Fred Ollier
Born in Crewe, Fred first visited Highbury in 1946 and regularly attended matches thereafter. He began his statistical odyssey in tandem with a job on the Railway.
“Fred’s passion, dedication and perfectionism ensured his historic contribution has made an indelible mark on the club he loved so much”. Arsenal programme 26 August 2023.
Fred Ollier was the author of four editions of ‘Arsenal – A Complete Record’ (Breedon 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1995), which are a living manifestation of his painstaking research and statistical documentation of Arsenal records for each game, team line up, half-time score, full-time score, scorers, crowd attendance and date.
Fred was the man when it came to Arsenal facts and figures, and the club would liaise and consult with him on numerous historical matters, large and small, for the past twenty or so years. His work first appeared in the Arsenal programme in August 1980 when a table of Arsenal’s goalkeepers was published.
Inspiring many to take up record-keeping of Arsenal games, players and anything else related to the club. One such acolyte is now the de-facto Arsenal Historian and ‘go to’ man for Arsenal history – Andy Kelly.
One of our most memorable moments in our Arsenal history trek was meeting Fred at Highbury House as we were all looking for various items within the vaults. Ever a gentleman when we asked the great man to sign our copies of ‘Arsenal – A Complete Record’ he was only too pleased to do so. What a memory.
An Arsenal man through and through, he was honoured on the side of the stadium as part of the ‘Found a Place Where We Belong’ artwork for his contribution to the understanding of the history of the club.
Fred died in August 2023 aged 92
Sources
Arsenal programme
Copies of our books Royal Arsenal – Champions of the South and Arsenal: The Complete Record 1886-2018 are still available from the publishers.
