It’s December 25th 1917. The optimistic cries of ‘Home by Christmas’ have been replaced by the incessant pounding of bombs and piercing fizz of gunfire. Morale is at an all-time low and a man called Alfred Frankland, owner of the Dick, Kerr and Co ammunitions factor in Preston, has decided to do something about it. So on Christmas Day just under a year before the Armistice was signed, 10,000 people found themselves packed into Preston’s Deepdale Stadium watching a rag-tag group of munitions workers play football. The team was called Dick, Kerr’s, and they were to become the most successful women’s football team of all time.
The story began in the fields outside the factory. Frankland had called a men v women game between the workers, and the women had won. And so he organised the match at Deepdale, renting Preston’s home for £20, local rivals Arundel Coulthard Factory in order to raise some money for the war-injured. Again, Dick, Kerr’s Ladies won, trouncing their opponents 4-0 and raising £600 for charity. It was the start of a phenomenon that beat even the war. The Dick, Kerr’s Ladies transcended the fighting, and even after the armistice was signed in November 1918, were still making headlines, notably for holding the first-ever women’s match at night in 1920. Anti aircraft search lights were put to more serene use as Dick, Kerr’s beat a side made up of the best of the rest in England 4-0.
Soon, Blightly wasn’t enough to hold them and later in 1920 they hosted France in an unofficial international game. Northern strength met Gallic flair and, with the French and English media watching on, the first of a four-game series got underway with a comfortable 2-0 victory for the English in front of a 25,000-strong Deepdale crowd. A 5-2 win at Stockport came the following day before a Manchester-based game finished in a 1-1 draw. Despite their massive popularity, all these games had taken place in the North and with word spreading, the rest of the country wanted a taste of the action as well. So, for the fourth and final game in the series, the two sides traveled down to London to play at Stamford Bridge.
The game didn’t go as planned for Dick, Kerr’s though as midfielder Jennie Harris was knocked unconscious early on. As this was the time before substitutions, the team was down to ten players and ended up losing 2-1. It was one of only twenty-four defeats the ladies suffered during their 828-game history but they would not suffer similarly in the return games, when they left a mini-tour of Paris, Roubbaix, Havre and Rouen with a record of three draws and one victory. They returned to Britain shortly after to further success, closing 1920 with a thunderous 9-1 victory over a Rest of Britain XI at Anfield.
Dick, Kerr’s were a big success – too big a success some thought. The FA had grown weary of the detrimental effect the women’s game was having on men’s football and, in December 1921, they banned women’s football on Football League grounds. Dick, Kerr’s managed to get round the ban as the company had bought Ashton Park in 1920, but they strived for something more ambitious and in 1922 set off for another tour, this time in America. With no women’s teams in the US at the time, Dick, Kerr’s would play men’s teams during the nine-week adventure and come the end they had a solid record of three wins, three draws and three defeats from nine games.
Dick, Kerr’s became Preston Ladies in 1926 and in 1937 played in the ‘Championship of the World’, beating Edinburgh Ladies, the best team in Scotland, 5-1. They were rewarded with a Victory Dinner and gold medal in November that year. However as time rolled on, players and manager grew older and the Dick, Kerr’s star waned. The club was eventually forced to fold in 1965, but they left behind them a legacy that contiunes today in the trailblazing Arsenal Ladies side and Hope Powell’s national team.
They can also lay claim to two amazing stats. 1) During their time they raised around £180,000 for charity – around £30million in today’s money. 2) Lily Parr, who played between 1920 and 1951, scored over 1000 goals during her career. Only one man has scored more. Some chap called Pele…
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