Sydney, Australia (c1886/87)

Winger

Australian-born, but Sheffield-raised, Arthur Cooke signed for Exeter City from Sheffield Wednesday and made a handful of Southern League during appearances 1910/11.  

Arthur's parents emigrated to New South Wales, where he was born, before moving back to Sheffield when Arthur was three years old. At the age of 19 he signed for Worksop in the Midland League. He attracted the attention of Sheffield Wednesday after scoring 19 goals in a season and signed for the Owls in 1908. Playing for the reserves, he netted 22 times in 1909/10.

Moving to Exeter City in the summer of 1910, Arthur made his first-team debut in a Southern League fixture at home to Portsmouth in November 1910. Playing just three more first-team games, he left the club at the end of the season and returned to Sheffield.

Shown in the 1901 census as a razor-maker living in Devonshire Street, Sheffield, Arthur is recorded as a ‘professional footballer’ in the 1911 version boarding in Exeter - together with team mate Enos Whittaker (living away from Burnley) - in the home of Edward Lascelles a clerk in a newspaper office. He is believed to have died in Sheffield in 1955.

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