Mary Eileen Halford, (nee Whitmarsh; 14 December 1915 — 1 November 2009) was a British

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player and coach. In the 1940s she married Peter Halford, who played for the Great Britain national field hockey team. Born in

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of ...

, Halford made her

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

debut at age 17 in 1933 and was the youngest competitor in the women's event that year. She made the singles fourth round at Wimbledon on four occasions and was a mixed doubles semi-finalist in 1936 with

Frank Wilde Frank Herbert David Wilde (1 March 1911 – 6 February 1982) was a British tennis and table tennis player who played in the Davis Cup. He reached the final of the Wimbledon Championships on three occasions, twice in the men's doubles and once i ...

. In 1946 she played

Wightman Cup The Wightman Cup was an annual team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 (except during World War II) between teams from the United States and Great Britain. History U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to generate ...

tennis for Great Britain. Halford became non-playing captain of the Wightman Cup team in 1954. Her final year as captain in 1958 saw Great Britain win the tournament for the first time in 28-years, after which she announced her retirement. She was honoured with an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

1959 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1959 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 30 December 1958 to celeb ...

list for services to tennis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halford, Mary 1915 births 2009 deaths British female tennis players English female tennis players British tennis coaches Officers of the Order of the British Empire Tennis people from Surrey People from Dulwich Sportspeople from the London Borough of Southwark