Ray Bowden

Life and career Bowden was born in Looe, Cornwall, and worked as a solicitor's clerk after he left school. Still only 17 years old and of apparently frail physique, Bowden made his senior debut in March 1927. After two appearances the following season produced four goals, he took over the centre-forward position at the start of the 1928–29 season and went on to score 20 goals from 29 Third Division South matches. In 1929–30, his 18 goals from 28 league matches helped Argyle gain promotion to the Second Division as champions. In 1931, he was a member of the Football Association touring party that made a 17-match visit to Canada. On his return, he top-scored for Argyle for the second time the first was in 1928–29

Bowden signed for Herbert Chapman's Arsenal in March 1933 for £4,500, as the intended replacement for David Jack. He scored in the first two of the seven First Division matches he played in what remained of that seasonnot enough for a league-winners' medalbut was a regular for the next two campaigns, as Arsenal won two more titles on the trot. His goalscoring included a haul of 13 in 1933–34, which made him Arsenal's top scorer in the league, jointly with Cliff Bastin, and 14 in 1934–35, which included a hat-trick in an 8–1 defeat of Liverpool. Bowden won his first cap for England that season, against Wales on 29 September 1934. In all Bowden represented his country six times and scored once, against Wales in February 1936; By the start of the 1937–38 season he had seemingly bounced back, playing ten matches in the first two months of the campaign, the club narrowly escaped relegation in his first season. When first-class football was suspended on the outbreak of the Second World War, the 30-year-old Bowden decided to retire. After the war, he returned to Plymouth where he ran a sports shop with his brother. He died in 1998, aged 89, by which time he was the last surviving player of the great interwar Arsenal side.

Honours Plymouth Argyle Football League Third Division South: 1929–30

Arsenal Football League First Division: 1933–34, 1934–35 FA Cup: 1935–36 FA Charity Shield: 1933