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Personal
Fullname: David Nelson
Born: 3 February 1918
Died: 27 September 1988
Birthplace: Douglas Water, Lanarkshire
Signed: 3 January 1942 (loan)
Position: Outside-left
Debut: Clyde 2-1 Celtic, Regional League, 3 Jan 1942
Internationals: none
Biog
The young Lanark born David Nelson moved south to Arsenal aged only 18 to make a career, after playing for Douglas Water Thistle (his hometown club), and then for St Bernards, from whom he joined Arsenal for £200 in May 1936.
Despite the youthful age, he managed some appearances for Arsenal in his first years before sadly wartime began to hinder his on-field career. When not playing in the first team he was a regular member of the London Combination reserve side where he made 95 appearances and won league honours three seasons running from 1937 to 1939. During the war years he was still a regular player and made 164 appearances for the club.
The Arsenal man David Nelson made a solitary appearance for Celtic as a guest in the wartime Regional League. A corporal in the Wiltshire Regiment, loan appearances during the war were common amongst teams (but Celtic didn’t utilise this opportunity enough). He was to become a sergeant in the British Army.
The Douglas Water-born outside-left made his solitary appearance in the Hoops in a 2-1 defeat at Clyde on 3rd January 1942, a period when Celtic were woeful.
Said to be a ‘cute passer‘ with ‘a little whippy style‘.
He possibly holds a near unique feat at Celtic in that he won his place in the game v Clyde following a defeat to Rangers on Ne’er Day in 1941-42, replacing his brother (James Nelson) who was dropped.
His brother went on to play just one further game for Celtic, but it was a tough time to try to make a name for yourself in the game. It was wartime and players had to fit in wherever possible and his brother like many others saw their football careers dented due to this. It may have possibly been a dig in the ribs to lose his position in the side to his elder brother David Nelson (even for just this one match).
David Nelson was to be a guest player at various clubs, not uncommon through the war years, guesting during that time for Clapton Orient, Tottenham Hotspur, Brentford and Chesterfield.
After the war, he continued with Arsenal but then later played for Colchester Utd, Fulham, Brentford (his longest spell, over 100 games), QPR, Crystal Palace and Ashford Town (Kent). So in effect he may hold a record to have played for more major London professional clubs than anyone else.
After retiring from first team football, David Nelson later moved to the US to St Louis to work in a car plant.
He passed away in the US in 1988.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | REGIONAL LEAGUE |
SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1942 | 1 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 1 |
| Goals: | 0 | – | – | – | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
none
Pictures
Links
Articles
David Nelson, an Arsenal career interrupted by war
-https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/11472
David Nelson: the vital dates…
3 February 1918 David Nelson born, Douglas Water, Scotland
?May 1936: David Nelson joins Arsenal (exact date unknown)
28 December 1936: David Nelson’s first game, a 3-1 win over Preston
9 November 1946: David Nelson last match Preston 2 Arsenal 0
12 December 1946: David Nelson and Cyril Grant to Fulham
Although listed in Wikipedia as a wing half David Nelson played mostly for Arsenal on the left and right wings at number 7 and 11, although he did occasionally play in the half back line.
His clubs before Arsenal are shown as Douglas Water Thistle (his hometown club), and St Bernards, from whom he joined Arsenal for £200 in May 1936 at the age of 18
He made his debut in a 3-1 win over Preston North End in December 1936, the first of eight appearances and three goals that season all save one on the wing – his run including playing in the last six games of the season. However he dropped out of the side for the following season, only to come back in with nine games in the last season before the war. (during which he served as a sergeant in the Army).
When not playing in the first team he was a regular member of the the London Combination reserve side however, where he made 95 appearances and won league honours three seasons running from 1937 to 1939. In addition, he played 161 times for the club during wartime, suggesting he was based in London, rather than being posted overseas.
In 1946/7 he was in the line up for the opening match playing at right half, but after three games in that position played outside left and outside right until his departure to Fulham in December 1946 as part of the deal in which Fulham got David and Cyril Grant and Arsenal got Ronnie Rooke.
Here is his Arsenal record
From the official match day programme of Arsenal v. Coventry City, 29.10.88
-https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/11472
‘We were sad to hear of the death last month of David Nelson, who played for us between 1935 and 1947. David, who was 70, died in Greenwich, Connecticut. He and his wife Eileen had moved to America after David retired from Football, in 1955.
David was born in Lanark, Scotland. He joined Arsenal as a 17 year-old and made his first team debut in 1938.
He made 19 appearances for us in all, but the war curtailed his Highbury career.
We send our condolences to his family.’
David NELSON
Source: Kaufman, Neilson. “VE Day WW2 players as at May 2020” (PDF). pp. 84–85. Retrieved 18 July 2020
Wing half and outside left David Nelson was born in Douglas Water, Scotland, 3 February 1918 and older brother of James Park Nelson, who also played for Glasgow Celtic.
David Nelson started his career with Douglas Water Thistle and also St Bernard’s. In May 1936 he came south at the age of eighteen for £200 to join
Arsenal and during his first season he made 8 League appearances with 3 goals, his debut coming in a 3-1 win against Preston North End on 28 December 1936. In the 1938-39 season he made a further 9 League appearances with 1 goal. In the 1945-46 season he played in 2 FA Cup ties.
He also appeared in 95 London Combination reserve appearances and won three Combination titles between 1937 and 1939 for the Gunners.
During the war years he made a guest appearance for Glasgow Celtic on 3
January 1942 in a 2-1 Scottish Regional League 3 victory over Clyde replacing his brother who was dropped.
He was then stationed at Colchester Garrison where he served as a Serjeant in the Army, he made a guest appearances for Colchester United firstly on 6
October 1945, a 1-0 win over Cheltenham, and a final appearance came on 11 April 1946, a 1-1 draw against Chelmsford City, making a total of 3 Southern League appearances, 1 FA Cup appearance and 2 Southern League Cup appearances without scoring. He made 1 appearance for Tottenham Hotspur in 1942-43 and 1 appearance in 1943-44 and 4 appearances for Brentford in 1943-44.
However, during the war years he also made 161 appearances for Arsenal
being a stalwart over seven seasons with 25 goals.
After the war he returned to Highbury making a further 10 League appearances, his final game came on 9 November 1946 a 2-0 defeat against
Preston North End.
After ten-years at Highbury he moved to Fulham in December 1946, as part of the deal that took prolific goalscorer Ronie Rooke to Arsenal. He made his
debut on Christmas Day, a 4-2 defeat at Newport County. His final
appearance came on 14 June 1947, a 1-1 draw at Millwall. He made 23 League appearances with 4 goals and 1 FA Cup appearance with 0 goals.
He left Craven Cottage during July 1947 and signed for Brentford the
following month. He stayed three seasons with Brentford making 106 League appearances, scroring 5 goals (1 pen).
In February 1950 he signed for Queens Park Rangers in an exchange deal for William Pointon, making his debut on 18 February, a 1-3 defeat to Sheffield United and stayed for three seasons, although he never featured in his final term and after making a total of 31 League appearances with 0 goals and 1 appearance in the FA Cup, he moved to Crystal Palace in March 1952 but was a fringe player with just 6 appeearances in each of his two seasons at Selhursat Park. He moved onto Ashford Town in 1953.
During the late 1950s he emmigrated to the United States to work at a St Louis car plant.Although living in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, he died when he was on an out of State visit in West Haven, New York, USA on 27
September 1988, aged seventy. Nelson made 1 wartime appearance for O’s in 1940-41.