Roy William Stroud 1925-2015
Roy Stroud: The Arsenal guest 1943 & 1944; Amateur 1939 & 1947-50
A wartime guest for the Gunners, he played many seasons for Hendon and as an England Amateur International before trying his hand professionally at West Ham. He also had two periods as an amateur for the Arsenal.
Born in Silvertown, East London on 16 March 1925 Roy Stroud a promising forward was playing first-team football for Golders Green at the age of 14.
He was on Arsenal’s books just before the War signing on 21 August 1939 as an amateur, though he was technically registered as a Golders Green player in the war. During WW2 he served with the Royal Engineers.
While with Golders Green he played as a guest amateur for Arsenal four times during the war. He made a scoring debut in a late season friendly at Luton on 17 April 1943 as outside right. Stroud then appeared three times for the Gunners in the next season all as a right winger and all in the Football League (South). His final Arsenal appearance being on 1 April 1944 at Aldershot.
He also made a number of guest appearances during the war for Brentford. After the war he resumed his career with Golders Green who were now known as Hendon.
As an amateur he was able to sign for Arsenal whilst also being a Hendon player. He did this on 19 June 1947, and played one Football Combination game during the 1947-48 season. He was finally released by Arsenal in May 1950 without having played any more games.
Following the war Arsenal and Hendon played a regular friendly fixture towards the end of each season for the Will Mather Manor House Hospital Cup. Arsenal tended to field a reserve team with a smattering of first team players. Stroud played for Hendon in this fixture on a number of occasions.
He went on to score 212 goals in 428 appearances for Hendon, and between 1948-1953 won 11 England Amateur international caps.
In April 1952 he signed as an amateur for West Ham, though continued to appear for Hendon, until he finally turned professional in November 1953 but was mostly a reserve during his time at West Ham. After 13 first team games for the Hammers he left in the summer of 1957.
He moved on to Chelmsford City, but his playing career was cut short by knee injury in November 1958. Roy later worked as a buyer for Liptons and Safeways. At the time of his death he was living in Newton Ferrers, Devon and was believed to be West Ham’s oldest living player.
Roy Stroud passed away on 4 June 2015
Sources
Arsenal Football Club records
They fly so high – WHU website
Wonderful World of West Ham United Statistics
—————–
Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog (top right).
—————–
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal – crowd behaviour at the early matches