Talbot Stead Tube Works in Walsall was a huge labour-intensive undertaking, capable of fielding a decent football team. Having found Ted Hough there in 1921, the Southampton directors knew what they were doing when they went back, a year later, to snap up Arthur Bradford, from under the noses of West Brom.

On the tall side for a miner – he had driven pit ponies, underground, in Staffordshire – Arthur had the ideal stature for a centre-half. With Alec Campbell blocking access to that position, however, it took him a while to break into the side; but he was at left-half, alongside Campbell, when the Saints reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1925 (see scrapbook section for contract). Then, as their exciting 1920s gave way to their cash-strapped 1930s, Southampton became a selling club. Yet they maintained a strong half-back line, so Arthur’s ability to play in either full-back position helped him to keep up his appearances.

As late as 1934, he was still getting 30+ games a season. His last two matches in 1936 were ignominious affairs: an 8-0 hammering at Tottenham – then the Saints’ heaviest-ever League defeat (to be equalled at Everton in 1971 and beaten in 2019 v Leicester) – followed, two days later, by a 1-0 home defeat by Port Vale, before just 1,875 fans, the lowest Football League attendance in the club’s history. An anti-climax to a long one-club career that earned Arthur two testimonial matches. Whereupon he became mine host at the Plume of Feathers in St Mary’s and had a season with Cowes, winning the Hampshire Senior Cup, a feat he was most proud of. He died in hospital after a long illness and several operations aged only 41, leaving behind two sons, one 15 years-old and the other eight.