Back row: Jennie Braham (England); Joan Horne (Ireland); Maureen Short (E); Helen Weir (Scotland); Bridget Cannel (E); Thelma Hopkins (I); Valerie Sinclair (S).
Sitting: Mary Hyland (Wales); Janice Mitchell (S); Joyce Hunter (S); Mrs Hopkins, Manager (I); Nan Thomas (W); Ellen Toulson (E); Helen O’Neil (I).
Kneeling: Barbara Stacey (W); Janet Morgan (W).
Following hot on the heels of our Great Britain (GB) men’s centenary in the build up to National Sporting Heritage Day 2020, our stats project has revealed another distinguished occasion: the first, newly certified GB women’s matches.
The 55th anniversary was last week (more detail here), but its significance was only realised following new research by The Hockey Museum (THM). Previously, the test matches played by the Great Britain & Ireland Touring Team in the USA in 1965 were not considered official and did not count as GB-capped matches. So, not only did these matches take place before what was previously recognised as the first GB women’s match, but these women have now become the first GB players!
The problem is that we haven’t been able to trace them all – or their families – to give them the good news. We have located six of the squad: Janice Lang (nee Mitchell) and Valerie Crombie (nee Sinclair) from Scotland; Eirianwen (Nan) Thomas and Janet Hopkin (Morgan) from Wales; and Joan Priestman (Horne) of Ireland. They have all contributed to the telling of the story of the tour.
Following recent promotion, we received three more contacts – Helen O’Boyle (nee O’Neill), Ellen Jenkins (nee Toulson) and the son of Jennifer Stokes (nee Braham) who sadly died in 2012 – but there are six still to trace. Can you help us?
Bridget Parkes (nee Cannell; capped for England) – married just before the tour; at that time living in the Manchester area.
Mary Hyland (capped for Wales) – possibly emigrated to Canada.
Thelma Hopkins (capped for Ireland also in athletics) – married (McClernon) at end of the tour before emigrating to Canada.
Joyce Hunter (Tour Captain; capped for Scotland) – deceased, so looking for family connections.
Helen Weir (GK; capped for Scotland) – deceased, so looking for family connections.
Maureen Short (capped for England) – deceased, so looking for family connections.
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