Arthur Lochhead was born in Renfrewshire in 1897. He served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War, on the Western Front and in India. He joined Heart of Midlothian in 1917. An inside-right, he was selected for a Scotland international trial in March 1920.
Lochhead moved to Old Trafford in June 1921 and was relegated with Manchester United from the top flight at the end of his first season. While at United, he was training to be a teacher, but he still managed to score 50 goals in his 153 appearances.
In October 1925, Leicester City signed Arthur for a record transfer fee of £3,300 For the next 11 years, Lochhead became a major figure at Filbert Street. He played 320 games for the Club. All of his league games for the Foxes were in the top flight.
Only five players in City’s entire history have scored more than his total of 114 goals for the Club. He was a major playmaker and goalscorer in the Leicester sides which finished third and second in the old First Division in 1928 and 1929.
In 2002, Leicester City’s England international Sep Smith, then in his 90s, told us that Lochhead was the best player he had ever played with.
There is no evidence in the Club’s archives to indicate that, while at Leicester, Lochhead ever used his teaching qualifications, but there is evidence that he went into business. In 1932, he and his brother set up a radio, music and record shop in Loseby Lane.
The commemorative booklet published by the Club to mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Leicester Fosse carries an advert for this business. Lochhead was so respected at the Club that when manager Peter Hodge died unexpectedly in 1934, the directors appointed him to the manager’s post.
The ageing side that he inherited was relegated at the end of his first season as manager but he laid good foundations the following year when Leicester City finished a respectable sixth in the table.
He resigned in September 1936 against a background of boardroom dissent, returning to Scotland to become a publican, first near Kelso and then in Musselburgh. He died in Edinburgh in December 1966, but his name as one of Leicester City’s great players lives on.
