Maud Watson

Maud Watson ( born October 9, 1864 in London - Harrow, † June 5, 1946 in Charmouth ) was an English tennis player and the first winner of the women's tournament at the Wimbledon Championships.

Life

1884 ladies tournament was held with 13 participants at the tournament in Wimbledon for the first time. In the final, defeated Maud Watson, the daughter of the Bishop of Berkswell, her sister Lilian with 6:8, 6:3, 6:3. While the men in 1877 to play for a trophy worth 25 British pounds, Maud received a small silver trophy and 20 guineas for her victory. 1885 was able to defend their victory, a year later it was replaced by Blanche Bingley.

1884 and 1885 she also won the then important Irish Championships.

Although Maud Watson and her former rivals played in floor-length dresses with corset and petticoat, some contemporaries felt their apparel as " shocking".

During the First World War, Watson worked as a nurse, for which she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire later.

In 1934, she donated the trophy to the winning Edgbaston Club, this 1982 exposed as a trophy for the "Pre Wimbledon women's grasscourt tournament ."

Watson died in 1946 in Hammersmead House in Charmouth on the English Channel coast.