Georgia Stanway has always done Barrow and Cumbria proud with her performances for the England Lionesses.
She is currently looking forward to tomorrow’s final in the Women’s Euros when England take on old rivals Spain.
But she might not realise the influence home town Barrow had on the early England team when Lionesses had not been thought about as a nickname.
Historian Steve Bolton has been looking back at the origins of the present England side and has highlighted a fixture at Glasgow’s Celtic Park in 1918 in front of 15,000 fans. His own grandmother Lizzy Ashcroft was one of England’s greatest ever players.
But England’s star on that first occasion was 16-year-old Madge Dickinson who scored two goals in the famous 4-0 win.
There was a return game in Barrow, three weeks later where the Scottish team managed a respectable 2-2 draw.
But why Barrow rather than London, Manchester or Birmingham?
Bolton says the wartime England players were all picked from women working at the Vickers shipbuilding and munitions complex in Barrow.
More than 1,200 women – many of them teenagers – worked inside giant factories and they produced millions of shells for use in battle.
He said: “The players who will represent England in this weekend’s game owe these women a huge debt of gratitude. They were the trailblazers. They were the ones who shattered the glass ceiling.
“Back then,107 years ago, they were the first Lionesses and also the first to be photographed.
“The young women often worked in dirty and dangerous conditions. They worked long hours, often a 12-hour shift, and then played football afterwards.
“I think that we owe a great deal of gratitude to these young women. For the last two years a wreath has been laid at the Cenotaph on November 11 to remember their sacrifices.”
