But for the intervention of the Second World War, Reg Lewis could have been Arsenal's greatest goalscorer.
His tally of 118 in 176 first-team games puts him 12th in the all-time list but his total figure from 1935 to 1953 was a staggering 392 in 451 matches.
His finest hour came in the 1950 FA Cup final, when he scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Liverpool.
Lewis joined Arsenal as an amateur from Margate in 1935 at the age of just 15 before turning professional at Highbury almost two years later.
He made a goalscoring debut against Everton in a 2-1 win on New Year's Day 1938, scoring twice in his four debut campaign appearances.
The young striker had been making a name for himself in the London Combination and his 43 goals in 31 appearances in 1938/39 remains a Club record to the day.
Lewis played 15 times in the last full season before the outbreak of the war. He served with the British Army of the Rhine in Germany until returning to Highbury for first-class football after the war’s end.
That did not prevent him from a prolific streak during wartime, however, as Lewis scored 142 goals in just 128 wartime appearances.
The striker still had age on his side after the war - and the goals continued to flow. He finished as Arsenal's top scorer in 1946/47 with 29 goals in 28 matches before forging a formidable partnership with Ronnie Rooke a season later as the Gunners won the Division One title.
Lewis continued to score at a healthy rate for another two seasons, earning England B honours and an FA Cup winners' medal in 1949/50.
Injuries took their toll in the early 1950s, however, and Lewis was restricted to just nine starts in 1951/52. He still managed eight goals but did not appear at all in his final season and retired in 1953.
Reg Lewis
