Britain's Maud Watson: The First Female Wimbledon Tennis Champion

Maud Watson: The First Female Wimbledon Tennis Champion. 

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Wimbledon: The All England Club Allows Women to Compete in 1884

The Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London is the oldest tennis tournament in the world It's the only grand slam played on grass. Wimbledon remains a quintessentially British, prestigious and much loved fixture in the summer sporting calendar.

Maud Watson probably isn't a name that springs to mind when you think of Wimbledon champions, but she was an important figure in British tennis and Wimbledon's history.

The All England Club was established as a private members club on Nursery Road in London on 23rd July 1868. It relocated to its current home on Church Street in 1922. The men's singles tournament was first held in 1877. Twenty two entrants paid one guinea each (£1 and 5 pence) to participate in the five-day event. Spencer Gore won a silver cup and twelve guineas.

Seven years later, ladies were invited to compete at the All England Club for the first time. The management had repeatedly refused entry to women. However, other elite tennis clubs were accepting female competitors, so the A.E.C. submitted to the presence of ladies on its hallowed courts.

Maud Watson's Route to Wimbledon

Maud Edith Eleanor Watson was the daughter of Reverend Henry William Watson and his wife Emily. She was born on 9th October 1864 in Harrow, Middlesex. She had an older sister named Lilian (1857-1918) with whom she played squash before they took up tennis.

Maud was an all-rounder, and she presented a greater challenge to rivals than Lilian. In 1881, 16-year-old Maud made her debut at the Edgbaston Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club in Birmingham. She won the singles title after defeating Lilian in the final. The pair won the doubles tournament.

In 1884, Maud competed in the Irish Ladies Championship at the Fitzwilliam Tennis Club in Dublin. She defeated the defending champion May Langrishe in three sets at 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2.

Maud had a few titles to her name as she walked into the inaugural women's event at the All England Club. She would soon be fixed in the annuls of Wimbledon history.

Wimbledon Ladies' Tennis History Made in July 1884

Maud was one of 13 female competitors that paid 10 shillings and 6 pence (half the male competitors entry fee; this lower amount illustrated the dismissive nature of the men to women players) to participate in the inaugural ladies' tournament. The women were not permitted to play their matches until the men had completed their tournament.

Attired in long white gowns, matching hats and Victorian corsetry, Maud and Lilian Watson fought off their opposition in the draw to face one another in the final. Maud became the first ever Wimbledon's ladies' singles champion in July 1884. Her reward was a silver flower basket valued at approximately 20 guineas. Second prize was worth 10 guineas.

Watson retained her Irish Ladies and Wimbledon championships titles in 1885. She won in three sets against Louise Martin in Dublin, and she was victorious in two sets against Blanche Bingley in London. Maud enjoyed a 54-match winning streak, and she dropped just 12 sets.

Maud Watson: Birmingham 1889 Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles Champion

In 1886, the All England Club altered the format of the ladies' championship. All-comers were permitted to compete, and the winner of the knockout stage played the defending champion. Watson would receive a bye through to the final.

Bingley fought her way past Lillian Watson in the semi-final to meet Maud. Blanche beat the two-time Wimbledon Ladies' champion at 6-3 and 6-3.

Maud's 1887 and 1888 seasons were hampered by a wrist injury that became progressively worse. She was eclipsed in the women's game by Bingley, who won six Wimbledon's. Five-time champion Charlotte "Lottie" Dod, who was 15 in 1887, became Wimbledon's youngest ever ladies' singles champion. This record still stands.

In June 1889, Maud played at Edgbaston, Birmingham. This was where her career had begun and where she won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles. The spectators at Edgbaston witnessed her final blaze of tennis glory.

Watson's Tennis Career Ends

While on holiday on the island of Jersey, Maud almost drowned as she swam off the coast. Her recovery was slow, and her tennis career was curtailed.

Maud's name was etched in tennis and Wimbledon's history, but it was for her World War One nursing efforts at Warwickshire's Berkswell Rectory Auxillary Hospital that she was awarded an M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) by King George V.

Maud Watson M.B.E. died on 5th June 1946 at Hammonds Mead House in Charmouth, Dorset. The Wimbledon website calls her the "first lady" of Wimbledon.

Sources

• https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/articles/2016-06-20/maud_watson_the_first_lady_of_wimbledon.htm
  
• Community: Wimbledon Tennis Players | Lives of the First World War
  
• https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/aboutwimbledon/history_1880s.html