Who Were Eastern Rangers?

Early histories of clubs always throw up enthralling questions. One that intrigues me is the identity of the team who provided the very first opposition for Dial Square, the group of munitions workers whose club ultimately metamorphosed into the famous Arsenal FC.

The match against Eastern, played on the Isle of Dogs in the east end of London, is recorded as a win for Dial Square but newspaper accounts etc give no indication of who Eastern Rangers were. My belief is that they were connected with one of the local railway companies in London, and certainly there were a number of staff connections between the Royal Arsenal, where the men of Dial Square worked, and the London railway companies.

There is even more debate about the origins of Arsenal FC at the site of the Arsenal History Society:

http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/