David Danskin
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Danskin | ||
| Date of birth | 9 January 1863 | ||
| Place of birth | Burntisland, Fife, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 4 August 1948 (aged 85) | ||
| Place of death | Warwick, England | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Kirkcaldy Wanderers | |||
| 1886–1889 | Royal Arsenal | – (–) | |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
David Danskin (9 January 1863 – 4 August 1948) was a Scottish mechanical engineer and footballer. He was a principal founding member of Dial Square FC, later renamed Royal Arsenal, the team that are today known as Arsenal.
Born in Burntisland, Fife, Danskin grew up in Kirkcaldy. He played as an amateur for Kirkcaldy Wanderers, and amongst their players were Jack McBean and Peter Connolly, two players who would later join Danskin at Royal Arsenal. In 1885 Danskin moved to London to find work, and took a job at the Dial Square workshop at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. There he met several football enthusiasts, amongst them Jack Humble and former Nottingham Forest players Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates. Together with Humble, Danskin is generally credited as the driving force behind the formation of a works football team, Dial Square FC.
Danskin organised a whip-round amongst his fellow enthusiasts and purchased Dial Square's first football, and captained the team in their very first match against Eastern Wanderers on 11 December 1886; Dial Square won 6–0. Danskin continued to play for Royal Arsenal, as the club were soon renamed afterwards, for the next two years. However after an injury incurred in a match against Clapton in January 1889, Danskin elected to step down from the side and only played a few more rare occasions after that.
Arsenal turned professional in 1891, and although Danskin stood for election to the club's committee in 1892, he did not succeed in getting elected. He ended his official association with Arsenal and later became associated with a new works team from the area, Royal Ordnance Factories, which folded in c. 1896. He also officiated as a referee in local matches. He was still fond enough of Arsenal to attend their games, and his son Billy used to sell programmes at their Manor Ground as a child.
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