This article is a part of the Overlooked series, which features obituaries of remarkable individuals who passed away between 1851 to present, but were never reported in The Times. In 1921, the Football Association, the governing body of English soccer, issued a ban on women playing the sport, claiming it was “unsuitable” for them. However, even before the ban, Lily Parr had already established herself as a standout player.
Parr’s fame contributed to the growth of women’s soccer during that time. One notable match she played at Goodison Park in Liverpool drew a crowd of approximately 53,000, with thousands more outside the stadium. This remained the largest attendance for a women’s club soccer match for nearly a century until Atlético Madrid hosted Barcelona in front of 60,739 fans in March 2019.
Although the ban hindered Parr’s career by preventing her and other women from playing in stadiums, she continued to compete wherever she could, in fields and parks in England and abroad. Over her 31-year tenure with the Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Club, she garnered attention and scored an estimated 1,000 goals.
Parr was a pivotal player in the success of her club, alongside other goal-scoring stars such as Florrie Redford, Jennie Harris, and Alice Kell, who was the team captain for the longest period. Soccer officials began lifting the ban on women’s soccer in England and other countries in the 1970s, leading to the first official Women’s World Cup in 1991. Since then, interest in the event has significantly grown. This year’s Women’s World Cup, currently taking place in Australia and New Zealand, features an expanded field of 32 teams, up from 24.
Club competition in England has also experienced growth, with the Women’s Super League becoming fully professional in 2018, after its establishment in 2011. In the United States, the National Women’s Soccer League was formed in 2013.
Parr’s contributions and achievements were recognized when she became the first woman to be inducted into England’s National Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2019, the museum installed a life-size statue of Parr, making her the first British female soccer player to receive such an honor. Marzena Bogdanowicz, a spokeswoman for women’s soccer at the Football Association, expressed her admiration for Parr, acknowledging her as a true pioneer of the sport.
Lilian Parr was born on April 26, 1905, in St Helens, near Liverpool. Growing up, she played soccer with her brothers on the streets. Women had been playing soccer in Britain since the late 19th century, but it was during World War I that their participation truly flourished. With men away fighting and women filling factory jobs, the government encouraged soccer as an after-work activity. Parr joined the Dick, Kerr & Co. team, a locomotives factory that manufactured munitions during the war, as a left back when she was about 15.
Parr was known for her rough and abrupt manner, but her quick wit and dry sense of humor fostered strong friendships with her teammates. An anecdote recounts a match at Ashton Park in Preston, where a male professional goalkeeper declared that a woman would never be able to score on a man. Parr, known for her powerful left foot, rose to the challenge. She lined up to take a penalty kick against him and shattered his arm with her shot.
Parr rose to prominence in 1921 when she exploded onto the scene. She scored a hat trick in a single match in Nelson, England, followed by another hat trick just three days later in Stalybridge. Her most noteworthy performance came in Liverpool at Anfield Stadium, where she scored five goals against a team of all-stars assembled by comedian Harry Weldon in a 9-1 victory. She continued to impress, scoring every goal in a 5-1 win over a French team.
Parr’s exceptional shooting and crossing abilities, along with her impressive physique (standing around 5 feet 10 inches tall), quickly propelled her to stardom. According to Gail Newsham, she scored 108 goals in 1921 alone. Her team won all 67 games they played that year, scoring a remarkable 448 goals while only allowing 22. Other players like Redford and Harris also contributed significantly to the team’s domination.
Unfortunately, on December 5, 1921, the Football Association unanimously passed a resolution discouraging women from playing soccer and forbidding the use of association clubs’ grounds for women’s matches. Since association clubs owned most stadiums, the ban effectively prohibited women’s soccer from gaining traction on a large scale. Similar bans were implemented worldwide in the 20th century, halting the momentum that had been building since World War I and stifling the growth of women’s soccer.
However, Parr’s team continued to play in front of smaller crowds and embarked on tours abroad. In 1922, Parr captained a trip to the United States and the team even managed to tie a men’s team, 4-4, in Washington, D.C. Some sources suggest that President Warren G. Harding kicked off the game and autographed the match ball.
While continuing her soccer career, Parr trained as a nurse and worked at Whittingham Hospital, a psychiatric facility near Preston. Although some consider Parr a queer icon, there is no concrete evidence supporting her sexual orientation. Jean Williams, a professor of sports history, explains that myths and facts intertwine when it comes to the stories about all great football stars, including Parr. This ambiguity adds to the significance that Parr holds for many people.
Parr continued playing until her 40s and retired from soccer in 1951. In 1965, she retired from nursing. A few years later, she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite witnessing the ban on women’s soccer lifted in 1971, Parr passed away on May 24, 1978, at the age of 73 due to cancer.
Only in recent decades has Parr and her team’s achievements received proper recognition. Historical markers now commemorate her team at various locations, including the Preston factory site, Preston North End’s stadium, and Ashton Park. In 2021, the English National Football Museum established a permanent display dedicated to Parr’s life.
Belinda Scarlett, the former curator of women’s football at the museum, explained that Lily Parr offers a lens to examine women’s soccer in the 1920s and the stories of the women she played with and against. The fight against the ban on women’s soccer and their determination to play wherever they could find a space resonates strongly in Parr’s legacy. Women’s soccer owes much to these pioneering individuals like Lily Parr.
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