Arthur Gale

Arthur Reuben Gale (16 November 1904 – 13 July 1976) was an English footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Bury, West Bromwich Albion, Chester and Accrington Stanley.

Life and career Gale was born in 1904 in Salford. Chester were elected to the Football League for the 1931–32 season, and were willing to pay Bury the £400 asking price, but he was sold instead to First Division club West Bromwich Albion, who as part of the deal allowed their player Frank Cresswell to rejoin Chester.

He remained a fringe player at West Bromwich Albion, and the club encouraged him to continue in his chosen profession, as a schoolteacher in the Manchester area. He did however play a major role in their progress to the 1935 FA Cup Final. so Albion played much of the match with effectively ten men, and lost 4–2. In light of the circumstances, the Football Association agreed to award Gale a losers' medal. After five and a half seasons during which he made 23 league appearances and scored 18 league goals, he returned to Chester.

Less prolific and less of a regular in the side than before, Gale still produced 16 goals from 35 matches in the Third Division North11 from 16 in the 1937–38 seasonbefore moving back to the Cheshire League with Macclesfield in October 1938. He finished as their top scorer for 1938–39,

Gale became head of Lower Kersal Council School in Salford, where one of his pupils was the mountaineer Don Whillans. Gale died on 13 May 1976 at his home in Ashton upon Mersey, Greater Manchester, at the age of 71.