{"id":35425,"date":"2023-04-23T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old.thearsenalhistory.com\/?p=7730"},"modified":"2023-04-28T11:55:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T10:55:01","slug":"how-arsenals-name-changed-the-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=35425","title":{"rendered":"How Arsenal’s Name Changed – The Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews<\/p>\n

We continue our series of Arsenal’s name changes by explaining what happened following the move to Highbury. In this part, the word “Woolwich” is replaced with the word “The”.<\/p>\n

In 1913 Woolwich Arsenal left South London and moved to Islington. The Islington Daily Gazette dropped the “Woolwich” in their reports as early as September whilst the Kentish Independent were not too keen on the club retaining “Woolwich” as can be seen in this cutting:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kentish
Kentish Independent 12 September 1913<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By March \/ April 1914 the Arsenal board had decided that it was time to change the name. As mentioned in the last article, the club had a name registered with the Joint Stock Companies – The Woolwich Arsenal Football And Athletic Company, Limited – and one with the Football League – Woolwich Arsenal. At this point it was the latter name that was changed, to The Arsenal. The Daily Mirror and Islington Daily Gazette both reported the news on 6 April 1914, with the Daily Mirror confirming the actual date of the name change being 4 April.<\/p>\n

\"Daily
Daily Mirror 6 April 1914<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Islington
Islington Daily Gazette 6 April 1914<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the name registered with Companies House, this is a bit more confusing. This was not changed until April 1915. However, the club started used a different name on its matchday programmes and handbook before this date.<\/p>\n

18 April 1914 – Masthead on the programme shows Woolwich Arsenal Football And Athletic Company Limited<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

23 April 1914 – Masthead now shows The\u00a0Arsenal Football And Athletic Company Limited<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 1914-15 handbook<\/a> released during the summer of 1914 also shows The Arsenal Football And Athletic Company Limited<\/p>\n

\"The
The Arsenal handbook 1914-15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This official document that was completed by secretary-manager George Morrell in March 1915 shows that to the Joint Stock Companies it was still The Woolwich Arsenal Football And Athletic Company Limited.<\/p>\n

\"Woolwich
Woolwich Arsenal Summary of Share Capital And Shares
30 March 1915<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thanks to some fine investigative work by Phil Wall<\/a>, we can confirm the date that the name was actually changed with the Board of Trade and Joint Stock Companies. And even that wasn’t as simple as it should have been. There was a procedure in place whereby to change the name of a corporation, a resolution has to be announced and passed at a board meeting within two weeks.<\/p>\n

On 27 February 1915 an announcement of a special resolution to change its name to \u201cThe Arsenal Football Club, Limited\u201d was debated and accepted by the board on 13 March 1915. Below are pages from Arsenal’s AGM and EGM minute books that show the acceptance of the name.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Minutes for Woolwich Arsenal EGM – 27 February 1915 (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Minutes for Woolwich Arsenal EGM – 13 March 1915 (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However the gap between the two meetings was just a bit too long for it to comply with the Companies Act and so on 29th March 1915, secretary\u2011manager George Morrell, announced that an EGM was to be held on 7th April 1915, at which it was again proposed that the club should change its name. The minutes for that meeting are shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Minutes for Woolwich Arsenal EGM – 7 April 1915 (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We would like to thank Arsenal FC for granting permission allowing us to reproduce the above pages here.<\/p>\n

On Friday 23rd April 1915 at noon, at the club\u2019s offices, the Board held a further EGM and finally passed the resolution.<\/p>\n

\"Special
Special resolution passed by the board of
The Woolwich Arsenal Football And Athletic Company Limited 23 April 1915
Courtesy of Phil Wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the formalities with the Board of Trade and Joint Stock Companies the club\u2019s official name was changed to \u201cThe Arsenal Football Club, Limited\u201d on 10 May 1915. By this time Morrell had left the club.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Board of Trade approved the name change from 10 May 1915<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Joint Stock Companies confirmed the name change from 10 May 1915<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With competitive football suspended due to the escalation of the First World War Woolwich Arsenal was no more, superseded by The Arsenal Football Club and The Arsenal Football Club, Limited.<\/p>\n

In the next part we dispel a long-standing myth.<\/p>\n

Part 1: Dial Square<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2: Royal Arsenal<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3: Woolwich Arsenal<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 5: Arsenal<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

Copies of our books\u00a0Royal Arsenal \u2013 Champions of the South<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Arsenal: The Complete Record 1886-2018<\/a>\u00a0are still available from the publishers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews We continue our series of Arsenal’s name changes by explaining what happened following the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p87inb-9dn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35442,"url":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=35442","url_meta":{"origin":35425,"position":0},"title":"Sam Hollis \u2013 NOT Arsenal\u2019s manager","author":"arsenalcollection","date":"8 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Arsenal History - Mythbusters It\u2019s been 25 years since Arsenal\u2019s history was re-written and Sam Hollis was instated as the club\u2019s first manager. 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So, we thought that we would clarify Arsenal's names throughout the years, when they changed and why.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Dial Square\"","block_context":{"text":"Dial Square","link":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?tag=dial-square"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dial Square Cricket Club v Bushey Woolwich Gazette 27 August 1886","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1886-08-27-Woolwich-Gazette-Dial-Square-v-Bushey-cricket1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35424,"url":"https:\/\/thearsenalcollection.org.uk\/?p=35424","url_meta":{"origin":35425,"position":3},"title":"How Arsenal’s Name Changed – Woolwich Arsenal","author":"arsenalcollection","date":"20 April 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews In part 3 of our series we look at the events that led to Royal Arsenal Football Club morphing into Woolwich Arsenal Football Club. 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