JOE POWELL

At the Royal Arsenal military factory in London at Dial Square, a football club was formed in October 1886. In 1893 Royal Arsenal, the first professional club in London, was accepted into the Football League and joined the Second Division under the new name of Woolwich Arsenal. The club was the first Southern club to turn professional and join the Football League, albeit the Second Division. Woolwich Arsenal became Arsenal in 1914. 

Joseph Joshua Powell (seated centre) captained the side in its inaugural match against Newcastle United, on 2 September 1893. He went on to play in all but two of the club's League matches that season, and was a near ever-present for the next two seasons as well (missing three and five games respectively). He scored his one and only League goal for Arsenal in a 5–0 victory over Loughborough on 4 January 1896.

But tragedy struck Woolwich Arsenal, in their fourth Football League season.

In a United League match against Kettering Town at their North Park ground on 23 November 1896, full back, Powell attempted a high kick and fell awkwardly, breaking his right wrist in two places. Powell had done this before. He contracted blood poisoning and tetanus, and despite having the arm amputated, on November 29th, six days later, he died at his Plumstead home at the age of 26. An inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death, with no blame attaching to anyone involved. He had played 92 League and FA Cup matches for the club. A fund was raised, including The London Football Club, that donated £5 and a benefit match against Aston Villa was arranged to raise money to support his family.

Joe Powell, born 1870, had joined Woolwich Arsenal in 1892, when the Londoners "bought him out" of the army, from the 80th South Staffordshire Regiment. He was scouted in a match playing for the Army against The Corinthians. Powell had played in 86 of the 98 Football League matches Woolwich Arsenal had played prior to the Kettering fixture.

1896 was a pre-antibiotic world and a dangerous one in which to play football, it seems. In fact, the very same year, “the French medical student Ernest Duchesne originally discovered the antibiotic properties of Penicillium, but failed to report a connection between the fungus and a substance that had antibacterial properties, and Penicillium was forgotten in the scientific community until Fleming’s rediscovery.” Powell died 32 years before it was noticed again.