Pat Dunn (''née'' Patricia Alice Thurston; 29 January 1933 – 11 July 1999) was among the first women to officially qualify as a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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Early life

Pat Dunn was born in London in 1933, the daughter of Lewis Henry Thurston (1893–1972) and his wife, Rebecca, ''née'' Stebbings, who died when Pat was one year old. The family moved from south London to Weymouth, Dorset, in the early Second World War. Pat became an enthusiastic footballer when growing up. After the family had moved again to Newbury, Berkshire, as a 15-year-old she joined

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Football Club – the only girl in the team.

Personal life

In 1952 Pat married Alfred John (Alf) Dunn (1927–2000), a skilled labourer and public lighting attendant from Weymouth, who was also a keen footballer. Pat was later quoted as saying that ‘I couldn’t have married anyone who wasn’t interested in football’.

Career as a referee

After leaving school Pat moved back to Weymouth where she worked as a

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and later, for 30 years, an accounts clerk on the local newspaper, the ''Dorset Evening Echo''. Her life, however, centred on football and she soon wished to be become a referee, and began officiating in youth football and

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

, where an official refereeing certificate was not needed. She applied to take the official referees' examination in 1967 but the

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(FA) said that regulations did not then permit a registration certificate to be issued to a woman. Dunn continued to make her case and was allowed to take the examination in September that year, and passed. Belatedly the FA issued the certificate while at the same time also passing a ban on women officiating at an FA or league match. Dunn persisted in her quest for official recognition, writing to the UK

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Denis Howell Denis Herbert Howell, Baron Howell (4 September 1923 – 19 April 1998) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a councillor on Birmingham City Council between 1946 and 1956. He was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham All Saints fr ...

, and to

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

. It was not until 1976 that she was officially allowed to take charge of men’s matches. Dunn was briefly the first Chair of the Women’s Football Association in 1969 but less than a year later the FA requested that she resign in favour of a male referee, Pat Gwynne. Nevertheless, Dunn went on to referee an international match that year. In 1971 Pat Dunn travelled to the unofficial Women's World Cup in Mexico as the team's trainer.

Later life

Pat continued to referee football for about ten years after 1976, before she gave it up in favour of umpiring

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

. She died in Dorchester in 1999.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Pat 1933 births 1999 deaths Women association football referees English women referees and umpires English football referees Sportspeople from London 20th-century English sportswomen