Lily Parr was born on the 26th of April 1905 in one of the poorest areas of Merseyside in a rented house in Union Street, Gerrard's Bridge, St.Helens the fourth of seven children born to George and Sarah Parr. Her father was a labourer at the local glass factory and the family rented out space in the yard and rooms at their house for extra income. As a girl, Lily had a fearless streak and with a robust frame competed alongside boys in both football and rugby becoming proficient in both with the help of her elder brothers. Playing for the St Helen's Ladies team, where it is rumored she appeared more than 100 times for the club, against Dick, Kerr's Ladies team she caught the eye of the opposition manager Arnold Frankland who offered Lily and her team-mate Alice Woods a space on the team and a job in the munitions factory. When she first came into the team she was fourteen years old and she played at left-back and received 10 shillings expenses per game and a supplementary payment of a packet of Woodbine cigarettes. She was moved to the left-wing on New Years Day 1921 and scored a hat-trick against a 'Rest of Lancashire' team. During her time working for Dick, Kerr & Co she lodged in Preston with one of her teammates, Alice Norris. She had a romantic relationship with her teammate Alice Woods, also from St. Helens, and was noted for her large appetite and almost constant smoking of Woodbine cigarettes.
At almost 5 foot 10 inches tall, her strength was said to be one of her greatest assets being particularly noted for the power of her kicking, both in delivering from the left flank and shooting at goal. One of her teammate's Joan Whalley has said, "She had a kick like a mule. She was the only person I knew who could lift a dead ball, the old heavy leather ball, from the left-wing over to me on the right and nearly knock me out with the force of the shot..."
As men left to fight in WW1, in England there was a growing interest in women's football and the Dick, Kerr's Ladies team regularly drew large crowds including a famous event on the 26th of December 1920 at Goodison Park that drew more than 53,000 spectators to watch them beat St. Helens Ladies 4-0. Unlike women's teams today, Lily played against both male and female teams and she reputedly had a harder shot than any male player. Women's football continued to grow in popularity until 1921 when the Football Association banned women from playing on their member grounds. Following the English ban the team toured America in 1922 where the Washington Post reported that "Miss Lily Parr, at outside left, put up an aggressive game registering two goals in seven tries she had at the net". Lily continued with the Dick, Kerr's Ladies even when they lost the support of their factory, having been taken over by English Electric, and were renamed the Preston Ladies. She was praised for her overall technique and vision with contemporary Scotland international footballer Bobby Walker describing her as the "best natural timer of a football I have ever seen." According to a BBC article she scored 43 goals for the team in her first season, when she was 14 years old, and totalled more than 900 goals in her career between 1919 and 1951. The team played 828 matches, won 758, drew 46 and lost only 24. In that time they scored more than 3500 goals, and Lily scored around 1000 of them.
In its time, Dick, Kerr's Ladies had raised a lot of money for Whittingham Hospital and Lunatic Asylum. In gratitude, they offered jobs and accommodation to women on the team who had been fired from English Electric. One of the women who took a job there was Lily and in her first few days at the hospital she met a co-worker called Mary. The two fell in love and became partners. Lily trained as a nurse concentrating more and more on a nursing career, eventually reaching the post of Ward Sister.and worked in the hospital until she retired. While working she continued to play women's football for the Preston Ladies until 1951 which included taking part in a further tour of France. Lily played her last game at the age of 45 when she took to the field in a game against Scotland. She lived out most of the rest of her life in Goosnargh, near Preston with her partner Mary. In 1967, the years of smoking caught up with her and she developed breast cancer. She stubbornly refused to give up her beloved Woodbines and despite a double mastectomy she died at home in May 1978 aged 73 and is buried in the town of her birth, St Helens, Merseyside. In May 2019 it was announced that a statue of Lily Parr would be unveiled at the National Football Museum in Manchester in June 2019 making her the first female footballer commemorated with a statue.
No comments:
Post a Comment