Freddie Cox

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English footballer (1920–1973 )

title: "Freddie Cox" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1920-births", "1973-deaths", "royal-air-force-pilots-of-world-war-ii", "military-personnel-from-reading,-berkshire", "footballers-from-reading,-berkshire", "english-men's-footballers", "men's-association-football-outside-forwards", "tottenham-hotspur-f.c.-players", "northfleet-united-f.c.-players", "arsenal-f.c.-players", "west-bromwich-albion-f.c.-players", "english-football-league-players", "english-football-managers", "afc-bournemouth-managers", "portsmouth-f.c.-managers", "gillingham-f.c.-managers", "english-football-league-managers", "west-bromwich-albion-f.c.-non-playing-staff", "reading-f.c.-wartime-guest-players", "swindon-town-f.c.-wartime-guest-players", "british-world-war-ii-pilots", "recipients-of-the-distinguished-flying-cross-(united-kingdom)", "royal-air-force-officers", "20th-century-english-sportsmen"] description: "English footballer (1920–1973 )" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Cox" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English footballer (1920–1973 ) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox football biography"]

Field	Value
name	Freddie Cox
fullname	Frederick James Arthur Cox
birth_date
birth_place	Reading, England
death_date
death_place	Bournemouth, England
position	Winger
youthclubs1	St George's Lads Club
years1	193?–1949
clubs1	Tottenham Hotspur
caps1	99
goals1	15
years2	1936–1938
clubs2	→ Northfleet United (loan)
years3	1949–1953
clubs3	Arsenal
caps3	79
goals3	9
years4	1953–1954
clubs4	West Bromwich Albion
caps4	4
goals4	1
totalcaps	182
totalgoals	25
manageryears1	1956–1958
managerclubs1	Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic
manageryears2	1958–1961
managerclubs2	Portsmouth
manageryears3	1962–1965
managerclubs3	Gillingham
manageryears4	1965–1970
managerclubs4	Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic
::

During the war, he served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Life and career

Cox was born in Reading, Berkshire. Cox took his first steps in senior football with Spurs' nursery club, the Kent-based Northfleet United, in 1936, before turning professional with Tottenham in August 1938. However, soon after he broke into the first team, the Second World War broke out and all competitive football was suspended.

Cox served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In his spare time he made guest appearances for his hometown club, Reading, and for Swindon Town.

After the war, Cox returned to Spurs for another three seasons, taking his totals to 18 goals from 105 appearances in Football League and FA Cup. He then moved to their north London rivals, Arsenal, for £12,000 in September 1949.

Cox made his Arsenal debut straight away, on 7 September 1949 against West Bromwich Albion, and became an immediate regular in the side. However, the 1952 final was not to be a repeat of two years earlier; against Newcastle United, an injury-ravaged Arsenal side played most of the match with ten men after Walley Barnes was stretchered off, and lost 1–0.

Despite his cup exploits, Cox was never an ever-present in the Arsenal side; he first faced competition from Ian McPherson for the right-wing spot, and then from the talented youngster Arthur Milton. After only appearing in nine matches in the 1952–53 season, in which Arsenal won the First Division title, In all he played 94 matches for Arsenal in League and Cup, scoring 16 goals.

Cox only played four matches for West Brom, In 1956 he moved on to Third Division South club Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic to become manager. Bournemouth fared reasonably steadily in the league, and pulled off a giant-killing feat in beating Wolverhampton Wanderers and Spurs in the 1956–57 FA Cup to reach the sixth round, in which they lost to Manchester United. In 1958 he moved along the coast to become Portsmouth's manager; here he was less successful as Portsmouth were relegated from the First Division in his first season, and Cox was sacked in February 1961. He is commonly regarded as being Portsmouth's worst ever manager, and during his tenure the club steeply declined from the top half of the First Division to relegation to the Third Division.

After a spell out of football while he established his newsagents' business, Cox took up the reins at Fourth Division Gillingham in 1962. He had an immediate impact, taking a side that had finished 20th the previous season up to 5th place, missing out on promotion on goal average.

Cox died in Bournemouth in 1973 at the age of 52.

Honours

As player

Arsenal

FA Cup: 1949–50; runner-up: 1951–52

As manager

Gillingham

Football League Fourth Division: 1963–64

References

{{Hugman. 4230
"Player search: Cox". English National Football Archive.
(4 December 1936). "Rangers' 3–0 defeat in Kent League". Sevenoaks Chronicle.
"Soccer's kindergarten: Kent's nursery clubs of the 1930s". Soccer History.
(27 May 2013). "Freddie Cox DFC". AISA Arsenal History Society.
Rollin, Jack. (2005). "Soccer at War 1939–45". Headline.
"All Spurs players 1908–". Jim Duggan.
Harris, Jeff. (1995). "Arsenal Who's Who". Independent UK Sports.
(26 May 2017). "Beating the Blues". Arsenal F.C..
Gordon, James Patrick. (17 September 2015). "Throwback Thursday: Chelsea v Arsenal (March 18th, 1950)".
Prole, David. (1967). "Cup Final Story 1946–1965". The Sportsmans Book Club.
Kelly, Andy. "Arsenal first team line-ups".
(10 January 2005). "Top 25 Cult Heroes 1954–1979 – Number 8". FootyMad.
"Fred Cox". League Managers' Association.

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