Bertram "Bertie" Mee OBE (25 December 1918 – 22 October 2001) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player and manager, noted for managing Arsenal

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 to their first Double

The Double

The Double is a term in association football which refers to winning a country's top tier division and its primary cup competition in the same season...

 win in 1971. He was the younger brother of fellow footballer Georgie Mee

Georgie Mee

George Wilfred "Georgie" Mee was an English professional footballer. He played as a midfielder.Nicknamed the Mighty Atom, he was the older brother of former Arsenal manager Bertie Mee.-Career:...

.

Early life

Born in Bulwell

Bulwell

Bulwell is an English market town approximately northwest of Nottingham city centre, on the northern edge of the city. The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed there were almost 30,000 people living in the Bulwell area, accounting for over 10% of the population of the city of Nottingham.-Early...

, Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, Mee played for Derby County

Derby County F.C.

Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...

 and Mansfield Town

Mansfield Town F.C.

Mansfield Town Football Club is an English football club from the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The club was formed in 1897 as Mansfield Wesleyans and changed its name to Mansfield Wesley in 1906 before settling on Mansfield Town in 1910...

 as a young man, but his playing career was cut short by injury. In 1940–41, Mee made 16 guest appearances for Southampton

Southampton F.C.

Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...

, scoring twice.

Mee joined the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

 and trained as a physiotherapist, and spent six years, rising to the rank of sergeant

Sergeant

Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

. After leaving, he worked for various football clubs as a physiotherapist, before joining Arsenal in 1960, succeeding Billy Milne

Billy Milne

William "Billy" Milne DCM was a Scottish footballer who played for Arsenal, before becoming a long-standing member of the club's backroom staff....

.

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 it didn't work out. Mee recruited Dave Sexton

Dave Sexton

David "Dave" Sexton OBE is an English former football manager and player.-Playing career:Son of former professional boxer Archie Sexton, he started his playing career with West Ham United in 1948. Playing mainly at inside-forward, he would finish his career with time at Luton Town, Leyton Orient,...

 and Don Howe as his assistants, in order to make up for any tactical shortcomings of his own. In 1970 Mee led Arsenal to the Fairs Cup final against Anderlecht

Anderlecht

Anderlecht is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region.There are several historically and architecturally distinct districts within the Anderlecht municipality.-Pronunciation:* Dutch: * French:...

. After losing the first leg 3-1, Arsenal won the return match at Highbury 3-0, to claim a 4-3 aggregate victory. It ended a seventeen year drought since the last major honour - the 1953 league title.

The following season Arsenal won the league and cup double, only the second time this had been accomplished in the twentieth century. Arsenal managed to outdistance Leeds United, managed by Don Revie

Don Revie

Donald George 'Don' Revie, OBE, , was an English footballer who played for Leicester City, Hull City, Sunderland, Manchester City and Leeds United as a deep-lying centre forward. After managing Leeds United he managed England from 1974 until 1977...

 to win the championship with a victory over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane

White Hart Lane is an all-seater football stadium in Tottenham, London, England. Built in 1899, it is the home of Tottenham Hotspur and, after numerous renovations, the stadium has a capacity of 36,230....

. Arsenal then went on to beat Liverpool in extra time to seal the FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 at Wembley. Shortly afterwards, Howe left Arsenal to manage West Bromwich Albion

West Bromwich Albion F.C.

West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...

.

Arsenal had ambitions to retain their title the following season and signed Alan Ball from Everton

Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

. However their league campaign faltered and their hopes of a trophy depended on the FA Cup, where Arsenal had again reached the final

1972 FA Cup Final

The 1972 FA Cup Final took place on 6 May 1972 at Wembley Stadium. It was the Centenary final and the 44th to be played at Wembley....

, this time facing Leeds. Arsenal lost by a single goal. In the 1972-73 season Arsenal managed a serious championship challenge, at one point topping the table, but eventually finished runners-up. A run in the FA Cup was brought to an end by a semi final defeat to eventual winners Sunderland.

Mee then began to break up the team which had won the double, and players such as George Graham

George Graham (footballer)

George Graham is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success at Arsenal, as a player in the 1970s and then as manager from 1986 until 1995.-Early life:...

, Charlie George

Charlie George

Charles Frederick "Charlie" George is an English former footballer. He played as a forward in the Football League and he was also capped by England.-Arsenal:...

 and captain Frank McLintock

Frank McLintock

Francis "Frank" McLintock MBE is a Scottish former football defender who played for Leicester City, Arsenal and QPR.-Leicester City:...

 departed. A number of less impressive seasons saw Mee leave the job in 1976. He was replaced by Terry Neill

Terry Neill

William John Terence "Terry" Neill is a Northern Ireland former football player and manager.-Playing career:Born in Belfast, Neill played as a youth for Bangor, before moving in December 1959 to Arsenal. He spent a year in Arsenal's youth side, before making his debut against Sheffield Wednesday...

.

Post-Arsenal

He would later join Watford

Watford F.C.

Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. It is often referred to as Watford F.C., Watford, or by the team's nickname The Hornets . Watford Rovers, Founded in 1881, entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1886, and the Southern League a decade...

 as assistant to Graham Taylor

Graham Taylor (football manager)

Graham Taylor OBE is a football pundit, ex-football manager, and a former player. He is best known as the manager of the England national football team, as well as being manager of Watford, a club he took from the Fourth Division to the First in the space of five years, then from bottom of the...

 in 1978 in charge of scouting (where he was credited with discovering Jamaica), and later became a director of the Hornets before retiring in 1991.

Mee was made an OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1984 for services to football. He died in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

at the age of 82, in 2001.