There has been plenty of reaction to the news of Knowledge’s death. Here are a couple of tributes and some explanation about the character of a similar name that appeared in The Gooner…

So saddened to hear about Knowledge. I got to know Mr Knowledge (as he preferred to be called) on my trips up to the old London Colney, several years ago. You could have probably written his understanding of football on the back of a fag packet, but in those days his knowledge of Arsenal Football Club was probably unsurpassed. This was long before the internet made information a couple of clicks away, he went about his support of the club in much the same way a doctoral student went about his thesis.

One of my abiding memories of Daniel was one wintry Hertfordshire morning, him producing his notebook and announcing, with a mixture of pride and disgust, that the official club handbook had no less than 54 factual errors. He'd actually gone up to David Dein, who in those days attended youth games, and harangued him about the sloppiness of the editorial staff! Quite what DD made of it I don't know, but that was Knowledge all over. His argument was that you had to get the facts right. Misinformation made him extremely angry.

Whilst being very open and friendly, he was obsessively private. I was looking through Outlook today and discovered I still had his fax number, which is quite an honour. Whether he had a phone or not, I don't know. I know he lived in South Clapham somewhere and didn't drive a car, so occasionally I would give him a lift from A to B. How he got to see literally every Arsenal game at every level by public transport is beyond me. He used to plan all the connections with a military precision. When we had that run of Cup Finals down in Cardiff, I used to take him down to Swansea, where a few of us used to stay. Obsessive? Eccentric? Certainly, but he had a good heart. When I needed an extra ticket for one final, he scurried off, because he knew someone who might have one. He was fiercely loyal and there wasn't much he wouldn't do for you. I don't think he always got the respect he deserved.

We lost touch, but I'm really going to miss him. The club or fans, at some level, should recognise his devotion to all things Arsenal. Apart from anything else the numbers of parents over the years who stood around talking to him, whilst watching their boys turn out for the youth side, would probably want to know. I'd be surprised if another one like him comes along in a while.

Been reading the posts and I am one of the gang of few who for many years drove Knowledge to games up and down the country in the 80s and 90s. I have read a lot over the last few days and certainly he was a character. Lots of the players knew him during that period, the Parlours, Dickovs etc came back from youth games in my car with him from northern games, before the club put a stop to it because of insurance issues. They all used to call him Knowledge. But frankly most fans took the p*** out of him, but he was always helpful to people who didn't, and certainly to my mind he hadn't missed a game for 20 odd years. The club always were disdainful of him unless they wanted something and there are individuals in the press department who went out their way to prevent him getting team sheets and into press boxes at away grounds. If the club don't put something in the programme then it will continue in their modern, ‘we are just customers and meaningless’ attitude towards fans.

This from the artist that drew the cartoon character referred to at the conclusion of the original piece on Knowledge. Just saw your piece on Knowledge's passing, and the postscript from the person who knew him well. I was the cartoonist that drew the strip called Mr. Knowledge (written by former editor Mike Francis), and I can tell you that I had never heard of the guy until after the strip had started. I'm not aware if then editor Mike Francis knew him, but I do remember the letter he sent accusing us of some sort of slur against his name and character. I'd just like to state for the record that Mike and I had no intention of upsetting the guy, I did not base the drawings on him (my gift for caricature is severely lacking as anyone who saw my stuff will attest), and indeed had never set eyes on the guy until I saw the photo you published along with the obituary. We didn't intend to cause any distress. This was all a rather long time ago, so apologies to Mike if I've misremembered stuff, but that's my recollection of events. Anyway, I'm genuinely saddened by the man's passing as I am when any fellow gooner goes to the marble halls in the sky, and my condolences are with his friends and family.

And a final word on this from Mike Francis who was the editor of The Gooner for the first 102 issues up until May 2000, including the time when the aforementioned cartoon character, Mr Knowledge, appeared:

Firstly, I’d like to add my condolences to Daniel’s family and friends. I didn’t know him personally and don’t recall ever speaking to him directly, but he was someone I was aware of being a permanent fixture at away games when I was travelling the length and breadth of the country myself in the late 80s and early 90s and he is therefore “one of us” and, as has already been demonstrated, he will be missed.

I’d also just like to set the record straight regarding the cartoon which was actually entitled “Mr Knowledge” not just “Knowledge” or “Mr Logik” as one writer has suggested. It was not intentionally based on Daniel, whose nickname I did not know at the time, but rather a friend of mine who was also a stat-freak and provided the information used. We had jokingly referred to him as Mr Knowledge in a pub conversation and from there the idea for the cartoon was developed.

Although he didn’t reveal his real name, Knowledge wrote to me shortly after the first cartoon was published to express his disappointment and anger that the character was named after him - which it wasn’t - and was portrayed to look like him, which, if it did (and I personally can’t see the likeness), would have been purely coincidental as the cartoonist based the figure purely on the script.

I replied to this effect and that was the last I heard on the matter so assumed that he’d accepted my explanation and the cartoon continued for a season or two and was a popular feature. I’m therefore disappointed to learn that it was something which caused him such distress. We would never have wished that and I am sorry if this was the case.