David Danskin

By ian Sommerville

It is common knowledge that Arsenal Football Club was founded by David Danskin, who until 2001 had always been described as being "from Kirkcaldy". But David Danskin was in fact born in Burntisland in January 1863. The initial source of this welcome news was Richard Wyatt, David's grandson, whose home is near Montreal in Canada. Richard got in touch with us in March 2001 as part of his family history research, and was surprised to learn that the Burntisland connection was apparently unknown in the town.

David's birth registration tells us that he was born at 11.30 p.m. on Friday 9 January 1863 in Back Street (now Somerville Street), Burntisland. The birth was registered by the proud father, also David Danskin.

Unfortunately many of the houses (including the Danskins') weren't numbered in those days. It therefore took a lot of research to identify the precise location of the building where David Danskin was born. The Heritage Trust's Iain Sommerville, John Burnett and Ian Archibald had to delve into old property registers, censuses, valuation rolls and maps.

We discovered that David Danskin senior was a tenant of the Laird family, fishcurers and coopers in Back Street. The old tenement building where David junior was born has long since gone, but it was located on the north side of what is now Somerville Street, on the site currently occupied by the Fife Council car park and part of the Council flats to the west of the car park.

See below for a more detailed study into David Danskin by Ian Sommerville