Born in Shouldham, Norfolk, Kirchen played for local clubs, and for his county at youth level.
Kirchen became well known for his fierce shooting; unusually fast and immensely powerful, he was equally at home on either wing, for he could hit a ball left or right-footed, with equal facility, which soon attracted international attention; he picked up 3 caps and scored 2 goals for England on a 1937 tour of Scandinavia, his debut coming against Norway on 14 May 1937, and his final match being against Finland on 20 May of the same year.
He finally picked up a League winners' medal as Arsenal won the 1937–38 title, playing nineteen games that season,[1] but the Second World War intervened just as he was reaching the peak of his career.
Kirchen served in the Royal Air Force as a PT instructor, which allowed him to continue playing wartime matches for Arsenal (he appeared 113 times, scoring 80 goals, as well as three more times for England), but a severe injury picked up in a match against West Ham United in 1943 forced his early retirement.
Kirchen later returned to his old club Norwich City, as a trainer, before leaving football to become a farmer at Cringleford in Norfolk.