The Melbourne Cricket Club is seeking Carlton’s support in its bid to identify the mysterious ‘Lady in Blue’ thought to have been captured in film almost 90 years ago by the renowned football photographer of the day Charle Boyles.

The request comes from the MCC’s Collections Officer Alex Chubaty, who is currently tasked with the sizeable responsibility of auditing and enhancing the records of hundreds of Boyles’ glass plate negatives predominantly featuring individual and team photographs across more than thirty years of Victorian football competition, beginning in the mid-1930s.

“In doing so, I have come across one negative of a woman in a Carlton Football Club guernsey, posing in a studio setting. It would be great to put this positive image into context and tell more of the story,” Chubaty said.

“There are around 1500 negatives in this collection which display many men’s teams from the VFL, VFA and Victorian Amateurs, but this is the first image of a female player I have found.”

Boyles’ football photographs broadly cover the years 1928-1961. Negative and positive copies were mostly created in a darkroom at his premises at 8 Inverness Street, East Brunswick. Rather diplomatically, Boyles supported the teams he photographed.

Following his death at the age of 82 in 1971, his glass plate negatives were retained by his son Harley, then later donated to the Melbourne Cricket Club in the name of Harley’s son Colin, an MCC Member.

Though the image of the Blue brunette was posted on social media in December last year, her identity still remains unknown. With this latest call-out via the Carlton website, it is hoped that someone may recognise the subject as a grandmother, great grandmother, or an old friend or acquaintance.

Can you identify the Lady in Blue? If so, please contact tony.debolfo@carltonfc.com.au or heritageservices@mcc.org.au