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Sarah Bloomer - Steve's wife was the first 'WAG'!

Sarah Bloomer aged about 21 - the only known picture of Steve Bloomer's wife

SARAH BLOOMER was the wife of the famous Derby County and England footballer Steve Bloomer. During the 1890s and early 1900s Bloomer became the biggest star in British football, and by extension 'the world's greatest footballer'. That made Sarah the first 'celebrity footballer's wife', one of that later much-maligned group latterly extended to embrace the infamous 'WAGS' - the 'wives and girlfriends'. So how did her life compare to Mrs. Beckham and her media-savvy friends?

She was born Sarah Walker in Derby in 1875 to Herbert 'Bert' Walker and Elizabeth Walker. Her life began at 42 Litchurch Street, where she lived until her marriage. The terraced house was demolished in the 1970s and the site subsequently enveloped within the grounds of Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

Bert Walker was a boot and shoe maker with his own business employing several men. Sarah often assisted at his retail outlet on Normanton Road. As they sold football boots it is possible Steve Bloomer met his future wife when visiting the shop. Bert Walker was also the first paid 'boot-man' for Derby County, a role which required him to supply and repair the club's footwear. The Rams player Jimmy Methven wrote in a newspaper article that 'Bert Walker was a real snob of the old-fashioned kind' - it wasn't an insult....a 'snob' was simply Victorian slang for a cobbler.

Steve (22) and Sarah (21) were married on 19 August 1896 at St. Thomas's Church, not far from Derby County's then new home the Baseball Ground. In the absence of OK! and Hello! magazines the media coverage was understated - the Derby Daily Telegraph said simply: 'By the way, Steve Bloomer was married this Wednesday afternoon.'

The couple set up home at 34 Cummings Street off Normanton Road, subsequently moving to 81 Cummings Street, then 91 Dairy House Road and 35 Portland Street - each of their houses was only a short walk from the Baseball Ground. All of their former homes are still standing.

The marriage produced four children - all daughters - two of which died before their eighteenth birthdays. Hetty Winifred was born on 15 February 1898 and ended up marrying the Derby County winger Alf Quantrill. Violet Pretoria (named in honour of the British capture of the Boer capital during the Boer War) was born on 30 April 1900, but died aged 17 in 1917 while her father was imprisoned in a civilian camp in Germany. Doris Alexandra was born on 27 May 1902. Their fourth daughter Patricia was very much an afterthought, born on 3 February 1920 after Bloomer's release from captivity. She died three weeks later.

Sarah Bloomer pursued the role of traditional 'housewife', taking no employment once she had started her family. According to a visiting journalist she kept the Bloomer household 'like a palace' and the girls were 'an absolute credit'. She was an active worker for the Conservative cause and a member of Pear Tree Ward Conservative Association.

In March 1936 she suffered a bout of ill-health and went to convalesce at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Hetty and Alf Quantrill, at 42 Acacia Avenue, Sale, Cheshire. She died there three weeks later, aged 61, on 9 April 1936.

Sarah Bloomer was buried at Nottingham Road cemetery in a grave now shared with Steve. The picture accompanying this article is the only known likeness of her - it is inscribed on the rear by her daughter Doris: 'My darling Mama - she was the best Mama in all the world.'

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County:  Derbyshire

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