Edwin Raymond Bowden (13 September 1909 – 23 September 1998) was an English
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 ...
who played as an
inside forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
. He scored 130 goals from 316 appearances in
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
, playing for
Plymouth Argyle,
Arsenal and
Newcastle United. He was
capped
In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...
six times and scored once for
England
England is a 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 separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Life and career
Bowden was born in
Looe
Looe (; kw, Logh, ) is a coastal town and civil parish in south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of 5,280 at the 2011 census.
Looe is west of Plymouth and south of Liskeard, divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe ( kw, links ...
,
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, and worked as a solicitor's clerk after he left school.
[ He began his football career with the local ]non-league
Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...
club, Looe F.C., for whom he scored more than 100 goals in a single season, including 10 in one match.[ He was spotted by Plymouth Argyle, signed amateur forms with them in 1926, and turned professional the following year.] Still only 17 years old and of apparently frail physique, Bowden made his senior debut in March 1927. After two appearances the following season produced four goals, he took over the centre-forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
position at the start of the 1928–29 season and went on to score 20 goals from 29 Third Division South
The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...
matches. In 1929–30, his 18 goals from 28 league matches helped Argyle gain promotion to the Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
as champions. In 1931, he was a member of the Football Association touring party that made a 17-match visit to Canada. On his return, he top-scored for Argyle for the second timethe first was in 1928–29[and by the time he left the club, he had taken his totals to 82 goals from 145 league matches.]
Bowden signed for Herbert Chapman
Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was an English football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful managers in the early 20th ...
's Arsenal in March 1933 for £4,500, as the intended replacement for David Jack. He scored in the first two of the seven First Division matches he played in what remained of that seasonnot enough for a league-winners' medalbut was a regular for the next two campaigns, as Arsenal won two more titles on the trot.[ Playing mainly as an ]inside forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
, behind Ted Drake
Edward Joseph Drake (16 August 1912 – 30 May 1995) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as wel ...
,[ he still scored his fair share][ despite his slight build in what was at the time a very physical game. His goalscoring included a haul of 13 in 1933–34, which made him Arsenal's top scorer in the league, jointly with ]Cliff Bastin
Clifford Sydney Bastin (14 March 1912 – 4 December 1991) was an English footballer who played as a winger for Exeter City and Arsenal. He also played for the England national team. Bastin is Arsenal's third-highest goalscorer of all time.
C ...
, and 14 in 1934–35, which included a hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
in an 8–1 defeat of Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
.[ Select season required.] Bowden won his first cap for England
England is a 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 separated from continental Europe b ...
that season, against Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
on 29 September 1934.[ Two months later, he was one of seven Arsenal players who played in England's 3–2 win against ]1934 World Cup
The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934.
The 1934 World Cup was the first in ...
-winners Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
in the so-called "Battle of Highbury
The Battle of Highbury was a football match between England and Italy that took place on 14 November 1934 at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London. England won 3–2 in a hotly contested and frequently violent match.
Background
This was Italy's firs ...
", during which he injured an ankle. In all Bowden represented his country six times and scored once, against Wales in February 1936;[ he also played twice for the Football League XI.][
Bowden and Arsenal won the FA Cup in 1935–36,][ but by then his ankle was causing him problems, limiting his appearances for the club that season and the next.] By the start of the 1937–38 season he had seemingly bounced back, playing ten matches in the first two months of the campaign,[ but in a reshuffle of the side he was sold to Second Division Newcastle United in November 1937 for £5,000 as Arsenal went on to win the First Division title without him.][ In all he played 138 matches for the Gunners, scoring 48 goals.][
Bowden was a regular for Newcastle United for the next two years; the club narrowly escaped relegation in his first season.] When first-class football was suspended on the outbreak of the Second World War, the 30-year-old Bowden decided to retire.[ After the war, he returned to Plymouth where he ran a sports shop with his brother.][ He died in 1998, aged 89, by which time he was the last surviving player of the great interwar Arsenal side.][
]
Honours
Plymouth Argyle
* Third Division (South): 1929–30[
Arsenal
* First Division: 1933–34, 1934–35][
*]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 competi ...
: 1935–36[
* FA Charity Shield: 1933][
]
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Ray
1909 births
1998 deaths
People from Looe
Footballers from Cornwall
English footballers
England international footballers
Association football inside forwards
Plymouth Argyle F.C. players
Arsenal F.C. players
Newcastle United F.C. players
English Football League players
English Football League representative players
FA Cup Final players