Gender, photography and women’s football in England: the Portsmouth Ladies FC, 1916–1918

ABSTRACT

Founded in 1916, the Portsmouth Ladies FC were one of many women’s football teams active during the First World War. Building upon the work of Jean Williams, Patrick Brennan and Ian Nannestad, this article seeks to broaden our knowledge of the development of women’s wartime football. Its principal sources are images held by National Football Museum, the Pompey History Society, along with newly digitised newspapers. This article explores two aspects of the club’s history. Firstly, it presents an overview detailing the team’s origins, playing record, the types of games they played, including games against male teams, and the role of Councillor Tom Langdon in organising and promoting their activities. Secondly, it will explore the significant photographic coverage afforded to the team, in particular by the Portsmouth Evening News photographer Joseph Stephen Cribb. It will be argued that the club’s history helps develop the chronological development of women’s football in World War On. It will also be argued that visual depictions of the team show both an increasing interest in the women’s game, and also the limits and gendered nature of that interest.

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s football
• media
• photography
• charity
• gender
• war

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author .

Notes

1 Gail Newsham, In a League of their Own: The Dick, Kerr Ladies, 1917–1965 (London: Scarlett Press, 1997), Barbara Jacobs, The Dick, Kerr’s Ladies (London: Constable & Robinson, 2004), Jean Williams, A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women’s Football in England (London: Routledge, 2003), A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women’s Football (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007), See also Ali Melling, ‘Ladies Football’: Gender and the Socialization of Women Football Players 1916–1960,’ (PhD Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2003).

2 Patrick Brennan, The Munitionettes: A History of women’s football in North-East England during the Great War (Donmouth Publishing, 2007)

3 Ian Nannerstad, ‘Women’s Football in Chesterfield in World War One: The First-Ever Women’s Football Competition in England?’, Soccer History, no. 42 (Summer 2017) and ‘Memorabilia Corner: A Badge from Women’s Football in World War One’, Soccer History, no. 43 (Spring 2018).

4 Williams, A Beautiful Game, 152.

5 Rodger Domenghetti, From the Back Page to the Front Room: Football’s Journey through the English Media (Huddersfield: Ockley Books, 2014), 297–302.

6 My sincere thanks to Colin Farmery of the Pompey History Society for his generosity in sharing photographs from their collection.

7 For more on photography and female employment, see Deborah Thom, Nice Girls and Rude Girls: Women Workers in World War I (London: I.B. Taurus, 2000), 78–93.

8 Tony Collins, How Football Began: A Global History of How the World’s Football Codes Were Born (London: Routledge, 2019), 69. http://donmouth.co.uk/womens_football/blfc.html (accessed January 25, 2019).

9 https://www.wlv.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/centre-for-historical-research/football-and-war-network/football-and-war-blog/2017/june-to-december-2017/women-sport-and-the-first-world-war/women-sport-and-the-first-world-war.php (accessed January 25, 2019). Chillwell Canaries postcard, May 1916. NFM Collections.

10 Portsmouth Evening News, 17 and 20 March, 1914.

11 Leeds Mercury, 7 March, 1914

12 Leeds Mercury, 21 March, 1914 and Daily Record, 21 March, 1914.

13 Hampshire Telegraph, 1 September, 1916.

14 Ibid., 8 September, 1916.

15 Hampshire Telegraph, 8 September, 1916, Bournemouth Graphic, 19 October, 1917, Portsmouth Evening News, 10 September, 1938 and 24 April, 1952.

16 Hampshire Telegraph, 27 October, 1916 and Portsmouth Evening News, 2 December, 1916.

17 Portsmouth Evening News, 14 December, 1916.

18 Hampshire Telegraph, 18 May and 1 June 1917. For another advertised dance for the 4 August, 1917, see John Sadden, Keep the Home Fires Burning: The Story of Portsmouth and Gosport in World War One (Portsmouth: Portsmouth Publishing and Printing Ltd, 1990), p.167. The first evidence for such a dance is a photograph by Stephen Cribb in the Pompey History Society collection, dated 7 March, 1917 and entitled ‘Portsmouth Ladies Football Club Fancy Dress Ball – Albert Hall.’ Depicting several hundred people in a packed hall, it shows at least one player attending in her football kit.

19 Information on Langdon is drawn from the census for 1900, 1890, 1870. See also Portsmouth Evening News, 27 January, 1916, Western Gazette, 7 Feb, 1919 and Hampshire Telegraph, 11 July, 1919. For a list of Councillors see http://historyinportsmouth.co.uk/people/borough-council/index.htm. (accessed December 28, 2017).

20 Although the timing of his impresario work is unknown, if it was before the war it may help explain his interest in the team. Alternatively, if post-war, promoting the team and its social activities may have helped him develop this area of business. For more on football and entertainment see Ben Litherland, ‘Sporting Entertainments, Discarded Possibilities and the Case of Football as a Variety Sport, 1905–1906’, Sport in History 35, no. 3: 391–418.

21 Hampshire Telegraph, 1 September, 1916 and 17 August, 1917, Bournemouth Graphic, 20 and 27 October, 1917, Surrey Advertiser, 14 November, 1917,

22 Surrey Advertiser, 14 November, 1917. Bournemouth Graphic, 27 October, 1917.

23 Daily Mirror, 4 December, 1916 and Bournemouth Graphic, 27 October, 1917.

24 Hampshire Telegraph, 14 September, 1917.

25 Surrey Advertiser, 18 July, 1917.

26 FA Minutes, 25 October, 1902.

27 Bournemouth Graphic, 19 October, 1917. Portsmouth Evening News, 10 September, 1938.

28 Hampshire Telegraph, 28 December, 1917, 1 February and 18 October 1918, Surrey Advertiser, 15 May, 1918.

29 Chichester Observer, 19 March, 1919.

30 Bournemouth Graphic, 19 October, 1917, Portsmouth Evening News, 24 April, 1954 and http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid

31 Surrey Advertiser, 21 July, 1917.

32 Daily Mirror, 1 September, 4 December, 1916, 1, 6, 21 and 26 June, 8 September, 6 October, 1917, 4 October, 1918, Bournemouth Graphic, 12, 19 and 26 October, 1917, Nottingham Football Post, 22 September, 1917, Leeds Mercury, 21 March, 1914 and 22 September, 1917, Yorkshire Weekly Record, 25 November, 1916, Daily Record, 21 March, 1914, Daily Mail, 1 and 26 June, 1917, The Illustrated War News 21 July, 1917, The National Police Gazette, 6 January, 1917, Portsmouth Evening News, 24 April, 1954, The Pompey History Society collection holds eight photographs. The National Football Museum holds three photographs and several newspapers and newspaper cuttings.

33 Information drawn from the 1911 census and a profile by Peter Hill, a family relative, posted on ancestry on the 10 April, 2008. It draws upon several short articles in the press. See Portsmouth Evening News, 5 February, 1954, 24 February, 1955. Cribb’s brother was a marine artist, Portsmouth Evening News, 12 January, 1937.

34 See the Daily Mirror: 6 August, 12 August, 14 August, 28 August, 7 September, 26 September, 6 November, 11 November, 12 November, 1914.

19 January, 13 August, 1915

17 January, 6 June, 1 September, 8 September, 18 November, 27 November 1916

19 May, 23 May, 30 May, 1 June, 9 June, 19 June, 28 July, 30 June, 4 July, 2 August, 9 August, 11 August, 1 September, 13 September, 6 October, 21 October, 27 October, 31 October, 29 December, 1917

10 January, 5 June, 1918

For Boys’ Own Paper see Andrew D. Lambert, Robert J. Blythe, Jan Ruger, eds. The Dreadnought and the Edwardian Age (London: Routledge, 2011), 114–7. See also the Daily Graphic, 28 October, 1905.

35 John M. McEwan, ‘The National Press During the First World War: Ownership and Circulation’, Journal of Contemporary History 17 (1982): 459–86.

36 Mike Neuson, Mick Cooper, Doug Robinson, Pompey – The History of Portsmouth Football Club (Portsmouth: Milestones Publications, 1984), 20.

37 Getty Images, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/football-fratton-park-portsmouth-england-portsmouth-news-photo/79050938 (accessed January 25, 2019).

38 Bury Free Press, 27 September, 1917. The other papers covered the game on the 24 September, 1917.

39 Liverpool Echo, 3 July 1917. Whilst Edwards called the team Halesmere FC, the image he is referring to is of their game with the Seaforth Highlands on 23 June, 1917.

40 Daily Mirror, 7 September and 4 December 1916, 1, 9, 21 and 26 June, 9 September, 16 October and 4 December 1917, 26 March, 3 April, 5 May, 4 June, 14 October, 4 November, 1918. Daily Mail, 1 June and 26 June, 13 August and 24 September 1917.

41 See Leeds Mercury, 10 April, 1917, Birmingham Sports Argus, 24 March, 1917, Evening Dispatch, 11 March, 1918, Sheffield Independent, 30 March, 1917, Liverpool Football Echo, 3 November, 1917. Bury Free Press, 29 September, 1917.

42 Hampshire Telegraph, 14 September, 1917.

43 Bournemouth Graphic, 27 October, 1917.

44 National Police Gazette, 6 January, 1917.

45 See for example Welsh international goalkeeper Leigh Richmond Roose on goalkeeping in Association Football and the Men Who Made It: Vol 1. (London: The Caxton Publishing Company, 1906), 97–102.

46 Sportsman, 10 September, 1917.

47 Ibid.

48 Norman Gannaway, William Pickford: A Biography (Hampshire Football Association), file:///C:/Users/Alex/Downloads/william-pickford-biography.pdf (accessed January 18, 2019).

49 Bournemouth Guardian, 27 October, 1917.

50 Collins, 69.

51 Portsmouth Evening News, 29 August, 1954 for funeral of Edith. Date of death for Thomas from Civil Registration Death Index.

52 Ibid.