News in the press recently suggesting that there might soon be new hands on the tiller (sorry! not a very appropriate analogy; let’s try again) … new occupants of the boardroom at Arsenal remind us of the long if loose relationship between the two clubs. We are not speculating that if they met on the pitch the outcome would be anything other than totally predictable; we are talking not about performance but about principle.
It is said that John Murray (Ivan) Cobbold (1879-1944) #448 in the family tree was to have gone shooting with Sir Samuel Hill-Wood (1872-1949) #8506 but as the shoot was cancelled, was taken to an Arsenal match where Sir Samuel was chairman instead. Ivan enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to put up the money for Ipswich to turn professional in 1936. The Corinthian philosophy of fair play was common to both clubs and survived in part because the chairmanship was passed down within the families. Sir Samuel’s grandson Peter #5431 became chairman on his father’s death in 1982 and is rumoured to be likely to stand down shortly. Both Ivan’s sons chaired Ipswich Town and it was the elder, John (1927-1983) #575 who received a case of champagne from Peter’s father, Denis as reward for telling the mutually disliked chairman of the Football Association to buzz off (though it is unlikely those was his actual word!).
On the family front, Denis’s mother in law was Violet Hambro (1884-1965) #5427 and Peter went into banking and became a vice-chairman of Hambros Bank, recruiting a colleague Sir Chips Keswick #992 to the Arsenal Board, and Ivan’s sister, Pamela (1900-1932) #452 married Sir Charles Hambro (1897-1963) #453, a story recorded recently in Jane Dismore’s book, The Voice from the Garden.
It seems wholly appropriate that the Trust should congratulate the Hill-Wood family on 84 years at Arsenal and wish Peter a long and happy retirement when the time comes.
Anthony Cobbold
June 2013
