Helen Matthews

Helen Graham Matthews, also known by her pseudonym Mrs Graham (1857/8 – unknown),[1] was a Scottish suffragette[2] and women's footballer.[3][1] Matthews (or Graham) is known as a pioneer in the women's sport,[4] founding the first Scottish and then British[5] women's football teams, Mrs Graham's XI.[6] Firstly they were playing English suffragettes,[2] and later men's teams, and recruiting the first black woman footballer, Emma Clarke.[2][7]

"Mrs Graham" redirects here. For other people, see Graham (surname) and Helen Graham.

Helen Matthews
Scottish suffragette and women's footballer Helen Graham Matthews in 1895
Born
Helen Graham Matthews

1857/8
Montrose, Angus, Scotland
DiedUnknown
NationalityScottish
OccupationFootballer
Years active1881–?

Personal life

Matthews was born in Montrose, Angus, Scotland.[1]

Career

In 1881, Matthews who was a supporter of women's suffrage,[2][8] decided to set up a women's Scottish national team, after watching an all-male match between Scotland and England at the Oval, London, which Scotland won 6–1.[9] Matthews used the pseudonym Mrs Graham and named the team Mrs Graham's XI. The first record of the team coming together to play football occurred on 9 May 1881, to a crowd of 1,000 at Edinburgh's Easter Road Stadium. The match was billed as a Scotland v England international,[10] and both teams were suffragettes.[2] Matthews played as goalkeeper,[1][6][11] and the final score was 3–0 for Scotland.[10]

After spectator violence at a subsequent match,[12] women's football was banned in Scotland, Matthews went to England[13] and with fellow suffragette, Nettie Honeyball formed The Lady Footballer team, England.[1][13] She left The Lady Footballer in 1896, and in the same year, she took Mrs Graham's XI to play against Scottish men's teams.[9][14] In the first match of the tour against Irvine, Matthews sustained a black eye, but continued playing.[14] Mrs Graham's XI had Emma Clarke, the first black woman player touring Scotland that year, too and she continued to play with her sister up to 1903, but her true identity was not confirmed until 2017.[7]

Matthews herself only revealed her own true identity in 1900.[1]

In 2011, the press gave Matthew's 1881 women's match itself the credit for influencing the first 'right to vote' passed for women in Scotland (certain women in local elections only), although it was a long battle for women to get the right to vote at all:

'But the game scored a big success. The Woman’s Franchise (Scotland) Bill [note: Municipal Elections Amendment (Scotland) Act 1881] was given the royal assent, allowing rate paying women to vote in local government elections.' [8]

It differed from English Acts in that property owning single women and married women owning their own property could vote.[15]

Recognition

Matthews (under the name Helen Graham) was recognised in the inaugural Scottish Women in Sport Hall of Fame, in 2018, as a suffragette who pioneered the first women's football team in Scotland.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Secret history of women's football reveals how riots during Auld Enemy clash led to Scotland banning the developing game". Daily Record. 1 September 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  2. O'Connor, Carole. Women's suffrage in Scotland. Yorkshire. ISBN 978-1-5267-2329-1. OCLC 1103320952.
  3. Laycock, Stuart. Unexpected Britain : a journey through our hidden history. Laycock, Philip. Stroud, Gloucestershire. ISBN 1-4456-3273-X. OCLC 905801854.
  4. digitalteam@gcu.ac.uk (8 March 2018). "Footballing suffragette among Scotland’s sporting heroines in new women’s Hall of Fame". GCU. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  5. Limited, Alamy. "Stock Photo – English: The British Ladies Football Club North Team – Mrs Graham's XI was a women's football (soccer) team formed by Helen Matthews in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1881. It is". Alamy. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  6. Tate, Tim (2013). Girls With Balls: The Secret History of Women's Football. John Blake. ISBN 978-1782196860.
  7. "Revealed: Britain's first black female footballer after case of mistaken identity". The Guardian. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  8. Mathews, Jane (9 December 2011). "The day women kicked back in battle for votes". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  9. "Scotland England Match results". 12 March 1881. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  10. "THE WORLD'S FIRST WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL MATCH | Football | Hibs History | Hibernian Historical Trust | UK". www.hibshistoricaltrust.org.uk. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  11. Domeneghetti, R. (2014) From the Back Page to the Front Room: Football's journey through the English media page 155 Ockley Books. ISBN 1783015586 Retrieved February 2015
  12. "The history of women's football in the UK". The British Library. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  13. Taylor, Louise (8 June 2019). "From pink goalposts to blue plaques: a history of women's football". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  14. Lee, James (13 September 2013). The Lady Footballers: Struggling to Play in Victorian Britain. Routledge. pp. 85–88. ISBN 9781317996781. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  15. Lewis, Jane E. (2001). Before the vote was won : arguments for and against women's suffrage 1864–1896. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 478. ISBN 1-299-72849-9. OCLC 853239913.

Further reading
  • Grainey, Timothy (2012), Beyond Bend It Like Beckham: The Global Phenomenon of Women's Soccer, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0803240368
  • Lee, James (2013). The Lady Footballers: Struggling to Play in Victorian Britain, Routledge, ISBN 0-4154-2609-X
  • Lopez, Sue (1997). Women on the ball: a guide to women's football, Scarlet Press, ISBN 1857270169
  • Williams, Jean (2007). A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football, Apex Publishing LLC, ISBN 1847883451
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