GoS: Player Details

ARCHIBALD PENNAL (aka PINNELL)

Note: Football record books spell his surname as Pinnell, as does the 1891 census. However, earlier censuses and other official records, earlier and later, spell it differently - either Pennal, Pennall or Pennell - with his Scottish birth and death records both spelling it as Pennal.

Born: 21 July 1870

Came from: Oreston Rovers Went to: Oreston Rovers

First game: 25 December 1903 Last game: 29 February 1904

Appearances: 7 (7/0) Goals: 0

Most sources point to Pennal being born in Liverpool but further research has shown he was in fact born in 1870 in the North Ayrshire coastal town of Stevenston, where his father worked as a coalminer. His birth surname is also confirmed by his birth certificate entry on Scotland's People (on-line) as Pennal, but many sources record him as Pinnell, or variant spellings of either surname. It should also be noted that another Archibald Pennal, an Archibald Treadwell Pennal is started in some source as being born in 1867 (and in Stevenston) which often causes confusion with the stated date of birth, but this was a family cousin.

By the 1891 Census the Pennal family had moved to the north Lanarkshire town of Blantyre. It was around this time that Archie was spotted by an Everton scout, while playing Lanarkshire Junior League football with Blantyre Victoria who accepted an offer to allow him join Everton in September 1891.

Pennal started his career in earnest with two years at Everton (three Football League appearances) and then spent the 1893-94 season with Preston North End (one Football League appearance), primarily as a reserve in a number of outfield positions. He then moved on to Lancashire League side Chorley Town in 1894, becoming their first-choice goalkeeper over the following four years. Although not famed for his playing career, a photograph of Pennal in his Chorley strip at their Dole Lane ground is one of the most iconic images of Victorian-era football in Britain.

For the 1898-99 season, he moved a short distance across Lancashire to join Football League side Burnley (five appearances), and then moved on to New Brompton (the club that would later become Gillingham) in the Southern League for the 1899-1900 season, making two appearances.

Archie then joined the Scots Guards in July 1900 and fought with his regiment in the Second Boar War. According to his official military Service Record, he was deployed to South Africa from April to October 1902, serving during the final months of the conflict.

Upon returning to England in October 1902, he was placed on the Army Reserve list. Rather than traveling back to Scotland, he transitioned out of active duty while on the south coast and then moved from Kent to Devon, and turned up playing football in Plymouth for Oreston Rovers in the Plymouth & District (P&D) League. Whilst the Scots Guards were never stationed in Plymouth, it was a wise move. Oreston had local limestone quarrying for which he may have used his coalmining skills. Playing for a local amateur side allowed him to secure non-military employment while staying fit and put him within reach of Southern League clubs, to which the P&D League had started to feed players. The Southern League was then the country's most flourishing league outside of the Football League. The move also positioned him well, as the city was a hub for Services' personnel.

It really did work, as early in 1903, whilst playing for Oreston Rovers, he was approached by former Everton player-secretary, Frank Brettell. It's highly likely that he would have known, or known of Archie from his time at Goodison Park in the early 1890s. Brettell persuaded him to join him at Argyle, where he was building the club's first professional side for their Southern League debut, having just been appointed the club's first-ever manager. He joined a couple of months into the season, ostensibly as back-up to Jack Robinson, the former England keeper. Archie first kept goal for the club on Christmas Day 1903 against Reading and played his final game on 29 February 1904 against Tottenham Hotspur. He made seven appearances in green, managing just two draws with the rest being defeats, before then ending his playing days back with Oreston Rovers.

He had served as an Army Reservist for nine years until his official discharge in 1912. Proving his lifelong dedication to service, he actually re-enlisted in June 1915 during WWI, serving as an Acting Corporal in the Chinese Labour Corps. Archie, fortunately survived WWI, and was demobbed at the end of January 1919, and then returned to Blantyre where he ended his working life as a coalminer.

Having out-lived his wife, he died at a nursing home in Hamilton. Some records suggest he passed in 1948, aged 78 years old but a Scotland's People (on-line) record of a death certificate (for Hamilton) suggests he passed in 1954 aged 84 years old, which would correlate with an 1870 year of birth.

Footnote: updated from an original Greens on Screen profile using excerpts from Tony Onslow's "Your Contribution" below, which we have left in place as it contains wider details of his career outside of his time at Home Park. With thanks to Tony and the Everton FC Heritage Society.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION

If you can add to this profile, perhaps with special memories, a favourite story or the results of your original research, please contribute here.

From Tony Onslow in Liverpool. on 20/11/2013 ...

I am an Everton fan who, like yourself, loves my team. I have written and researched the full hit on Archie, who despite Everton's club records, was born in Scotland and not Liverpool. I have submitted my research to the ToffeeWeb website and am happy to replicate it here.

From Tony Onslow in Liverpool. on 20/11/2013 ...

The official club records claim he was born in Liverpool but Archie was, in fact, born in the Ayrshire coastal town of Stevenson where his father worked as a coalminer. The year was 1870. The 1891 census then reveals that the Pinnell family had moved to the north Lanarkshire town of Blantyre where Archie was reported to living, with his parents and three brothers, at 7 Bairds Row and he was working, along with his father and elder brother, at a local colliery that was owned by William Baird. It was around this time that Archie was spotted, by an Everton scout, while playing junior football with Blantyre Victoria and it was from this club that he was offered the opportunity to join Everton in September 1891. He accepted the proposal and began a great odyssey that was, eventually, to bring him back in his native Scotland.

Archie Pinnell made his debut for Everton Football Club on 25 October 1891, in a specially arranged reserve team fixture against Accrington that was played at Anfield. He played at centre forward and helped the side to a 2-0 victory. He then settled in the club's Reserves side in the Combination, where he played out the rest of the season. These were however, troubled times at Everton where a group of directors, who were in dispute with the club's president, decided to leave Anfield and set up home at Goodison Park. Archie elected to join them on their exodus across Stanley Park.

There had been, since his arrival in England, an improvement in his play and this resulted in Archie making his first team debut on 17 September 1892, against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. He played as goalkeeper and game ended in 2-2 draw. Archie kept his place in the first eleven and made his home debut, next Saturday, in a 6-0 victory against Newton Heath on a Goodison Park ground that was still taking shape. It had been a heavy defeat for the Manchester club but they had a chance to gain their revenge when the two sides met again, in a Football League match three days later. Archie was again selected to play in goal.

The Newton Heath club played their home games on North Road close to the large Lancashire & Yorkshire railway depot from which they derived their name. It was dull and overcast day when Archie took up his place in the Everton goal in front of a crowd of 3,000 people. The home side then took an early but Fred Geary equalised for Everton. The match had been in progress for 75 minutes when the referee, a Mr Fitzroy-Norris, claimed it had become too dark for him distinguish the aspects of play and promptly abandoned the game leaving everybody, quite literally, very much in the dark. (The match was later replayed and Everton won 4-3.) Archie then took his place back in the Combination side before returning to make his third, and final, appearance for the Everton first eleven on 8 October 1893.

Rain was falling in torrents when he took up his place beneath the Everton crossbar to face the Football League Champions, Sunderland. The Wearsiders had earned themselves the title of “team of all talents” and would again, at the end of the season, retain their title. The large Goodison Road side had yet to be developed but the other three sides of the ground were now covered, enabling a capacity crowd, around 20,000 in number, to pay record gate receipts to watch the match. The visitors then commenced to give Archie a torrid time in the Everton goal and he was beaten on four occasions as the visitors won the game by 4 goals to 1. He was dropped after the game but still enjoyed the rest of the season by playing in an Everton second eleven who were scoring goals for fun. They won the Combination, having scored 102 goals in 22 matches, with several weeks to spare. Nevertheless, Archie left Everton, at the end of the season, and joined Preston North End.

The Scotsman spent one season at Deepdale, playing just one game, before accepting an offer to play Lancashire League football with Chorley. During the four seasons he spent there an iconic picture was taken, depicting the Victorian footballer, of him, sitting in the goalmouth on the club's home at Dole Lane. (This may be seen on Wikipedia.) Archie later played 5 league games for Burnley before joining the great trek south to sign for Southern League side New Brompton, where he made just two appearances.

Archie Pinnell then joined the Scots Guards where he lists his brother William as being his next of kin. He then fought, with his regiment, in the Boar War before suddenly reappearing, in 1903, playing football for a Devonshire amateur side with the name of Oreston Rovers. Archie was then approached by the former Everton player/secretary, Frank Bretell, to join him at Southern League side Plymouth Argyle where he had just been appointed to the role of manager. He first kept goal for Plymouth on 25 December 1903 against Reading and played his final game on 29 February1904 against Tottenham Hotspur before ending his playing days back with Oreston Rovers.

He later returned to Blantyre where he took up his old job as a coalminer. On 15 July 1915, Archie, now 39 years old, married a widow lady named Agnes Reynolds in Glasgow. The marriage certificate reveals that Agnes is a Hospital Nurse and that she has a home in Blantyre. Archie then celebrated the occasion by re-joining the Scots Guards for his army record tells us he was placed in charge of a Chinese Labour Corp in France.

He survived World War One and returned to Blantyre where he ended his working life as a coalminer. This former Everton goalkeeper, having survived his wife, died at a nursing home in the Scottish town of Hamilton. He was 78 years old.

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From Geoff Reynolds in Caerphilly, Wales on 07/04/2015 ...

Archibald Pennell did indeed marry Agnes Reynolds in 1915. They had had a relationship over many years and in fact had a son born "out of wedlock" in 1895. He was christened Norman Scott (Agnes Reynolds maiden name was Scott) and was killed in action in France on Thursday 25th July 1918 aged 23. On the certificate on the Commonwealth War Graves commission website he is shown as the son of Archibald and Agnes Pennell. Agnes subsequently married a William Reynolds. Archibald and Agnes marriage was suspect in that they married in 1915 with Agnes describing herself as a widow. However I know her ... More

APPEARANCE DETAILS [reselect competitions]

The details below reflect appearances in all first-team competitions.