THE TRIUMPH AND THE TRAGEDY OF EMMA CLARKE, BRITAIN’S FIRST BLACK FEMALE FOOTBALLER

Emma Clarke, born in Liverpool in 1876 to parents William and Wilhelmina, was not particularly noteworthy at the time, except that she was one of 14 children. Clarke, on the other hand, would go on to leave an indelible mark on football in the United Kingdom – a mark that was not fully realized or appreciated until 2017, when it was revealed Clarke was the first black female footballer to play the game, making her one of the most remarkable footballers you may not have heard of.

Historian Stuart Gibbs found the discovery less than two years ago, but it had long been assumed that Clarke's teammate held the honor.The first record of a woman’s football match occurred when Clarke would’ve been just five years old, an international match between England and Scotland, the latter otherwise known as Mrs Graham’s XI, on 9 May 1881 at Easter Road, the home of Hibernian. Eleven days later, the game was played again in Glasgow, in front of 5,000 people, but the match had to be abandoned after hundreds of men invaded the pitch and the players had to flee in horse-drawn carriages.

Similar situations occurred in additional matches, thus putting an end to any attempts to introduce women's football on a more regular basis. The thought of women playing football was described as "grotesque" in the press, and, despite the odd compliment, most write-ups were more than negative, with contempt mostly for player appearance and the standard of play, with the underlying tone that football just wasn't for women.

Advertisements for individuals interested were issued around the close of 1894, and the club was officially constituted on January 1, 1895, after 30 ladies replied to the advertisement and began to train twice a week under the instruction of ex-Arsenal and Tottenham player Bill Julian. Clarke and her sisters, June and Mary, were all members of the club at some point during its two-year existence.

Although they were refused permission to train at The Oval, the side quickly found a home in London. On March 23, just two months after its formation, the team played their debut game in front of 11,000 intrigued spectators at Crouch End in London.

Women were allowed to wear conventional football boots instead of the specially made high-heeled boots worn in 1881, and corsets were no longer required, although bonnets remained a requirement in the uniform. The bonnets were so annoying that play had to be stopped every time someone headed the ball so the person in question could re-adjust theirs before play began.

The ball was smaller than the regular size, and it's unclear if the game lasted the entire 90 minutes or was cut short. Clarke took part in the game, which was dubbed "The North vs. The South." Surprisingly, although being born in Bootle, she appears to have played for the latter.

The team would go on to play almost 100 matches in the next two years thanks to a tour funded by Lady Dixie, attracting a lot of media attention, but the toll of playing so frequently, combined with a lack of cash, meant they never played again after 1887. The trip included a charity match in Brighton to benefit local medical charities, as well as many others across the country.

Lady Dixie was a Scottish wanderer, war correspondent, and feminist who believed strongly in women's rights, but her pleas for increased financing were ignored. Clarke had only been with the British Ladies for a year before touring with the aforementioned Mrs Graham's XI in Scotland in 1896.

Helen Graham Matthews, a Scottish suffragist regarded to be the first British women's footballer, had lived just a few houses away from Clarke as a youngster, and Matthews was the team's brainchild, but her name is likely to be a pseudonym.Their matches often drew tens of thousands of people, and the players were compensated with a shilling per week. Clarke went on to participate in a 'women versus. men' match in 1897, which the women won 3-1, but the media portrayal was typically derisory, despite the great victory.

Clarke's football career lasted until 1903, but information about her and her sisters' lives after then is scant, and her death date is also unclear. Due to a paucity of evidence, Gibbs concluded that Clarke died around 1905 at the age of 30 due to her removal from the national census; nevertheless, the finer details of Clarke's probably brief but amazing life may never be known.