Mystery solved of the 100-year-old photo of a women's football team

The picture is immediately striking – a black and white image of 11 women dressed for a game of football, some of the players wearing bonnets.

The photo acquired by the National Library of Scotland sent researchers deep into the archives to find out more about the female footballers captured more than 100 years ago. PIC: NLS.

When acquired by the National Library of Scotland, there was no clue as to the identity of those captured pitchside. Only a date and place was scrawled on the image – Edinburgh, 1918.

“There a few record’s of women’s football in Edinburgh during the First World War, but two matches held during 1917 and 1918 stand out,” and article in the latest edition of the library magazine, Discover, said.

And they were no ordinary matches.

The players photographed took part in games for the Vaudeville Sports Carnival organised by the impressario Fred Lumley to raise money for war charities.

The team was made up, not of super keen sportswomen, but of the casts of pantomimes of the day.

The 1917 match, held on January 30, was held at Powderhall to benefit the services canteen at Waverley Station, with the cast of Red Riding House and Cinderella meeting on the pitch.

“During the contest, referee for the day, the boxer Tancy Lee, contrived to score both goals in a 1-1 draw,” the article said.

Pictures of the contest were published in newspapers around the world, such was the spectacle.

The 1917 game was so successful that another carnival was held at Powderhall on January 31, 1918, with one of the teams captured in the photograph above.

The match was promoted in good theatrical fashion.

“In the build-up, aircraft flew over Edinburgh dropping leaflets advertising the event. There would also be a fly past on the day itself,” the article said.

The match was between the casts of Jack and the Beanstalk and Humpty Dumpty with the team pictured now known to be cast members of the latter, who were appearing at the Theatre Royal XI.

Researchers at National Library of Scotland have been able to identify some of the stars of the day pictured in the team line up.

Aida Mozelle, one half of entertainment duo Sparkling Mozelles, stands second from the left with her sister Millicent seated just below her.

Julia de Lacy, then a rising star in London’s West End, stands third from the left holding a football while Madge White, who took leading stage roles in Edinburgh and London at the time, stands on the far right.

It certainly was no ordinary game.

It would be another three years until spectators saw proper female athletes at play in Edinburgh when, in 1921, the newly formed Edinburgh Ladies team stepped onto the pitch at Tynecastle.