Art Dominy was one of those players whose goal-scoring knack in local football did not desert him when he turned professional.

Thus, the teenager who had scored 50 goals for Bitterne Guild in 1911-12, and for whom Southampton soon paid £15, was the club’s top scorer in the Southern League in 1913-14 with the Portsmouth Evening News describing him as “second Frank Jefferis”. True that honor required only 13 goals of him, but as he made the inside-right position his own the next season, Dominy’s tally of 30 goals in 37 games topped the Southern League’s charts.

Southampton had acquired a special talent – ball control second to none, coupled with the priceless ability, for a forward, of being able to beat an opponent at close quarters

– but now war intervened. A boiler-maker by trade, Arthur was in a reserved occupation, which he practiced at Harland and Wolff. The shipyard attracted other professional footballers not only from The Dell – including Art’s brother, Tom, two years his senior (a Saints Reserve on 71 occasions – the most without ever getting into the pre-war first eleven)  – but from further afield, so its works team was quite aside. It was one of four teams for whom Arthur guested during the War. Returning to full-time football in 1919, Art now formed a formidable strike-partnership with centre-forward Bill Rawlings. Selected to play for the Southern League against the Irish League in 1919-20, Dominy would get to play in several England trial matches, but would never be capped.

When Southampton were admitted to the Football League in 1920, he continued to play regularly and to score his share of the goals, secondary only to Rawlings. Having captained the Saints in their promotion to Division II in 1922 and in their FA Cup-runs of 1924 and 1925 (see scrapbook section), Arthur was given a free transfer, in 1926, to First Division Everton, who had initially enquired about him in 1920.

He formed an alliance, and lasting friendship, there, with Dixie Dean.

Returning to Southampton in 1931, he became the licensee at the Mason’s Arms in St Mary’s Street, while playing, non-league, for Newport (IoW), where he once again teamed up with Bill Rawlings, and guested for the Saints in the annual Hants Benevolent Cup, when first-team players refused terms. In 1934, he was offered the manager’s job at Le Havre but opted to stay in the pub trade and also became involved in the grocery business as well as becoming manager of the Bournemouth Greyhound stadium, Victoria Park.

By now, much of his spare time was spent scouting for Southampton although he was also helping to run a sports stadium in Bournemouth. In 1943, following the resignation of Tom Parker, Arthur took on the responsibilities of team manager, a part-time position in which he served until the appointment of Bill Dodgin in 1946.

A Saints fan through and through, Arthur never missed a game and, after the war, took over the stewardship of the Saints Supporters Club. On the very day, Arthur died his brother Tom wrote to the Echo from his home in Norfolk Road, Shirley to inform them of his younger sibling’s passing, recalling how they had both signed up on the same day in 1912.