Friday 6 January 2023

HERBERT CHAPMAN DIED JANUARY 6th 1934 and STAN MILTON


The last game ever watched by the legendry Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman, was an Arsenal 3rd XI fixture at Guildford City FC in Surrey. It was a cold and miserable night on the 3rd January 1934. Chapman had picked up a heavy cold the previous Saturday and was advised not to travel by his doctor.




Returning from the game he went straight to bed and died on Saturday, the 6th of January 1934, from the affects of pneumonia.
The Blue Plaque on his Hendon home.

His players heard the news as they arrived at Highbury for their league match against Sheffield Wednesday. The players had a minute's silence before the game, stunned by the news, played Wednesday  and hung on for a 1-1 draw.

Arsenal, who were League Champions from 1933, lost the next three league matches but eventually caretaker manager, Joe Shaw, steadied the boat and led the Gunners to the top of the division, winning the Championship again, pipping Chapman's previous club, Huddersfield Town, into second place. Arsenal won three championships in a row.

News of Chapman's death only made the lower paragraphs of the Observer newspaper and took second place to a report on Stan Milton of Halifax Town who had set a record for the Third Division North by conceding 13 goals, on his debut, to Stockport County. It was Stan's league debut and but inexplicably Town wrote themselves into the record books, losing 13-0, a Football League record score, one that has since been equalled but never surpassed. 

It wasn’t as if it was a weakened Town side that day, either, for Milton apart, only centre-forward Bill Chambers was missing from the side which had climbed to fourth in the table a week earlier.  Town were only 2-0 down at half-time but collapsed in the second period, with Milton conceding 11 goals. More may have been made of his misfortunate had the following day’s papers not been filled with news of the death of the great Herbert Chapman, who had passed away on the morning of that game. 

Contrary to popular belief, though, this defeat didn’t hamper Milton’s career. He remained at The Shay for three seasons and made a further seven league appearances before moving to York City, where he made nine more league appearances, time enough for Milton to write himself into the record books once again. When Rochdale defeated York 7-0 on 14 January 1939 they inflicted on the Minstermen their heaviest-ever home defeat – Milton was in goal. Other references to Herbert Chapman are linked below.
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