Arthur Grimsdell (23 March 1894 – 12 March 1963) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He was born in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gover ...

and played at centre-half and later wing-half for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separa ...

. He captained both teams during the 1920s. He was also a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by s ...

er who played for

Hertfordshire County Cricket Club Hertfordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hertfordshire. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Ch ...

at minor counties level. He was considered a sports personality of his era, featuring on footballer cigarette cards and interviewed for sports magazines. He died, aged 68, in Watford on 12 March 1963.

Football career

Club

Grimsdell started his career at St Albans City and

but transferred as a schoolboy player to

at the age of 18 in April 1912. He played his first game that year. His career was interrupted by the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, in which he served as a trooper in the 1st Regiment of Life Guards and a

lance corporal Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal, and is typically the lowest non-commissioned officer (NCO), usually equi ...

Guards Machine Gun Regiment. On his return in 1919, he captained Tottenham and scored 14 goals in the 1919–20 season, and led the team to win the Second Division that year. In the following season he captained the side, which won the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

in 1921. His successful club career continued until he broke his leg during the 1925 season. He did not return to play for the side until 1927 and he went on to play for Spurs until April 1929 when he was released by the club. He subsequently went to Clapton Orient where he took on a player-manager-secretary role. He made a total of 418 appearances for Tottenham scoring 43 goals including 324 League appearances (26 goals) and 36 FA Cup matches (1 goal). In recognition of his distinguished career and service to the club he was admitted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame. Following the conclusion of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Grimsdell served on Watford's board of directors from 1945 until 1951.

International

Grimsdell had a trial for the England team in 1913 but only started his international career after the war when he played for England 6 times between 1920 and 1923 as a left-half, captaining the team on three of these occasions.

Cricket career

Grimsdell was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

and occasional

wicketkeeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. T ...

who played for

in the minor counties league. He played once for the East of England side against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country ...

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and only 5 miles (8& ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

in July 1927, scoring 3 runs (1st

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bo ...

) and 40 runs (2nd innings).

Personal life

Grimsdell's brother

Ernie Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form ( hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (disambiguation) * Ernie Afaganis (bo ...

also became a footballer.

Honors

Tottenham Hotspur *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

: 1919–20 *

: 1920–21

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimsdell, Arthur English footballers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Watford F.C. players Watford F.C. directors Association football central defenders England international footballers English cricketers 1894 births 1963 deaths Hertfordshire cricketers Sportspeople from Watford East of England cricketers Association football wing halves English Football League players English Football League representative players FA Cup Final players British Army personnel of World War I