Between the wars

Billie Yorke

Great Britain · born Rawalpindi, India, 1910 · died 2000 · Wimbledon doubles champion 1937 with Simonne Mathieu

A painted still life of a grass court in between the wars, not a portrait of the player
A period scene. No freely licensed photograph of this player has been found yet.

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4

Wimbledon ladies' doubles finals: 1933, 1937, 1938 and 1939

1937

Wimbledon doubles title with Simonne Mathieu

38

Games in the 1933 final, the joint record for a Wimbledon ladies' doubles final

3

French doubles titles in a row with Mathieu, 1936 to 1938

1935

Singles title at the South of England Championships, Eastbourne

Playing career

Adeline Maud Yorke, always known as Billie, was born in Rawalpindi in the Punjab on 19 December 1910. She was a doubles specialist, and her first big result came at Wimbledon in 1933, when she and Freda James, unseeded, reached the final and took the top seeds Simonne Mathieu and Elizabeth Ryan to three sets.

Mathieu then became her partner. Together they won the French Championships doubles three years running, from 1936 to 1938, and the Wimbledon doubles in 1937; Yorke also won the French mixed doubles in 1936 with Marcel Bernard. She lost two more Wimbledon finals to Sarah Fabyan and Alice Marble, in 1938 with Mathieu and in 1939 with Helen Jacobs.

In singles she won the South of England Championships at Eastbourne in 1935, beating Susan Noel in a three-set final, and the Egyptian Championship in Cairo in 1938. She died at La Jolla, California, on 9 December 2000, ten days short of her 90th birthday.

On grass

Wimbledon 1933 finalUnseeded with Freda James, lost to Simonne Mathieu and Elizabeth Ryan 6-2, 9-11, 6-4; the 38 games remain the joint most in a Wimbledon ladies' doubles final
Wimbledon 1937 finalSeeded second with Mathieu, beat Phyllis King and Elsie Pittman 6-3, 6-3
Wimbledon 1938 and 1939 finalsLost both to Sarah Fabyan and Alice Marble: 6-2, 6-3 with Mathieu, then 6-1, 6-0 with Helen Jacobs
Wimbledon 1939 semi-finalWith Jacobs beat Joan Nicoll and Betty Nuthall 5-7, 6-4, 11-9, 42 games, the most in a ladies' doubles semi-final on the Wimbledon record

Every grass title: 2

Show every title, tournament by tournament
Wimbledon
1937 Women's doubles with Simonne Mathieu
Eastbourne
1935 Women's singles† South of England Championships

Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions

Anecdotes

The person behind the player.

Rawalpindi

Born in the Punjab

The AELTC's register of champions gives her full name as Adeline Maud Yorke, born in Rawalpindi, then in British India, and marks Billie as the name she went by.

Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)

Wimbledon 1933

Thirty-eight games

In her first Wimbledon final Yorke and Freda James, unseeded, won the second set 11-9 against the top seeds before losing 6-4 in the third. No ladies' doubles final at Wimbledon has had more games.

Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)

Paris and London

The Mathieu years

With the Frenchwoman Simonne Mathieu she won three consecutive French doubles titles and the 1937 Wimbledon title.

Source: Billie Yorke, Wikipedia

Eastbourne 1935

A singles title by the sea

Better known as a doubles player, Yorke won the singles at the South of England Championships at Devonshire Park in 1935, beating Susan Noel in three sets, as recorded in the Dunlop Lawn Tennis Almanack.

Source: Billie Yorke, Wikipedia

Explore

Where they won on grass

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Sources

Page updated 4 November 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.

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