Thread by @elizadoo7

My tribute to a remarkable woman celebrated for her contribution to the development of women’s football in Victorian England.

Her name … Nettie J. Honeyball.
#InternationalWomensDay 🧵

📷 Nettie J. Honeyball in 1895.

In the midst of 1894, an unknown woman was busy placing adverts in the press. Her aspiration was to form a women’s sports team – a football team, to be exact. She wasn’t disappointed: fifty women replied to join, and the ... 2/

📷 Britsh Ladies' Football Club

British Ladies’ Football Club (BLFC) was formed. This was an era when women’s rights were extremely limited. The 1832 Great Reform Act excluded women from the electorate by defining voters as “male persons” ... 3/

📷 Image depicting discussion of political reform

and it wasn’t until 1918 when women were permitted to vote (age restriction applied) in a general election for the first time.

The male dominated sport was about to witness a significant addition to the game! 4/

Writer and committed feminist, , daughter of the Marquis of Queensbury, gave her backing and agreed to become president and sponsor of the BLFC on condition that “the girls should enter into the spirit of the game with heart and soul.” 5/

📷 Florence Dixie portrait (c. 1877)

The next step, Honeyball needed a coach. She approached J.W. (John William) Julian, a centre half-back for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club (1894-1895), who played in Spurs’ very first FA Cup tie game against West Herefordshire in 1894 ... 6/

📷 J. W. Julian (c. 1894/95)

(and just in case any Spurs fans are reading this: Spurs won 3-2).

With Julian as the first BLFC’s team coach, Honeyball’s vision was beginning to take shape. 7/

The team trained regularly in the park adjacent to Alexandra Park racecourse at Hornsey, although Honeyball, in an interview with The Daily Graphic, explained that the ground they practiced on was “… a shockingly bad one” 8/

📷 A practice match at Hornsey - February 1895

“It’s clayey soil and I have never known it free from water.” Honeyball was determined to pursue her dream and she didn’t hold back. The beginning of 1895 saw Honeyball giving interviews and posing for photographs, ... 9/

and the club’s activities soon became the subject of intense media interest. In October 1894, The Sketch published a cartoon ridiculing the newly formed club portraying the players' appearance and their behaviour on the pitch. 10/

📷 Cartoon in The Sketch, 1894

"I have been accustomed to athletics all my life …”, Honeyball told the Maidenhead Advertiser in April 1895. 11/

Aware of political consequences, in February 1895, Honeyball told the Daily Sketch: “There is nothing of the farcical nature about the British Ladies’ Football Club. I founded the association late last year, with the fixed resolve of proving to the world that women ... 12/

are not the ‘ornamental and useless’ creatures men have pictured. I must confess, my convictions on all matters where the sexes are so widely divided are all on the side of emancipation, ... 13/

and I look forward to the time when ladies may sit in Parliament and have a voice in the direction of affairs, especially those which concern them most.” /14

Asked by a reporter from The Daily Graphic, if ladies could kick, Honeyball replied,

“Oh, yes we have no fault to find with the kicking.” /15

📷 Nettie Honeyball with the BLFC players as they prepare for their first match in 1895. She is front centre, holding the ball.

On 23rd March 1895, the landmark moment came when the debut of two women’s teams in North London battled to the finish in front of a crowd in excess of 10,000 enthusiastic and curious (mostly male) spectators. The North won: 7-1. /16

📷 Poster for the first BLFC match

The Jarrow Express reported (29th March 1895) – “The members of the British Ladies’ Football Club have played their first match in public. We hope (“severely”, said The Standard) it will be their last.” /17

📷 Illustration of the first BLFC match in The Graphic, March 1895

The match led to a national tour with well attended games.

Honeyball defied all odds despite being catapulted into the media limelight facing hostile treatment. “This is no girlish folly” she told one newspaper, “The British Ladies’ Football Club is a stern reality.” /18

Honeyball became a significant figure and an iconic Victorian pioneer in the development of women’s football. An innovator who was determined to push the boundaries and disrupt the status quo for a game ... /19

which was considered to be reserved for men only. Honeyball’s last recorded appearance for the BLFC was on the 13th May 1895, a match played at the County Ground, Exeter, before 1500 spectators. /20

Honeyball’s true identity remains unknown, but her charming choice of name means she will be remembered in her true place of women’s football sporting history. /21

I’ll leave you with Honeyball’s words from an 1895 interview when asked why she began the BLFC ... /22

"Why not? Aren’t women as good as men? We ladies have too long borne the degradation of presumed inferiority to the other sex. The subject has been in my mind for years. If men can play football, so can women." /23

📷 Nettie Honeyball in The Sketch, 1895, as the BLFC Captain

📷 Left: British Ladies' Team (North)
Right: British Ladies' Team (South)