Dominy Arthur Image 5 Southampton 1923

Description

South Stoneham, Hampshire born inside forward Arthur “Art” Dominy had played junior football prior to the First World War with Weston Grove in 1909, Peartree Athletic in 1910, Bitterne Guild in September 1911, where he scored over 50 goals in 1911-12, and Woolston from the summer of 1912, and he joined Southern League Southampton in March the following year, his debut coming the next month at Stoke, with Dominy making an immediate impression as described by Holley and Chalk in their book Alphabet of The Saints:

“A boilermaker by trade, Arthur made an immediate impact by becoming Saints’ top scorer in 1913-1914, his first full season, and the following year his thirty goals put him on top of the Southern League goal scoring charts…. His ball control was second to none; he always managed to keep the ball near his feet.”

He was given representative honours when chosen to play for The Southern League against The Irish League in a 1-1 draw at The Vetch Field in October 1914. His career was then interrupted by the First World War, during which he worked for the shipyard Harland & Wolff and turned out against The Saints, as well as guesting for Arsenal and Glasgow Rangers.

After the War he resumed with Southampton in 1919 and was already aged 27 when he made his Football League debut in their inaugural League fixture at Gillingham in August 1920. Dominy was part of a famous early 1920’s goalscoring partnership at Southampton with Bill Rawlings, Dominy scoring 81 goals in 250 games for The Saints between March 1913 and 1926, including hat-tricks against Watford in January 1921 and Coventry City in May 1925. In 1921-22 their goals led them to be Champions of Division Three (South), with Dominy netting 13 goals, when he was also the club’s captain. He was certainly unlucky not to win a full England cap, appearing in several England trial matches.

Joining First Division Everton in May 1926 after 146 goals in 369 Southern League, League and FA Cup matches for The Saints, he scored 13 times in 33 games over the next two years before going on to play for Gillingham, for whom he was already 35 when he signed in March 1928, scoring 17 goals in 57 appearances, and Clapton Orient in May 1929, where he scored once in 7 outings, before retiring from the professional game in 1930, subsequently playing for Newport (Isle of Wight) and Itchen Sports while scouting for Southampton from 1931.

He was also the part time manager of Southampton during the Second World War from June 1943 until the appointment of Bill Dodgin in 1946 and continued to be associated with the club as a scout and as a luminary in the Supporters’ Club until his death in 1974.