We have all heard of the expression behind every successful man is a strong woman, but frequently the comment is said in jest, even when it is true.
There are many sports where the women were actually ahead of the men in terms of organising tournaments and international fixtures. On many occasions women have led the way. On many other occasions the men would have been better to have followed that lead.
The inspirational lady featured today left her mark on the international sporting scene, but few know about it. Her life away from the playing field was however probably even more remarkable.
Angela Tuckett was born in 1906 in Bristol, England. She was born into a family of solicitors and maybe that was her destiny, as she became the first female solicitor in the West Country city. Her older sister Joan followed in her footsteps by qualifying soon after.
She attended Clifton High School in Bristol and was by all accounts a talented hockey player. After leaving school she played club hockey for Weston, St Cross, Bath and Lansdowne. She was selected to represent the county and played for Gloucestershire. In that era there were “territorial” sides which would no doubt today be called regional sides, and Angela was selected to play for the West of England.
It must therefore have come as no surprise that she was eventually called up to play for England in 1931. Her sister Joan also played for England.
Angela may have come from an affluent family but she was well aware from an early age of the injustices in the world. As a child she said that she remembered sitting on the knee of the famous Suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst. By becoming the first female solicitor in Bristol she already had made her mark for women’s equality. She soon became interested in Politics, and became actively involved in trying to help others as a result of the Great Depression, which started in 1929 and ran well into the 1930’s. It left many people unemployed and facing incredible hardship. It was when the South Wales Miners marched through Bristol as part of the Hunger Marches from all around Britain heading to Parliament in London that Angela made her commitment to the Communist Party. That was the moment that she chose to fight for the rights of others.
Marjorie Pollard was a contemporary of Angela’s in the England Hockey team and she too was a woman who broke down barriers. Regarded as one the great hockey players of her era, she played for England from 1921 to 1937. She would be one of the women to found the Women’s Cricket Association, and would also be the BBC’s first ever female commentator. She commentated on cricket in 1935.
She was also the editor of Women’s Hockey magazine, and wrote of Angela that she was “a brilliant player with a mind and methods of her own.” This would become abundantly clear in 1935.
There is a photograph of the England Mens football team from the 14th of May 1938, that has always caused the players and the establishment a great deal of discomfort. As to what actually happened is hard to fathom as differing stories have emerged.
What we do know is that the night before the match, officials from the English FA and the British foreign office agreed that it would be sensible from a political viewpoint for the England players to give the Nazi salute prior to the game. War by now looked inevitable, but it was believed that by performing the salute the players would be playing their part in a tricky diplomatic situation; and would no doubt draw a positive reaction from the crowd.
The players were only advised of this an hour before kick off in the dressing room. Some accounts have claimed the players simply accepted the instruction. However England great Sir Stanley Matthews claimed that “the dressing room erupted.” He always stated that the England players were opposed to the salute, and that the picture taken that day brought him shame.
Hitler did not attend the game, but other key figures from the Nazi party did, including Joseph Goebbels. England won 6-3, but the result has almost always been forgotten, instead the image of the England team giving the Nazi salute has become a symbol of one of the worst moments when politics crossed over into sport.
No doubt the footballers would have been unaware as to what happened three years earlier when the England Women’s Hockey team played in Germany. The date this time was the 14th of April 1935. The game was to be played in Berlin, the host city of the Olympic Games the following year. Although women’s Hockey would not enter the Olympics for another 44 years it has been written that this was a game to test the ground prior to the big event.
Angela played in her regular position of right wing that day, and Marjorie Pollard was in the team with her. Facism had taken hold of Germany at that time and the women were told that they must adhere to custom and pay homage, to The Fuhrer by giving the Nazi salute as they passed through a cordon of saluting Hitler Youth.
All of the players complied except for one, Angela Tuckett. Later in life she explained that her hatred for Facism would not allow it.
Once again Adolf Hitler was not in attendance, this time he had sent his Army’s Commander in Chief General Werner von Blomberg.
After the match Angela was harassed by reporters but she refused to answer questions from the German press who were keen to hear her views on the New Germany. She simply responded to every question by talking about the game that had just taken place. England had won 6-4.
The team’s management received complaints from “the highest level” and the British Embassy was called into action to try and resolve what was deemed a diplomatic incident. According to the records of the All England Women’s Hockey Association the report post tour, given by the Captain Miss Knott is apparently accompanied by an asterisk. Which it has been assumed means that it was a verbal report, as no written report has been found.
Angela who had been a regular in the side was dropped for the next game against the Netherlands and her England playing career was over after 11 matches which had seen her score three goals.
It would appear that such a move would not have bothered her. As she was clearly a highly principled woman. A woman who stood by what she believed no matter the personal consequences.
She continued through life championing the causes of the hard done by. She defended leaders of the National Unemployed Workers Movement when they were arrested for incitement during the London Blitz of World War II. She also handled 600 National Council of Civil Liberties cases, and in between wrote for a number of publications dedicated to the worker.
She wrote plays on women’s rights with her sister in the 1930’s and still found time to be a trained aviation pilot. From 1948-1978 she worked on the Labour Monthly publication and was assistant editor. In 1962 she met her second husband Ike Gladwell secretary of the Swindon Communist Party. She backed England’s miners during the 1984 Miners strike and was also a regular at the Greenham Common, anti-nuclear arms peace camp.
She was a member of the Swindon Folksingers club and would never be parted from her concertina, which she is said to have smuggled aid money in to Greek patriots during the civil war in the 1940’s.
Growing up in Swindon many was the time I walked past this woman playing her concertina in the town centre, where she was a permanent fixture during the 1970’s and 80’s. There she would be with her concertina no matter the weather, or the time of year. I like many walked past her regularly never knowing even one small part of what she had done in her life. Here was a woman, who was an author, a historian, song writer, theatrical producer, lecturer, political activist, a pilot, a musician and an international hockey player. Who knew?
In an article published in 2015 the Swindon Advertiser’s Barry Leighton recalled a comment she made at her 80th birthday, “To do nothing but grumble and not act.. that’s throwing one’s life away.” She could never be accused of not acting, or standing up for what she believed.
Her biographer Rosie MacGregor in the same article summed up her life by saying “Hers was a life well lived… not selfishly but fearlessly and responsibly, with a genuine belief in social justice and a determination to take action and follow through what she knew to be right.” Can there be a better epitaph?
Angela Tuckett passed away in 1994 at the age of 88.
(At the time of the England v Germany game Angela was married and her married name was Pilley, however she is best know by her maiden name).
