Bertie Mee

Born in Highbury Vale, Nottingham, and the younger brother of fellow footballer Georgie Mee, he played for Derby County and Mansfield Town. In the 1940–41 season, Mee made 16 guest appearances for Southampton, scoring twice. After his playing career was cut short by injury, Mee joined the Royal Army Medical Corps where he trained as a physiotherapist and spent six years, rising to the rank of sergeant. After leaving, he worked for various football clubs as a physiotherapist before joining Arsenal in 1960, succeeding Billy Milne.

Arsenal

After the sacking of Billy Wright in 1966, the club asked Mee to become manager, a highly surprising move, perhaps even to the man himself; Mee asked for a get-out clause for him to return to physiotherapist after twelve months if his tenure was unsuccessful. Mee recruited Dave Sexton and Don Howe as his assistants, in order to make up for any tactical shortcomings of his own. Arsenal had not won a trophy since 1953, but, under Mee, with a crop of players from Arsenal's youth system, such as Charlie George, John Radford, Pat Rice and Ray Kennedy, began to show promise. Arsenal reached two successive League Cup finals in 1968 and 1969 but lost them both, to Leeds United and Swindon Town respectively. However, the following season, the club won its first European trophy and its first trophy of any kind for seventeen years, beating Anderlecht to claim the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 4–3 on aggregate. After being 3–0 down in the away leg, Arsenal grabbed a late consolation and then beat the Belgian side 3–0 at Highbury. The Fairs Cup was only the warm-up for the main act, namely the FA Cup and League Double win in 1971. The League title was won at White Hart Lane, home of their rivals Tottenham Hotspur, on 3 May, the last day of the season; five days later, Arsenal beat Liverpool 2–1 at Wembley after extra-time, the winning goal scored by George. It was only the second time a team had won the Double in the 20th century. Arsenal had ambitions to retain their title the…

In 1978, he joined Watford as assistant to Graham Taylor and in charge of scouting. He later became a director of the Hornets before retiring in 1991. In 2008, he was posthumously inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame.

Mee was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1984 New Year Honours for services to football. Mee died on 21 October 2001, survived by his wife Doris and two daughters, Alison and Beverley.