Arnold Birch
Encyclopedia
Arnold Birch was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

World War I

Birch worked at Newton, Chambers & Company
Newton, Chambers & Company
It was in 1789 that George Newton and Thomas Chambers entered into a partnership that would result in the founding of one of England's largest industrial companies of that era, Newton, Chambers & Co.-History:...

's Tankersley mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 until it closed in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. He voluntarily joined the 1st Royal Naval Brigade. After a flee from Antwerpen, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 with his division in October 1914, he spent World War I in a prisoner-of-war camp in Groningen, The Netherlands playing football in the highly rated internal competition alongside Harry Waites
Harry Waites
Harry Waites, sometimes also called Jim Waites, was an English football coach active in the Netherlands in the 1920s.-Career:Waites, who was a rugby player in his youth, spent World War One in an open Prisoner-of-War camp in the Netherlands, alongside footballer Arnold Birch. After the war ended in...

.

He joined local side Be Quick
Be Quick 1887
Be Quick 1887 is a football club from Groningen, the Netherlands. The club was established in 1887, and is currently playing in the Sunday Hoofdklasse C. Be Quick 1887 won the 1919-20 Dutch national football title.-History:...

 in 1916 as a masseuge and later as coach and was allowed to play for the team in 1918. Be Quick won the Eerste Klasse North and qualified for the Championship play-off finishing fifth.

Football career

Upon returning to England, Birch made 27 appearances for Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...

 in the Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 between August 1919 and January 1923. He later played for Chesterfield
Chesterfield F.C.
Chesterfield Football Club is an English football club based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. The club currently plays in Football League One, the third tier of English football. Despite being the fourth oldest Football League club in England, they have spent most of their existence in the lower...

, scoring 5 goals in 141 League appearances. He later played non-League football with Denaby United
Denaby United F.C.
Denaby United F.C. are an English football club that originally folded in 2002 following eviction from their ground by the Denaby & Cadeby Miners' Welfare, but have since re-appeared in the Doncaster and District Senior League Division One for the 2011-12 season...

.
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