Honouring the Wirral grave of Real Madrid pioneer Arthur Johnson

A few months ago, my brother, Nathan, sent me a TikTok clip of a guy discovering and visiting the forgotten grave of Arthur Johnson, the first manager of Real Madrid. The vlogging protagonist, KC Imageworks, shared our distinctive Merseyside accent, and the cemetery he visited was on Rake Lane in Wallasey – just a 20-minute drive from where we grew up, and less than 15 miles from my current home.

A Real Madrid aficionado with a keen appreciation for the club’s unmatched mystique and a nose for such pop culture curio, I was fascinated – and, in all honesty, a little shocked that I had never heard of this before. Some basic digging revealed that Johnson was far more than Real’s first manager, though. In fact, he was a pivotal pioneer in establishing many of the club’s indispensable values.

Born in Dublin in 1878, when Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom, Johnson was a promising footballer who, according to some accounts, turned out for the famous Corinthian club of London. A ‘freethinking English businessman,’ per Spanish football expert Jimmy Burns, Johnson later moved to Spain in search of engineering work and contributed to the upkeep of Madrid’s sewerage system.

In his spare time, Johnson also played for the upstart Madrid Football Club, a rudimentary local team that received its royal appellation in 1920. A tall goalkeeper and adept outfield player, Johnson appeared in Real’s first ever match. He was Real’s first captain and scored the club’s first competitive goal – against Barcelona, no less. Johnson also hoisted the first trophy in Real Madrid history and contributed to a team that won four consecutive Copa del Rey titles.

“The only guy who really knew what he was doing back then was the Englishman, Johnson,” Julián Palacios, Real’s first president, once said. “Lovely chap, too, but he took the game very seriously. He got married here in Madrid on a Saturday and turned up to play the match on the following morning. I don’t know what his bride thought.”

Un Ingles Muy Simpatico – A Very Nice Englishman – Johnson ‘ordered the chaos’ at Madrid, as recounted in La Biblia Blanca, a pre-eminent Real tome. As a player, Johnson often grew frustrated with the team’s rudderless approach and the way teammates halted training sessions to gossip while smoking cigarettes. Johnson preached structure and discipline while morphing naturally into the club’s first coach. He codified a style of play – focused on positional organisation and passing combinations – that became a Real blueprint for decades to come.

A hands-on manager, Johnson guided Real to four regional championships and the 1917 Copa del Rey. In 1911, Johnson gave a debut to Santiago Bernabéu, the next great Real architect, weaving a neat thread through the club’s heritage. All told, Johnson is believed to have spent 10 years as Real manager, overseeing more games than all but one coach – Miguel Muñoz – in team history.

Johnson’s most profound and lasting contribution to Real Madrid was aesthetic, however, for it was his idea to have the club play in its now-sacred all-white kit. Per most retellings, Johnson lobbied for the all-white strip in homage to Corinthian, the English team he idolised. Real members approved Johnson’s suggestion and began wearing the iconic kit in 1902. That it remains so revered – and so synonymous with the club – is a testament to Johnson’s genius.

The dapper gent managed Real until 1920, according to most records, although some dispute the linear chronology of that claim, pointing to the Liverpool birth of Johnson’s son, George, in 1905. Importantly, however, the role of ‘manager’ was not especially outlined back then, before the advent of La Liga and greater professionalism, so the title may have been a rather informal – or de facto – honour for Johnson, who regularly travelled between England and Spain.

Per archived records, we know that Johnson came to work on Merseyside as a commercial clerk for the United Alkali Company, and the 1911 census shows him in Wirral. By 1918, he lived at 15 Rullerton Road in Wallasey, and regardless of the exact sequence of his Real coaching tenure, Johnson died of pneumonia in 1929, aged 49, and was laid to rest in Rake Lane Cemetery.

Gradually, the more I read about this extraordinary man, the more I felt compelled to visit that grave and do something to honour his amazing – if criminally overlooked – legacy.

My wife, Patrycja, is Polish, and we often spend All Saints’ Day – on 1 November each year – in her homeland, visiting graves of departed loved ones. While typically overlooked here in England, All Saints’ Day is a big deal in Poland, and although I’m an atheist, I appreciate the tradition. 

This All-Saints’ Day, then, I vowed to visit Arthur Johnson and place a Real Madrid pennant on his grave – a small token of appreciation for an unsung trailblazer of football’s most powerful club.

As such, armed with a pennant bought online, I journeyed to Rake Lane Cemetery with my dad and brother yesterday, en route to the Tranmere-Stockport FA Cup tie. I triangulated the plot – Section 16C, grave 177 – during my research, and we found it quickly on foot after parking near the main entrance.

There, we located the humble headstone shared by Arthur and his wife, Ada, who died in Canada in 1961. KC Imageworks returned to the grave for a second video, in which he did a brilliant job cleaning up the stonework, but weeds and overgrown grass have left it in a sorry state. A basic biography in a cheap wooden frame has been added since the original KC Imageworks video, likely more attributable to well-meaning locals than Real Madrid, but we were left with a sense of sadness, in all honesty. Surely a club of Real’s wealth could fork out for a classier, more permanent memorial. They are on Merseyside to play Liverpool this coming week, incidentally, and a formal gesture would be appreciated.

Nevertheless, in the meantime, we did our bit, tidying the grave a little and removing the most offensive weeds by hand. I then placed the pennant next to the grave, careful not to obscure the inscriptions, before we paid our respects to an overlooked titan of football history. The entire trip probably took an hour out of our day and £20 out of my pocket – a small price to briefly honour a wonderful man who would otherwise be neglected.

The pennant carries a simple slogan: El Major Club del Mundo – The Best Club in the World. By most measures, that is almost certainly true, but not without a moustachioed chap from Dublin. Not without a disciplined dreamer who rests for all eternity in Wirral. Not without Arthur Vere Scott Johnson, the man who laid Real Madrid’s foundations.

Rest easy, sir. 

Your legacy is appreciated.

***

Update - 5 November 2025

Yesterday, before the Liverpool-Real Madrid match at Anfield referenced in my piece, two officially recognised Real supporters' clubs - Peña Madridista La Gran Familia and Peña Tribuna Lateral - visited Johnson's grave to pay their respects. 

A floral tribute was laid and an artistic sketch of Johnson in Real regalia was placed next to his headstone. 

Real Madrid posted a report of the tribute on their official website, complete with photos that show my pennant in tact.

I presume this is merely coincidental, and the logistics were already agreed prior to my article, but if my work contributed to this fine tribute in any way, I'm incredibly proud. Regardless, I'm just happy Johnson received the recognition he deserves. Especially from the club he helped create.

***

Sources

·       Imageworks, KC. YouTube. [Online] July 2, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnZ8uEuv5G8&t=180s.

·       WikiTree. [Online] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Johnson-142045.

·       McCormack, Kristofer. These Football Times. [Online] February 21, 2019. https://thesefootballtimes.co/2019/02/21/arthur-johnson-the-irishman-who-taught-real-madrid-how-to-play-football/.

·       Burns, Jimmy. La Roja: A Journey Through Spanish Football. 2012.

·       Ball, Phil. An Englishman Abroad: Beckham's Spanish Adventure. 2004.

·       Scott, Les. Denied Promotion by a Tree: The Book of Amazing Football Facts. 2022.

·       Shoup, Kate. Real Madrid CF: Soccer's Greatest Clubs. 2020.

·       Cosin-March, Alberto. La Galerna. [Online] March 17, 2024. https://www.lagalerna.com/el-irlandes-que-enseno-a-jugar-al-real-madrid/.

·       Anta, Angel del Riego and Marta del Riego. La Biblia Blanca. 2018.

·       MacWilliam, Rab. The Real Madrid Handbook: A Concise History of Real Madrid. 2022.

·       Yani, Oleksii. Tribuna. [Online] July 29, 2025. https://tribuna.com/en/blogs/the-story-of-first-ever-real-madrid-manager-arthur-johnson-h/.

·       Ball, Phil. Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football. 2011.

·       Imageworks, KC. YouTube. [Online] July 10, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJnKQRbYec.