Edris Albert "Eddie" Hapgood
(September
24,
1908 —
April 20,
1973)
was an
English
footballer, who captained
Arsenal and
England.
Born in
Bristol, he started his career as an amateur (while employed as a
milkman),
before getting his big break at
Kettering Town. He was signed by
Herbert Chapman to Arsenal for £950 in
1927. Playing at
left back,
Hapgood went on to become captain of the Arsenal team which dominated
English football in the
1930s, winning
five
League Championships and two
FA Cups. He
played 440 times in all.
Hapgood played for England 30 times, wearing the captain's armband 21 times.
His first match as captain was the infamous "Battle
of Highbury" on
November
14, 1934,
against
Italy, who were then
World Champions (England had declined to take part in the World Cup, so the
match was billed a "true world champions" match). The match was notoriously
dirty, with many players sustaining injuries, including Hapgood himself with a
broken nose;
England beat the Italians (who were effectively reduced to ten men for most of
the match) 3-2.
Hapgood also captained England in an even more infamous match, against
Germany in
Berlin on May
14, 1938, where
Hapgood and his players were made to give the
Nazi
salute before the match, under pressure from British
diplomats.
Hitler was not
in attendance; England won the match 6-3.
The
Second World War cut short Hapgood's career, but after the war he had stints
managing
Blackburn Rovers, and then
Watford
and
Bath City. After that he left football completely, and spent his later years
running a YMCA
hostel in Harwell,
Berkshire
and in Weymouth,
Dorset. He died
in
Leamington Spa on
Good
Friday 1973.
