David Danskin

Who was David Danskin?

David Danskin was a Scottish mechanical engineer and footballer. He was a principal founding member of Dial Square FC, later renamed Royal Arsenal, the team that are today known as Arsenal.

Born in Burntisland, Fife, Danskin grew up in Kirkcaldy. He played as an amateur for Kirkcaldy Wanderers, and amongst their players were Jack McBean and Peter Connolly, two players who would later join Danskin at Royal Arsenal. In 1885 Danskin moved to London to find work, and took a job at the Dial Square workshop at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. There he met several football enthusiasts, amongst them Jack Humble and former Nottingham Forest players Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates. Together with Humble, Danskin is generally credited as the driving force behind the formation of a works football team, Dial Square FC.

Danskin organised a whip-round amongst his fellow enthusiasts and purchased Dial Square's first football, and captained the team in their very first match against Eastern Wanderers on 11 December 1886; Dial Square won 6-0. Danskin continued to play for Royal Arsenal, as the club were soon renamed afterwards, for the next two years. However after an injury incurred in a match against Clapton in January 1889, Danskin elected to step down from the side and only played a few more rare occasions after that.