Lily Parr (b. 1905) was a well-known lesbian footballer who lived her life proudly and freely. (Getty/Creative Commons)
LGBT+ History Month is all about remembering our forefathers, foremothers and forepeople who paved the way for the rest of us, and there are few UK figures who are more trailblazing than chain-smoking lesbian footballer Lily Parr.
Lily Parr was born in 1905 in a small rented house in St Helens, Merseyside: one of seven children, and grew to be a striking, tall girl with jet black hair and an athletic frame. She was well known for her large appetite, her heavy drinking and love of high tar Woodbine cigarettes – known as ‘gaspers’ because of the effect they had on first time smokers’ lungs.