The Media Superstars of World War One: Sterling Ladies FC - The Dagenham Invincibles - Part 1

26/01/2026  -  3.52

Steve Bolton

CAN GIRLS PLAY SOCCER WELL? Ilford Representatives give a good display

Source: BNA Picturegoer, Saturday 6 October 1917, p.17

Saturday 1 September 1917 - First Public Filming of Women Football Superstars

The first ever game of the newly formed Sterling Ladies FC was filmed in September 1917 and shown in cinemas across the country by British Pathe, as part of the Topical Budget Series. The Sterling Ladies FC defeated Burton Vowles (Shirtmakers) by 6 goals to 1 on the ‘Gordon Fields’ of Ilford FC. Newspaper reporters commented that the 1902 ‘Prohibition’ of women’s football by the English FA had been (through its emergency committee of three) suspended for the time being. Four of their remarkable undefeated 36 games (including their penultimate and 35th game) over the two great ‘war seasons' were filmed and shown up and down the land in the first ‘Golden Era’ of women’s football.

England had women football media superstars in 1917…

Sterling Ladies FC - The Dagenham Invincibles

Sterling Ladies Football Team - Undefeated 1917-1918 and 1918-1919
Left-to-Right: Vic Hale, Trixie Peters, Alan Bott, Gladys Fairman, Guy Burney, W. Reynolds Vernon, Violet Foster, Maud Billet
Seated: Ada Fairman, Maud Smith, Ada Burney, Edie Mullet (Captain), A Tennyson
On Grass: Maud Reader, Alice Saggers

Source: Courtesy Valence House Archives, Dagenham

Maud Smith - Superstar Footballers in the Time of Total War

The Sterling Telephone & Electrical Company of Dagenham with their communications technology experience and expertise was one of the most important factories in the country during World War One. Their story is a beautiful story of women and men coming together in a time of great need. Old Victorian ideas about society were cast aside (temporarily). If men could sacrifice their bodies, minds and lives in the trenches then women, especially young working class women, could sacrifice their femininity and potentially their fertility by playing the dangerous, men’s impact sport of football. Women in the factories took to the previously male only rite of passage known as association football in droves and by the end of the 1918-1919 ‘war season’ over 250 teams had played over 1,000 games to raise a fortune for the war effort. These games were often played after a 12-hour shift. Weaker sex indeed…

This is also the story of a beautiful, gentle and kind man. Guy Burney was a genius, easily on the same level as Marconi. He was the factory founder, owner and managing director and in order to tempt the best to rural Dagenham, he created a unique sporting environment a century ahead of its time.

Maud Smith, the superstar centre-forward, scored 38 goals out of 103 in the first season.

Sterling Ladies FC Fame Spreads Across the Atlantic

As early as January 1918, a picture of the Sterlings in action appeared in an American newspaper. The Tampa Times, Florida, ran an article entitled: “Women Take Up All Forms of Sport”. The American newspapers often cut two photos together and the top part shows American women skaters knitting Red Cross Items for soldiers, whilst the bottom half shows a forward menacing a goalkeeper who has fallen on the ball to make a save with the words “good save”.

The article starts with:

“Woman in the war is going to do much toward changing the sports of the feminine world. They’ll indulge in rougher, more strenuous games than their pre-war sisters did.”

The article continues: “In the accompanying picture are some English girls playing “soccer” and that one fair player has made a “good save”. In plain United States language, she has dashed out from behind the goal and fallen on the ball. Both girls are members of famous football team of the Sterling munitions works, which recently won the woman’s championship, in a warmly contested game with the workers of the Vickers munition plant.

However, there was no championship, that is just journalistic hyperbole. The Vickers reference refers to two games in the previous October and November 1917. On Saturday 6 October, the Sterlings defeated Vickers Dartford in a home match in Dagenham by 4 goals to nil. However, in an extremely tight return game at the Dartford ground on Saturday 10 November, the Sterlings just about managed a 2-1 win. The Sterlings were losing 1-0 with 10 minutes to go when star forward Ada Fairman scored two late goals.

It is a constant source of amazement to me that the Sterlings managed to go through two whole seasons undefeated. They had some very close calls!

Maud Smith - Dagenham’s Superstar Centre-Forward

Maud Smith - Chief Goalscorer for ‘The Blues’ - Season 1

Source: BNA Daily Mirror - Colourised by the Author

Maud Smith - 38 out of 103 Goals in One Season

The biggest World War One Museum in the world is in Kansas City. The National World War One Museum and Memorial has been dedicated by the US Congress as the Country’s official museum dedicated to WW1. In 2026, Kansas is one of the host cities for the male football world cup with six games scheduled. To celebrate, the museum is running a significant exhibition from April to November entitled ‘The Beautiful Game’. Several rare and valuable items from the Steve Bolton Collection are going to feature, thanks to my good friend and top historian Clive Harris. The exhibition is to feature a small recreated football pitch with several mannequins dressed for the central powers e.g. Germany, Bulgaria, Ottomans and the allies. 

Maud Smith in the iconic blue quartered football kit and bobble hat has her own mannequin. She will be carrying the torch for the women footballers of World War One over 100 years after their supreme contribution to the war effort. The fact that this is in an American City with the world’s first dedicated stadium built for women’s football is, to quote my American friends, awesome.

The Media Superstars of Dagenham in 1917

Sterling Ladies FC - The Legendary Dagenham Invincibles

Source: Picturegoer Magazine in October 1917

An Incredible Four Games Filmed

1917-1918 Season

Filmed Game Number 1 - Saturday 1 September 1917
Sterling Ladies FC 6-1 Burton Vowles Ladies - Played at Ilford
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/77335/ 
(1st game of Season 1)

Filmed Game Number 2 - Saturday 20 April 1918
Sterling Ladies FC 2-2 Vickers Crayford Athletic Club - Played at Southend
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x89yzur 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri_xYzWdFRE  (with sound and colour)
(19th game of the Season 1)

Filmed Game Number 3 - Saturday 4 May 1918
Sterling Ladies FC 11-0 London General Omnibus Co Ladies - Played at Ilford
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/77396/ 
(20th and final game of Season 1)

1918-1919 Season

Filmed Game Number 4 - Saturday 12 April 1919
Sterling Ladies FC 2-0 Handley Page Ladies FC at Ilford
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/77840/ 
(Penultimate game of the Season 2 and Penultimate Ever Game)

Filmed Game Number 1: Sterlings 6-1 Burton Vowles - Saturday 1 September 1917

Source: British Pathe ID: 1890.45 (This film is identical to Film ID: 1884.16)

29 Second Clip at Ilford Football Club

The game was played to raise funds for the Cowlin Memorial Fund to remember local hero Horace Cowlin. The football match was part of a much bigger fete.  There was an athletics competition including the ‘Canadians’ and the famous Surrey Athletic Club which included 48 prizes. The 1st Essex Volunteer Regiment and 3rd Cadet Battalion, Essex Regiment bands, provided musical entertainment. The management of the Hippodrome had arranged for a number of eminent professional artistes to entertain the crowd. The referee was George Shalders (Essex County FA) and the local MP, Sir Peter Griggs and Lady Griggs were there to distribute prizes.

The film starts with the two captains, Edie Mullet of the Sterlings and Ms Williams of BV tossing the coin with referee Shalders. The Assistant Honorary Treasurer of the Sterling Amateur Athletics and Social Club, Mr E. T. Shalders, can then be seen kicking off the game. There then follows footage of general play with Burton Vowles, who were playing their first game, trying hard in white tops and black skirts. The final shot is of the Sterling team relaxing after the game with George Shalders.

The Sterlings were leading 2-1 at half-time thanks to Ada Fairman and a reply from F. Parish. After half-time Violet Foster added a third and then the Dagenham team’s “…dashing centre forward”, Maud Smith, added two. Edie Mullet finished off the sixth goal with a “ripping shot”.

Mr. E. F. Vowles - Surrey Athletics Legend

Mr E. F. Vowles Officiating at an Athletics Meet aged 85

Source: BNA Surrey Advertiser, Wednesday 4 June 1952, p.1

August 1917 - Two Cricket Matches

On Saturday 18 August 1917, Barking Hospital held a huge fundraising fete in Barking Park with around 2,000 attendees. Justice of Peace and soon to be Ilford M.P. Sir Peter Griggs, attended and spoke about the great need for local councils to build and support hospitals, referencing the ‘…deplorable calamity which happened so recently at the Ajax Chemical Works’. The disaster in question led to the deaths of 73 people when a fire ignited 50 tonnes of TNT in the Silvertown area on the Isle of Dogs, initially suppressed by the Government of the day. 

The fete included a mother and baby show, a band contest, beauty contests for girls (aged 6-8, 8-14, 14-25, 25+) and boys (aged 6-8, 8-14 and 14-25), a mock rescue of boy scouts by the St John Ambulance Brigade and local Nurses, a display of scouting activities and a sports contest. Mr W. R. Reynolds Vernon, General Secretary of the Sterling Athletic and Social Club, organised the sports at short notice. ‘An item that was closely watched and applauded’ was the women’s cricket match where Sterling beat Burton Vowles.

One week later, a number of wounded soldiers were guests at the Burton Vowles and Co Sports Day, at the Spotted Dog sports ground in Forest Gate, which is now run by fan-owned Clapton Community FC. The Sterlings were their guests and as well as the usual walking and running races there was also a women’s cricket match, easily won by the Sterlings. Football stars Edie Mullet and Alice Saggers bowled well and Maud Reader showed ‘…capital form with the bat’. The Sterlings had a star cricketer in their captain Miss Lazarus, who scored 49 and took 6 wickets. Maud Reader won the 100 yards scratch race and Maud Smith led the winning relay team. I have no doubt that these two events led to the invitation to Mr Vowles to constitute a women’s football team for the Sterlings first ever game.

Mr E. F. Vowles was for his entire life a passionate and much loved supporter of amateur athletics. The remarkable picture above is accompanied by the following text: 

"RUNNERS EYE VIEW of the starter at the Whit-Monday sports meeting at Guildford. Mr. E. F. Vowles, who is 85, is one of the best-known of track officials and was himself a leading athlete 60 years ago, winning over 300 prizes. He has been starting races at Guildford and other meetings since 1915."

The Cowlin Memorial

The Cowlin Memorial - Valentines Park, Ilford

Source: Courtesy of Redbridge Museum

Horace Cowlin - A Brave Man

Horace Cowlin, was the proprietor of a jewellery shop in Ilford High Road and was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Horace ‘…was in the act of throwing a bomb at the Germans when he was shot in the wrist and dropped the bomb, thus setting the fuse going…’ With only a few seconds before the grenade exploded, Horace threw himself upon the grenade, thereby shielding his fellow comrades from the explosion. In August 1916, Horace’s fellow members of the Ilford Chamber of Commerce met to discuss proposals to erect a memorial in his honour and fundraising started apace. It was decided that a wooden shelter, something both ornamental and useful, would be gifted to Ilford Council. The shelter and a stone memorial plaque were unveiled on 6 December 1917.

The Sterlings first football match was to raise funds for this beautiful memorial. 

In 2006, the memorial was refurbished and the original commemorative plaque was cleaned, re-gilded and re-sited between the shelter and the lake. In July 2016, the memorial shelter and stone tablet were restored by Vision Redbridge Culture & Leisure, with funding from the London Borough of Redbridge, to commemorate the centenary of both Horace’s death and the Battle of the Somme.

It was hoped that Horace would be awarded a Victoria Cross. Unfortunately, it needed an officer to have witnessed his act of bravery and this wasn’t the case.

Information taken from Redbridge Museum website, with thanks. If you do happen to be in the area, perhaps take some flowers…

Biography

Steve Bolton was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from University College London) and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Nottingham. Steve’s passion is researching and writing about the history of women’s football. I have had several articles published and he is currently working on his first book: “Granny Played Football”. Granny Lizzy Ashcroft was one of the most influential and important pre-WW2 women’s footballers. She made her debut at the age of 16 for St Helens Ladies at St Andrews in April 1921 in front of a crowd of 30,000. After the English FA ban she joined the Dick Kerr Ladies in 1923 where she played until her retirement in 1935. She was Vice-Captain under Lily Parr from 1932-1934 and in 1935 took over the captaincy from her great mate Lily and led the DKL only their second ever continental tour. Steve is custodian of the Lizzy Ashcroft Collection which is one of the foremost collections of pre-World War Two women’s football memorabilia in private hands.

Steve’s Twitter handle is: @DagenhamInvince and he can be contacted by email at: lizzyashcroftfootballer@gmail.com