Between the wars
Great Britain · born Liverpool, 1892 · died 1965 · Wimbledon doubles champion 1921 and captain of England at football
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1921
Wimbledon doubles title with Randolph Lycett
1921
Wimbledon mixed doubles final, with Phyllis Howkins
1926
Northern Championships singles title
1920
Olympic doubles gold with Noel Turnbull, and mixed silver with Kitty McKane
1
Full England football cap, as captain against Wales
Maxwell Woosnam was born in Liverpool on 6 September 1892, the son of a clergyman, and grew up at Aberhafesp in mid Wales. At Winchester he captained the cricket and golf teams, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he played against Oxford at football, golf, lawn tennis and real tennis. In 1914 he was in Brazil with the Corinthians football tour when war broke out; the team sailed straight home and enlisted, and he served with the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry and the Royal Welch Fusiliers, at Gallipoli and on the Western Front.
After the war he concentrated on lawn tennis. At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp he won the doubles with Noel Turnbull and a silver medal in the mixed with Kitty McKane. In 1921 he made a winning Davis Cup debut in the doubles with Randolph Lycett, and the pair went on to win the Wimbledon doubles that summer. He also reached the mixed doubles final with Phyllis Howkins. In 1926 he won the singles at the Northern Championships.
He played football just as seriously. As an amateur he captained Manchester City, who finished runners-up in the First Division in 1920-21, and he captained England against Wales in 1922. He worked for the chemical company that became ICI from 1919 until he retired in 1954, and sat on its board. He died in Westminster on 14 July 1965.
| Wimbledon doubles 1921 | With Randolph Lycett, won the All-Comers final against Arthur and Gordon Lowe 6-3, 6-0, 7-5; the holders did not defend, so the title was decided there |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon mixed 1921 | Final with Phyllis Howkins, lost to Lycett and Elizabeth Ryan 6-3, 6-1 |
| All England Plate 1919 | In his first Wimbledon, lost the final of the Plate, the event for early losers in the singles, to F.R.L. Crawford 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 |
| Northern Championships 1926 | Won the singles, beating Douglas Hodges 7-9, 6-2, 6-2, 8-6 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1921 | Men's doubles | with Randolph Lycett |
| Northern Championships | ||
| 1926 | Men's singles | |
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
"If I was any good at anything, it was football"
The person behind the player.
Rio de Janeiro, 1914
He sailed with the Corinthians for a football tour of Brazil in the summer of 1914, but news of war reached the team on arrival. They spent one night in Rio and took the next boat home; within 24 hours of docking at Tilbury every man had joined up.
Source: OlympediaCalifornia
Invited to tea by Charlie Chaplin while in California, Woosnam beat him at tennis and then at table tennis, playing with a butter knife instead of a bat, his "great party piece".
Source: Historic UKManchester, 1920
He played only home games for Manchester City at first because of work. When City lost an FA Cup tie 3-0 at Leicester without him, some supporters blamed his employers, Crossley Brothers, who then ordered him not to miss another match.
Source: Max Woosnam, WikipediaAmateur
Woosnam declined every chance to become a professional sportsman, finding the idea "vulgar". Manchester City remember him as the perfect gentleman, who sometimes carried a handkerchief around the pitch.
Source: Manchester City, "City DNA: Gentleman Max" (2019)Hyde Road, 1922
In 1922 he broke his leg on the fence around City's Hyde Road ground. He went on playing lawn tennis, and won the Northern Championships singles four years later.
Source: Manchester City, "City DNA: Gentleman Max" (2019)Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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