Joan Marcia Bathurst (née Hartigan; 6 June 1912 – 31 August 2000) was an Australian Champion tennis player.

Early life and education

Joan Marcia Hartigan was born in Sydney, the daughter of Thomas Joseph (Tom) Hartigan, a railways commissioner, and Imelda Josephine, née Boylson, a schoolteacher; the couple wed on 26 March 1908 at St Thomas's Catholic Church, Lewisham, New South Wales.R. M. Audley
Hartigan, Thomas Joseph (1877–1963) profile
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Retrieved 28 August 2011.Hartigan, Joan Marcia
Commonwealth of Australia, WW2 Nominal Roll, 2002; Retrieved 28 August 2011. Tom Hartigan was a clerk in the New South Wales Government Railways and eventually became Railways Commissioner. Joan was educated at the all-girls' Loreto Kirribilli, in the lower north shore of Sydney.

Tennis career

Bathurst won the singles title at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

three times and was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 1934 (losing to

Helen Jacobs Helen Hull Jacobs (August 6, 1908 – June 2, 1997) was an American tennis player who won nine Grand Slam titles. In 1936 she was ranked No. 1 in singles by A. Wallis Myers. Early life Jacobs was born in Globe, Arizona, and was Jewish. Her pare ...

) and 1935 (losing to Helen Wills Moody). Bathurst three times reached the women's doubles final at the Australian Championships, in 1933, 1934, and 1940. Bathurst teamed with Edgar Moon to win the mixed doubles title at the 1934 Australian Championships. According to

A. Wallis Myers Arthur Wallis Myers (24 July 1878 – 17 June 1939) was an English tennis correspondent, editor, author and player. He was one of the leading tennis journalists of the first half of the 20th century. Family life Myers was son of the Rev. John ...

of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', Bathurst was ranked in the world top 10 in 1934 and 1935, reaching a career high of world no. 8 in these rankings in 1934.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (3 titles)

Personal and family life

In January, 1943 she enlisted in the Australian Army; she was discharged on 1 September 1943. In 1946, she announced her engagement to Hugh Moxon Bathurst of Melbourne who was then private secretary to Senator James Fraser, Chifley's Health minister. They married at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney on Saturday, 12 April 1947, before flying to Adelaide then Perth to board the Orion at Fremantle for England where they planned to live for a few years while she resumed her tennis career at Wimbledon. In 1950, they returned on the Strathmore after living in Surrey for three years and settled in Sydney. Joan Bathurst died on 31 August 2000, and her husband died 16 April 2001.Death notices, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 18 April 2001. Their son, Thomas Frederick Bathurst became Chief Justice of New South Wales.

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

¹In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.

References

External links

Joan Hartigan
at The Australian Women's Register
Joan Hartigan Bathurst
at Mosman Hall of Sporting Fame * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hartigan, Joan 1912 births 2000 deaths Australian Championships (tennis) champions Australian female tennis players Sportswomen from New South Wales Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles Tennis players from Sydney Australian Championships (tennis) junior champions 20th-century Australian women Australian Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from New South Wales