He scored these goals while representing the English FA in their 1929 tour of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
We are fortunate to have access to the details of Arthur’s exploits on that tour. These would have been largely lost to history had he not left his newspaper cuttings from the tour to the Club before his death at the age of 88 in 1984. These crumbling, yellowing pages from the South African and Southern Rhodesian press (now on the Club’s digital archive), vividly transport us back to this tour 92 years ago.
Arthur arrived in Salisbury (now Harare) in Southern Rhodesia on 26 June, 1929 as a member of a very strong FA touring party. This contained several England internationals including Arthur’s Leicester City team-mate, left full-back Reg Osborne.
Following a three-day train journey from Bulawayo, the players were travel-weary on arrival in Salisbury but when asked if the long periods of overland travel between venues on the tour had adversely affected them, the players’ view was that this wasn’t an issue provided that they had the opportunity to practice before games.
Prior to their arrival in Salisbury, the English team was undefeated on the tour and Chandler was in great form.
In the build up to the visit to Southern Rhodesia he had scored 20 goals in the 10 games in South Africa, an itinerary which had included one Test Match against the host nation.
Consequently, Arthur was the star player that everybody in Southern Rhodesia wanted to see. On his arrival in Salisbury, under the heading “Chandler’s Greatness”, the Rhodesia Herald described Chandler as being “5 feet 9 inches tall and almost 12 stone. He has scored a great crop of goals so far on the tour and this has whetted appetites to see more. He thunders down the centre. He is a big lump to tackle and stop. He has got scores of goals for Leicester City and can shoot like a gun."
Arthur certainly lived up to his reputation while in Rhodesia.
On 27 June, 1929 Arthur scored a hat-trick for the FA in a 4-0 win against Rhodesia at Salisbury.
Two days later, on 29 June 1929, in a 6-1 win over Rhodesia in Bulawayo, Arthur scored another hat-trick. At this stage of the tour, Chandler had scored a remarkable 26 goals in 12 games.
The verdict on Chandler after his two games in Southern Rhodesia was described in the local press in these terms: “Chandler was the shining light. His form was a revelation. His ball control, on grounds like concrete, was remarkable.” Another report described Arthur as “easily the best centre-forward ever to have come to this country.”
There were some tensions though. The local press resented the English “win at all costs” approach to the game and did not approve of the way the English players shouted instructions to each other on the field which they felt was “bad form.”
The close season is traditionally a time when players are on holiday. This was certainly not the case for Arthur all those years ago. He followed up his week in Southern Rhodesia with seven more goals in four more games in South Africa, two of which were Test Matches. His final goal tally for the tour was an amazing 33 goals in 16 games.
Arthur was well paid for his exploits on the FA Tour. He received £9.50 per week at a time when the top contracts in England in the close season were only £6.00 per week.
Some of Arthur’s memorabilia from his remarkable tour are in the Club’s collection. These include his FA Tour cap, his personal snapshots taken during the tour and his newspaper archive.