113 Years On: A Leicester Fosse Anniversary

Club Historian John Hutchinson once again opens the vault on the Foxes’ fascinating past, shining a light on more rare and remarkable artefacts from the Club’s Heritage Collection, offering a unique window into the legacy of Leicester City.

2026-09-10T13:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

10 Sep, 2026

113 Years On: A Leicester Fosse Anniversary

Club Historian John Hutchinson once again opens the vault on the Foxes’ fascinating past, shining a light on more rare and remarkable artefacts from the Club’s Heritage Collection, offering a unique window into the legacy of Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-09-10T13:00+01:00

113 Years On: A Leicester Fosse Anniversary

Club Historian John Hutchinson once again opens the vault on the Foxes’ fascinating past, shining a light on more rare and remarkable artefacts from the Club’s Heritage Collection, offering a unique window into the legacy of Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-09-10T13:00+01:00

113 Years On: A Leicester Fosse Anniversary

Club Historian John Hutchinson once again opens the vault on the Foxes’ fascinating past, shining a light on more rare and remarkable artefacts from the Club’s Heritage Collection, offering a unique window into the legacy of Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-09-10T13:00+01:00

113 Years On: A Leicester Fosse Anniversary

Club Historian John Hutchinson once again opens the vault on the Foxes’ fascinating past, shining a light on more rare and remarkable artefacts from the Club’s Heritage Collection, offering a unique window into the legacy of Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-09-10T13:00+01:00

Sunday's date was the 113th anniversary of a significant milestone. On 6 September, 1913, Leicester Fosse became the first team to play against Arsenal at their new Highbury ground, and Fosse forward Tommy Benfield became the maiden player to score a goal at the north London side’s famous old home ground.

Arsenal, then known as Woolwich Arsenal, moved to Highbury in Islington, north of the Thames, in order to survive. Their previous ground south of the river, at Plumstead, was inadequate. Crowds were plummeting. Transport links to the ground were poor and better London grounds were being built at Fulham, Chelsea and Tottenham. To cap it all, Arsenal had been relegated in April 1913.

In September 2013, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Arsenal’s move from their Plumstead home to Highbury (also then known as Gillespie Road), the Arsenal chairman, Sir Chips Keswick, presented Leicester City with this framed memento which contains a replica of the programme from the match in 1913, together with a replica teamsheet.

The inscription at the foot of the frame states that it is: ‘A gift from Arsenal Football Club to Leicester City Football Club. Celebrating 100 years of Arsenal in Islington. Woolwich Arsenal v Leicester Fosse, 6 September 1913. First match at Highbury’.

As for the historic game itself, there was a large crowd of 20,000, a distinct improvement on the average gates at Plumstead. Benfield's first goal came after 15 minutes. George Jobey, making his debut for Arsenal and who played for Leicester City after the First World War, equalised for Arsenal two minutes before half-time.

Ten minutes from the end, Arsenal took the lead with a penalty the origin of which, according to a contemporary press report, ‘could not be seen in that part of the ground where most of the press were located!’.

Also illustrated here are two other mementoes from the Leicester City archives. In the foreground, on the left, is a copy of the 1913 match programme which has been opened to show a full-page cartoon entitled, ‘On the High Road to Recovery’.

The sickly patient in the bed, representing Woolwich Arsenal Football Club, is being reassured by ‘Doctor Highbury’ in the centre of the cartoon, that he will recover but that if he’d stayed in the care of ‘Dr Plumstead’, who was standing next to him, and who represented the old ground, his fortunes wouldn’t be so positive.

The page opposite the cartoon, under the headline ‘Our Weekly Chat’, extols the virtues of the new Highbury ground. The other pages in the programme contain articles written by the directors, by ‘The Gunner’s Mate’, the Arsenal captain Percy Sands, the ‘Ancient Mariner’ and by the manager, George Morrell. The only pictures are formal portraits of directors, of Percy Sands, and of the manager.

The Arsenal matchday programme on the right of the picture was a special edition published for an old First Division fixture between Arsenal and Leicester City in 1963. This match commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first match at Highbury. It was donated to the Club by Steve Douglas, a descendant of George Douglas, one of the Fosse players in that first game.

George was guest of honour at this 50th anniversary fixture, as was another of the 1913 Fosse players, Horace Burton. The programme also contains a photograph of the Leicester Fosse team lining up on the Highbury pitch before that famous first match.

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