemetery in Wales, aged 24
**Herbert ‘Herbie’ Roberts**
The fulcrum of the defensive system pioneered by Herbert Chapman, the centre-half won five championship medals in 1930/31, 1932/33, 1933/34, 1934/35, 1937/38 and an FA Cup winner's medal in 1936. Capped once by England, he appeared 335 times for us, scoring five times. A leg break ended his playing career in mid-1938, and he moved into the Highbury backroom at Arsenal’s colts alongside Jack Lambert until the war intervened. He joined the Royal Fusiliers, attaining the rank of lieutenant, but died suddenly, aged 39, of Erysipelas while in military service at North Middlesex Hospital on June 17, 1944.
**Cyril Ernest Tooze**
Signed in February 1937, the Welsh schoolboy international played for the reserves 16 times and made 14 ‘A’-team appearances, and was highly thought of at Highbury as a full-back. In early February 1943 he was taken prisoner of war in Tunisia alongside teammate Ted Platt, but they were released soon after by the 8th Army. On January 22, 1944, Fusilier Tooze of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was struck and killed instantly by a sniper’s bullet. Aged 23, he was buried in the Minturno War Cemetery in Lazio, Italy.
**Ernest William ‘Ernie’ Tuckett**
Ernie moved to us in June 1932 and some months later scored six goals against Fulham in a London Midweek game. After spending a couple of seasons at Margate, he appeared for our first team in 1936 at centre-half in March at Wolves and at home to Leeds United in May. Additionally, his 11 goals in 40 reserve performances gained a London Combination Championship winners' medal in 1936/37. With Fulham at the start of World War II, Ernie joined the Royal Air Force and whilst on active service, Corporal Tuckett died aged 31, at the Horn Hall Sanatorium, Stanhope, Durham on May 27, 1945.
**Albert Henry ‘Bertie’ Woolcock**
The England amateur international goalkeeper made two appearances for our reserves in late 1938. Still on our books, he was commissioned as an honorary flying officer in the Royal Air Force five days after the war began, and seconded to special duties in the GHQ Liaison Phantom Regiment. Finding himself in Belgium at the time of the Blitzkrieg, he boarded the SS Abukir at Ostend to return to England. However, it was spotted by a German E-Boat, torpedoed and sunk on May 28, 1940 in the North Sea. Aged 25, Honorary Flying Officer Woolcock is remembered on the Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede.
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.