On the 25th April we received a tweet from Gordon Robertson. He had stumbled upon a newspaper clipping that told the story of the “President’s Chair.”
It told the story of “Mr Alexander Neilson, a veteran of over eighty years of age” who wanted to gift Arbroath a token for his life long support of the Lichties.
He was a cabinet maker to trade who had resided in Beith for over 40 years, but crafted a beautiful chair with his craftsmanship on full display.
The chair, in polished mahogany, was inscribed with “A.F.C., 1878-1938” to mark the clubs sixtieth anniversary.
Sadly nobody of the current Gayfield staff knows of this chair, or even this story, but the initial thoughts were it may have been destroyed in the fire of 1958 which devastated Gayfield.
Reporter Graeme Strachan from the Dundee Courier caught our initial retweet from Gordon’s tweet and thought it was a story worth making public.
The story went live online this week and was also featured in Page 17 of Wednesday’s Courier – See link if you missed the story – https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/angus-mearns/647242/search-for-historic-arbroath-fc-1938-chair/
In the hope that there is a small chance in a Antique’s Road Show type of twist that this chair does still exist, and sit’s in someones front room or hallway!
Graeme scoured the DC Thomson archives for photographs of the Gayfield Fire, and very kindly supplied us with several images of the devastating fire.
We fear that sadly the President’s Chair may have been lost in the fire at Gayfield on the morning of Thursday 18th September 1958.
The night before the Lichties had drawn against Patrick Thistle.
This is the front cover of the Evening Telegraph and Post from that evening and it shows the destruction.
You can still see the wall of the tunnel, and part of the main stand, but everything else has gone.
The fire destroyed both dressing rooms, the doctor’s treatment room, ambulance section, referee’s room, secretary’s office, treasurer’s office, press box and the Board Room.
The Round Table’s broadcasting equipment for commentary to the two local hospitals were also destroyed.
Perhaps the biggest loss was the photographs and memorabilia of all the teams of Arbroath’s past to that date, including the 36-0 team.
It was a devastating fire, but resolute to the team that we rebuilt and the main stand still is standing from it’s initial construction in 1925.
Thanks again to Graeme Strachan at the TheCourier.co.uk and to DC Thomson for these haunting images.
Remember to look in your hallway for the President’s Chair.
So Lichties have you see the President’s Chair?
