King George V

Burnley 1914

1923

 Arsenal 1930

Manchester City 1934

King George V was the first reigning monarch to attend an FA Cup Final (1914). He put in a number of appearances during his 26 years on the throne.

His presence at the Wembley fiasco in 1923 was said to have contributed to the relative restraint demonstrated by the 200,000 plus crowd. 

Wembley 1923

Bolton Wanderers		West Ham United
Dick Pym	GK	Ted Hufton
Bob Haworth	FB	Billy Henderson
Alex Finney	FB	Jack Young
Harry Nuttall	HB	Syd Bishop
Jimmy Seddon	HB	George Kay (c)
Billy Jennings	HB	Jack Tresadern
Billy Butler	F	Dick Richards
David Jack	F	Billy Brown
Jack Smith	F	Vic Watson
Joe Smith (c)	F	Billy Moore
Ted Vizard	F	Jimmy Ruffell
Charles Foweraker	M	Syd King

This was one of those iconic events that has had so much written about it that there's not much to add.

It was a game that shouldn't have been played and a result that shouldn't have been allowed to stand. But there was a game of football, of sorts, played at Wembley Stadium on April 28th 1923.
The crowd, it goes without saying, frequently interfered with the play. Bolton's first goal, scored by David Jack, came when a West Ham defender was trying to extricate himself from the crowd. Jack Smith's second half strike was even more controversial. The ball was played to Vizard by a spectator. Vizard centred and Smith shot. The ball cannoned back into the field of play and the referee awarded a goal, despite the protests of the West Ham players that the shot had hit the post.

The Empire Stadium

Completed just 4 days before the 1923 FA Cup Final, The Empire Stadium was built in exactly 300 days at the cost of £750,000. 
The official capacity was 125,000, though after the free for all lunacy of the 1923 FA Cup  Final attendances were generally in the 90,000- 93,000 bracket.

Wembley Wizards?

England were not merely beaten. They were bewildered – run to a standstill, made to appear utterly inferior by a team whose play was as cultured and beautiful as I ever expect to see
Ivan Sharpe

Some teams enter into the mythology of football for sustained success, whilst others cement their places in history by one remarkable result. The Wembley Wizards of 1928 were a curious anomaly.
England had only beaten Scotland 6 times in the 20th century, and they hadn't won the British Home Championship outright since 1913.
England and Scotland had shared the Championship in 1927, when  England had registered a rare victory in Glasgow.
In 1928 one could have expected any showdown between England and Scotland as being a de facto world championship. Sadly neither team played much foreign opposition in those days, and even in countries whose abilities and reputations were advanced (Argentina, Uruguay, Austria, Italy) the English and Scottish  game was still revered as being  the pinnacle of football.  But if we look at the 1928 British Home Championships we will see that all was not well on either side of Hadrian's Wall.
The England Scotland match was the piece de resistance in the calender and was traditionally the finale of the championships. 
The season began disastrously for England- they lost 2-0 to Ireland in Belfast (Ireland's 4th win in matches between the 2). The following week Scotland managed a 2-2 draw with Wales in Wrexham (the Scots had never had much joy at the Racecourse) . The third match, played a month later saw England slump to a rare home defeat at the hands of Wales. 
The Championship resumed in February with a win for Wales in Ireland followed by an Irish victory over the Scots.  The final match was therefore a wooden spoon decider, with the table showing  Wales with 5 points from 3 games, Ireland 4 from 3, Scotland 1 from 2, England 0 from 2. 
A home win for England would have lifted them to third. 
Scotland though must surely have fancied their chances against such a miserable England side. 

The Scottish press, however, were less than confident, The Daily Record  stating in the build up to the match:
It's not a great side and the Scottish football public were unimpressed by the number of English based players in the selection. 

Here's the team:

Jack Harkness- Queens Park
Jimmy Nelson- Cardiff City
Tommy Law - Chelsea
Jimmy Gibson - Aston Villa
Tom Bradshaw- Bury
Jimmy McMullan- Manchester City
Alex Jackson- Huddersfield Town
Jimmy Dunn- Hibernian
Hughie Gallacher- Newcastle United
Alex James- Preston North End
Alan Morton- Glasgow Rangers


Not a great side? there are 4 legendary names in the list (Jackson, Gallacher, James and Morton). I guess the Scots were smarting from their poor showing in the earlier games.

80,000 saw Alex Jackson put Scotland ahead in the 3rd minute. Alex James doubled the lead in the 44th. In the second half Scotland were dominant. Jackson got his second (65) and James made it 4-0 (74). Jackson completed his hat trick on 85. Alan Morton was particularly effective, providing assists for 3 of the goals. England got a consolation goal in the last minute. 
It was a humbling experience for England to be beaten so comprehensively on their home turf by their oldest rivals, the first time they had conceded 5 goals in a game since 1883.

The table for the British Home Championship that season makes miserable reading for England:

	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Wales	2	1	0	6	4	5
Ireland	2	0	1	4	2	4
Scotland	1	1	1	7	4	3
England	0	0	3	2	9	0

So, a case of a poor Scotland side beating a dreadful England? 
The retrospective Elo ratings  place England at 16 after this game (their lowest ever) and Scotland at 4.

The Jacks

This has got nothing to do with Swansea Town (or City)...

David Jack took a look at the masses of people covering the Wembley pitch on 28th April 1923 and said to his father 'If I don't get a goal in the first five minutes I'm coming off...' 
He got one in the 3rd minute. The first goal ever scored at Wembley. So every football lover should know the name of David Jack.
He was , however, part of a footballing family that shows us a great deal about the game's development in the first part of the 20th century.

Bob Jack

David's father, Bob Jack, was a Scotsman. An outside right, he started playing for Alloa Athletic as a 15 year old. Like many Scottish professionals at the time he moved to England, where he played for Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End before stepping down in class to turn out for Glossop, Plymouth Argyle and Southend United.
He had moved into management whilst still at Argyle (joining them in 1903 he became player manager in 1905) and was player manager during his 4 year stint with Southend (1906-10). On retiring as a player he returned to Plymouth, where he was in charge for 28 years (for a total of 1,093 games). In later life he carried out scouting duties for Southend (when David was managing them).

Bob Jack had three grandly named sons who were all footballers:

David Bone Nightingale Jack was one of the most well known footballers of his era.

An inside forward, he began his career at Plymouth Argyle when his father was the manager. After just one season he moved to Bolton Wanderers in 1920.  He was the club's top scorer for five of the eight seasons he was there, scoring 144 goals in 295 league matches. In 1928 Bolton were facing financial problems. David Jack then became the world's most expensive footballer when Herbert Chapman paid  £10,890  to take him to Arsenal (the previous world record was £6,550).

Rollo

Robert Rollo Jack was an inside right. 3 years younger than David, he began his career with Plymouth Argyle at the age of 20. Having made 15 league appearances he was sold to Bolton Wanderers (where he joined David) for £1500. Rollo was a fringe player at Bolton, and in six seasons  he only made 29 League appearances. In 1929 Rollo joined Clapton Orient and was a regular for 3 seasons. He drifted into non league football before joining Swindon Town in 1934. 


Donald Atrill Jack. Donald didn't reach the level of accomplishment achieved by his brothers. He was a reserve player with Argyle, also turning out for Torquay United.  He joined Bolton Wanderers in 1922, but only played for the reserves. He also served Bradford City, but was not a first team player. 

After giving up football to pursue a career in accountancy Donald played as an  amateur with Finchley. 

Wembley 1930

In the early years of its existence the FA tended to use The Empire Stadium Wembley only for the FA Cup Final, which was played there every year from 1923 onwards. 1930 was the 3rd time that the England v Scotland match had been held there. Less lucrative games against Wales and Ireland were still played at league grounds. Remarkably the England Scotland game was only the tenth football match played at Wembley in 7 years.

 Wembley Stadium ltd, (managing director the noteworthy entrepreneur Mr Arthur Elvin) was a private company. Mr Elvin had shrewdly developed the company and effectively saved the stadium from demolition following the Empire Exhibition of 1924. He was always on the lookout for attractions to maximize the use of the stadium, leading to the introduction of speedway, greyhound racing and the construction of the Wembley Arena.

In 1930 there were 4 matches played at Wembley Stadium:

5th April 1930: British Home Championships

 England 5 Scotland 2 

                                                                 (87,375)

In the previous decade England had only won 2 matches against Scotland (1920 & 27) and had not won the British Home Championships outright since 1913. The previous 2 meetings of the old rivals had seen Scotland's famous Wembley Wizards' 5-1 victory in 1928 and a 1-0 win for Scotland at Hampden in 1929. 

For the 1930 fixture England fielded 4 debutants (Strange,Webster, Crooks and Rimmer). England controlled the game. They were 4-0 up at half time thanks to Watson (2), Rimmer and Jack. Fleming pulled 2 goals back for Scotland in the second half but these were separated by Rimmer's  2nd and England's 5th. 

Line ups:

England: Harry Hibbs  (Birmingham City); Roy Goodall  (Huddersfield Town); Ernie Blenkinsop; Alf Strange  (both Sheffield Wednesday); Maurice Webster  (Middlesbrough); Billy Marsden  (Sheffield Wednesday); Sammy Crooks  (Derby County); David Jack (Arsenal(c)); Vic Watson  (West Ham United); Joe Bradford   (Birmingham City); Ellis Rimmer  (Sheffield Wednesday).

Scotland: Jack Harkness (Heart of Midlothian); Dougie Gray (Glasgow Rangers); Tommy Law (Chelsea); Jock Buchanan; Davie Meiklejohn (c); Tully Craig (all Glasgow Rangers); Alex Jackson (Huddersfield Town); Alex James (Arsenal); Jimmy Fleming (Glasgow Rangers); George Stevenson (Motherwell); Alan Morton (Glasgow Rangers).  

26th April 1930: FA Cup Final

 Arsenal 2 Huddersfield Town 0 

(92,499)

Herbert Chapman's Arsenal faced his former charges Huddersfield Town in the 1930 Cup Final. It will sound strange to modern fans that Huddersfield were the more successful of the two clubs at the time. In the six seasons from 1922 they had finished in the top 3 of the first division (winning the title three years in succession) and were appearing in their 4th Cup Final in 10 years.  Arsenal , on the other hand, had appeared in one FA Cup Final and had yet to claim any silverware of note.
Their 2-0 win thanks to goals by Alex James and Jack Lambert  was the beginning of an episode in the club's history that saw them permanently elevated to the ranks of the greats. 
Line ups:
Arsenal: Charlie Preedy; Tom Parker (c);  Eddie Hapgood;  Alf Baker;  Bill Seddon;  Bob John;  Joe Hulme;  David Jack;  Jack Lambert;  Alex James; Cliff Bastin (Manager: Herbert Chapman)

Huddersfield Town: Hugh Turner; Roy Goodall; Bon Spence; Jimmy Naylor; Tom Wilson (c); Austen Campbell; Alex Jackson;Bob Kelly; Harry Davies; Harry Raw; Billy Smith (Manager: Clem Stephenson)

So, England and Scotland, two of the World Football Superpowers, and Arsenal and Huddersfield Town, the eras most prolific club side and the rising stars in by far the most superior league in the world.
What next...
Clapton Orient versus Brentford?
Yes.
The idea of Wembley being used by the lesser lights was not a new one.
A prospective London based club (that never really existed) called Argonauts were  able to give assurances that Wembley would be their home ground when they unsuccessfully applied to the Football League in 1928, 1929 and 1930.
So, why Clapton Orient?
Orient (today's Leyton Orient) had moved into a new ground at  Lea Bridge Road (Hackney, London) at the beginning of the 1930 season. There was a problem , however. The speedway track was too close to the pitch and the pitch was already the minimum permitted width. Restructuring was necessary. Orient unsuccessfully approached both Leyton FC and Walthamstow Road about temporarily using their grounds. So Wembley it was.

22nd November 1930: League Division Three (Southern Section)

Clapton Orient 3 Brentford 0

sources vary: 8,319 (enfa.co.uk), 10,300 (Inglis)

Clapton Orient: Arthur Wood; Ernie Morley;Tom Evans; Eddie Lawrence; Jack Galbraith; Jimmy Bolton; Rollo Jack; Arthur Cropper; Reg Tricker; Jack Fowler; Charlie Fletcher.

Brentford: Fred Fox; Alex Stevenson; Tom Adamson; Reg Davies; Jimmy Bain;Harry Salt; Jack Lane; Jackie Foster; David Sherlaw; Cecil Blakemore; Bill Berry.

goals: 

Tricker

Cropper (2)

Before this game Orient were 17th and Brentford 3rd.

The Daily Herald commented unfavourably on the 'quagmire' of a pitch. There was no Zeppelin and no King George.

Orient's next game was an FA Cup replay against Luton Town that was played at Highbury, but they returned to Wembley for their next home league match:

6th December 1930:League Division Three (Southern Section)

Clapton Orient 3 Southend United 1.

(1,916)

Clapton Orient:Harry Blackwell; Ernie Morley; Billy Broadbent; Eddie Lawrence; Jack Galbraith; Jimmy Bolton; Rollo Jack; Arthur Cropper; Reg Tricker; Jack Fowler; Charlie Fletcher.

Southend United: Billy Moore; Jackie French;  Dave Robinson; Bob Ward; Joe Wilson; Bill Johnson; Fred Barnett; Mickey Jones; Jimmy Shankly; DickieDonoven; Arthur Crompton.

goals: 

Fowler (2)

  Jones  

Tricker

Before this game Orient were 16th, Southend 4th.

Reg Tricker

Following the Wembley adventure Orient's next home game, a 2-0 win over Norwich City back at Lea Bridge,was watched by 3,359.

By the by:

Both David and Rollo Jack made 2 Wembley appearances in 1930.

David Jack and Alex Jackson played on the opposing team in both the FA Cup Final and the England Scotland game.

Alex James and Alex Jackson played alongside each other and against each other-

as did Alex James and David Jack.