In 1988 Ted Drake fondly recalled from his Wimbledon home how as a young boy growing up in Southampton, his idol was Bill Rawlings, the Saints, and England centre- forward, and also how, kicking a ball around the back streets of the town, he would imagine himself to be the first Southampton-born forward to play for England. It wasn’t long before his childhood dreams were to be realised as George Kay, encouraged by Ted’s form at Winchester City, persuaded the youngster to join Southampton’s nursery side.

Although he initially continued his day job as a gas meter inspector it wasn’t long before he had burst into the senior side in November 1931, which was when he signed professional forms. (The Board minutes of 9.11.’31 record the receipt of a complaint by a Mr. Jacobs of Southampton Gaslight and Coke Co expressing annoyance that they had not been consulted when the club offered their employee professional terms).

Ted’s dynamic and determined bravery and ferocious shooting skills with either foot soon attracted the attention of Arsenal

but, content at The Dell, Ted decided to reject a move to Highbury and during the 1933-34 season he used his combativeness in the air to blast his way to the position of top scorer in Division Two by March with 22 League goals in 27 games. Arsenal, with George Allison recently appointed manager, came again and with Ted now willing to move the deal was done, cueing most of Southampton going into mourning.

Saints were cash-strapped so much that by the time debts were paid they were left with just £250 from the fee of £6,000.

The Arsenal manager declared Ted to be “the best centre-forward in the world”

and his subsequent exploits both in an Arsenal and England shirt have now become part of Arsenal folklore, and, right up to the outbreak of war, he led both forward lines with an old fashioned cut-and-thrust now redundant in the modern game.

In his first whole season in the First Division, he scored a remarkable 42 goals in 41 games and the next year he famously scored seven in an away match at Aston Villa. It was little wonder then that he scored on his England debut in November 1934 in a 3-2 win over Italy in the notorious ‘Battle of Highbury’. During the war, Ted joined the RAF, but a spinal injury incurred during PT training and exacerbated in war-time football led to his retirement in 1945.

Becoming manager at Reading he steered them to second place in Division III(S) and then in 1955 he guided Chelsea to their first League Championship, becoming the first man to win the First Division both as a player and a manager. This achievement was a triumph for his acumen in the transfer market – including the purchase of Peter Sillett from Southampton – rather than his tactical wisdom: upon graduating to the first-team dressing room at Stamford Bridge,

Jimmy Greaves was amazed to find that the manager’s pre-match pep-talk amounted to little more than an “all the best”, plus the occasional “good luck” or “let’s go”.

After leaving Chelsea, in 1961, apparently after falling out with the Board over the appointment of coach Tommy Docherty, Ted became a bookmaker before returning to the game four years later to assist Vic Buckingham first at Fulham and then at Barcelona. But he will be remembered for more than his records and medals. When he died in 1995, Ivan Ponting in the Independent wrote. 

“But there was more to the popular Hampshire man’s appeal than his professional accomplishments, impressive though they were. Ted Drake was blessed with an infectiously sunny outlook on life in general and football in particular. As a player he was dashingly courageous, thrillingly bold; as a manager, he was committed, perhaps a trifle idealistically at times, to that same positive approach; and throughout more than half a century spent in and around the game he was a modest, cheerful and unfailingly gentleman”.

Ted’s widow, Ruby (see photo above), lived to the great old age of 103, passing away in 2014.