Careers in Football: the Armed Forces (Corporal Lucy-Rose Foreman)

Corporal Lucy-Rose Foreman of the Royal Military Police, an Initial Military Police Instructor responsible for taking recruits through 21 weeks of training, describes combining service life with football for the Adjutant General’s Corps women’s team. Having played for Sheffield Wednesday from the age of six and Sheffield United’s academy from eleven, she has not played outside the forces since joining because irregular shift patterns and deployments make commitment impossible; she has missed whole seasons to deployment and accepts that it always comes first. Football, she argues, makes her a better soldier: the robustness women’s football demands transfers directly, along with discipline, teamwork, communication and coordination. Her advice to anyone considering the career is to go for it and research the jobs available.