WOMEN FOOTBALL DURING FIRST WORLD WAR

DICK, KERR LADIES

During the First World War women replaced men’s jobs and worked in munitions factory and it also formed women football.  Women began to produced bullets and shells and in their break they joined the boys apprentice in a general kick around.

An idea developed to play football against others women team to raise money for the soldiers coming back wounded and traumatised.  Eventually it became more organised and the Preston factory founded by Mr William Dick and Mr John Kerr ‘s team became known as Dick, Kerr Ladies.

The first Dick, Kerr Ladies match was played on Christmas Day 1917 at Preston North End’s ground. It attracted 10,000 people and raised £600 for ex-servicemen’s charities. Eventually they raised £70,000 which would be £3million now, in the period from 1917 till 1925. They also won seven world championships.

The most memorable match was played on Boxing Day 1920 at Everton’s football ground, Goodison Park.  A crowd of 53,000 was crammed on the terraces when they had to close the gates with 14,000 still standing outside. It was the biggest crowd Liverpool ever saw.  Eleven of the players were internationals and it was the beginning of the modern game.

They were 22 players and all women from the Preston factory called Dick, Kerr Ladies.  Working-class mill and factory workers who dared to take on a man’s world of football. Looking back now it was an all-too-brief golden era for women’s football at the beginning of the 20^th century.  It inspired also writers and they produced children comic’s books showing girls playing football.

The Dick, Kerr Ladies were such a success and had a larger crowd than men’s football. This brought about the vengeful decision by the men Football Association to ban them from playing on any FA pitch. This pitch ban was not lifted till the Seventies, over a half a century.  It took another few years till the FA agreed to women’s teams to join the organisation.

The early female players were totally dedicated. It was in the North-east area of England where women’s football was most widely spread during the First World War and after.  A famous left-winger Jennie Nuttall playing for Blyth Spartan married on Saturday in 1917 and went straight from her ceremony to play at a match and score two goals.  It was a decisive game and 14 teams took part between 1917 and 1918 for the Munitionettes’ Cup. 

We have to see the full picture of these heroic women. They worked very hard all day in the munition factories, had to see to their families where all housework was done by hand and still being so dedicated to the sport. It is incredible how they managed.

A record in June 1917 shows that one million British women were making 80 per cent of the weaponry and ammunition and being paid only half or less of a man’s wage.

The large crowd noticed that most of the munitionette players had yellow faces and hair at their foreheads. It came from working with sulphur in the TNT explosive and coloured the parts of their bodies which could not be covered. They received the nickname “Canaries”.

An even bigger damage came from the exposure to sulphur was liver failure, anaemia and spleen enlargement.  TNT could also cause infertility. Yet, for all their dedication to football and hard work the FA banned them from playing on their pitches.

Dick, Kerr Ladies kept on playing well into the Sixties. However, they played mainly for charities on recreation grounds and college pitches. One defiant member at the time of the ban stated that they would continue to play even it meant to play on ploughed fields.

In 2002 the legendary forward Lily Parr became the first woman to enter the Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum. It was 24 years after her death. She shot 900 goals and was known for her incredible, powerful shots. At one match she broke a goalkeeper’s arm with a shot taken from the edge of the goal area.

LILI PARR

LILI PARR