Helen Matthews, real name probably Helen Matthew ( – ), also known by her pseudonym Mrs Graham, was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, artist, and

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

. Matthew (or Graham) is known as a leading player and team captain from the 1890s, and for recruiting the first black woman footballer,

Emma Clarke Emma Clarke (born 1971) is an English writer of comedy and drama scripts, radio presenter and voice-over artist, best known as the voice of the automated messages on the Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City lines of the London Underground. M ...

Biography

Birth records suggest she was born Helen Jane Matthew in London in 1871. Her parents were William and Eliza Matthew, and her sister was Florence Matthew. Helen later said she was born in Montrose. She probably lived there and in

Littleham Littleham is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of north Devon in south west England, about south of Bideford. The parish had a population of 446 at the 2011 census. The parish is bounded by the River Torridge in the north-eas ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, but moved to

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

around 1880. The Matthew family lived on Carisbrooke Road in

Walton, Liverpool Walton is an area of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England, north of Anfield (suburb), Anfield and east of Bootle and Orrell Park. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is largely residential, with a diverse population. Hist ...

(near to where

grew up in

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

). Matthew stated in 1896 she had been in Lancashire for twenty years. Helen Matthew's first football match appearance was probably in 1890, in Alec Payne's football and entertainment tour of English and Welsh towns. Inaccurate modern reports (including in the ''New York Times'') claimed she founded the first women's teams in 1881, but this is not backed by any primary source. Helen Matthew was a newspaper artist from 1891 to 1895, publishing articles with her sister Florence as "The Lothian Lasses". They were fans of the first men's Football League champions

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

and of

Nick Ross Nicholas David Ross (born 7 August 1947) is an English radio and television presenter. During the 1980s and 1990s he was one of the most ubiquitous of British broadcasters but is best known for hosting the BBC Television programme ''Crimewatc ...

; they wrote, "N.E. are our one favourite team and can do no wrong except get beaten, when we long to visit them with a whip". Their articles, with Helen's illustrations, were published in the ''Cricket & Football Field'', ''Liverpool Echo'', ''Lancashire Evening Post'' and the Cardiff ''Evening News''. Matthew went to London in 1895, possibly playing in Birmingham beforehand for the short-lived Midland Ladies Football Club in March 1895. A new club was founded by suffragette

Nettie Honeyball Nettie Honeyball, also referred to as Nettie J. Honeyball, was the founder of the British Ladies' Football Club, the first known women's association football club, and one of their players until spring 1895. The name Nettie Honeyball was a pse ...

and manager Alfred Hewitt Smith, named the British Ladies' Football Club or the Lady Footballers, who arranged tours usually as ''North v South'' or ''Reds v Blues'' matches; Matthew, as "Mrs Graham", played as a goalkeeper and sometime team captain. From late 1895 until June 1896, Matthew led her own teams, also initially named ''Reds v Blues'', but later the ''Original Lady Footballers'' or ''Mrs Graham's XI'', to play tour games, including against Scottish men's teams. In the first match of the tour against

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier * Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia * Irvine Island * Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada * Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut Scotland *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotlan ...

, Matthew sustained a

black eye A periorbital hematoma, commonly called a black eye or a shiner (associated with boxing or stick sports such as hockey), is bruising around the eye commonly due to an injury to the face rather than to the eye. The name refers to the dark-colo ...

, but continued playing. Mrs Graham's XI had

, the first black woman player, touring Scotland that year too; she continued to play with her sister up to 1903, but Clarke's true identity was not confirmed until 2017. In an 1896 interview, "Mrs Graham" claimed that all of her team were, like her, from Lancashire. In 1900, Matthew was involved in a court forgery case against the manager of a sports shop, where her name was recorded as "Helen Graham Matthews"; other names she used were "Mrs Helen Graham" (although still single) in 1895, and "H.M.G" to sign her artwork. In the 1900s, Matthew became a racehorse owner. According to the historian Stuart Gibbs, "Horse racing was a common target for the radical wing of the suffrage movement so it seems unlikely that Helen with her links to the racetrack would have been a suffragette". She married in 1915. Matthew was recorded as still being a Preston supporter in her 70s in

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge, Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its population was 24,029 in 2011, and was estimated at 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in ...

, and following the team's

1954 FA Cup Final The 1954 FA Cup final was a football match between West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End, played on 1 May 1954 at the original Wembley Stadium in London. It was the final match of the 1953–54 staging of English football's primary cup compe ...

from a hospital bed.

Recognition

Matthew (under the name Helen Graham) was recognised in the inaugural Scottish Women in Sport Hall of Fame, in 2018.

Biography

Recognition

See also

References

Further reading