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CHAPTER TEN
‘The finest golfer I have ever seen’
An advertisement for the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase at Stoke Park in 1911.
‘The lamps are going out all over Europe’
For in that month of July I received an offer for the shares of the club (all
of which I then held) at a very handsome premium, but owing to my sentimental affection for the place I asked for a little time to consider the
matter. Unfortunately the war began during this period of delay, and it
need scarcely be added that the offer was immediately withdrawn. Even so,
however, I was not so very perturbed, for, like many another, I believed
the war would soon be over. I therefore decided to close the short course,
but to keep the club and eighteen-hole course open. Had I been wise I
should have closed the club altogether ‘for the duration’, and have
merely kept the greens in order; but as it was I tried to run it as well as
circumstances would allow and what with labour-shortage and one thing
and another I experienced the greatest difficulty in doing so.
On the day before Prince Albert left England for the last time he was
talking with my daughter in the lounge of the club and told her that next
morning he would be going to Germany for six months. ‘Are you pleased
at the prospect?’ she asked, and the answer was that he disliked the idea
intensely, but that he had to go, as otherwise he would lose his income. I
believe I am right in saying that at the actual moment of the declaration
of war between England and Germany the Prince was on board the
Kaiser’s yacht, and that he begged so earnestly not to be put on active
service against the British that he was appointed to some post or other in
Berlin and remained in it throughout the war. I have been told, too, that
whenever he heard of an Old Carthusian being taken prisoner he did
everything in his power to assist him.
Peace again
Ladies too
Joyce Wethered
Glenna Collett
Enid Wilson
The visionary retires
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‘The lamps are going
out all over Europe’
The war made a big impact on the club, as it did at every
other sporting club. Many young men volunteered for the
armed forces immediately, and others were conscripted when
the country needed more than volunteers. The rest were
working so hard that they could scarcely take time off during
the week. The only players on the course apart from at weekends were officers on sick leave. The only caddies available on
weekdays were men unfit for service, though at weekends
munition workers were available.
In early 1915, the Director General of the Food
Production Department wrote to all the owners of large gardens, requesting that they grow as many vegetables as possible. The club was already doing this, indeed to the point
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
where they were finding it difficult to dispose of their surplus. Jackson suggested that small markets should be set up to
put the small consumer in touch with small producers and, as
a result, was invited by the Controller of the Horticulture
Department of the Board of Agriculture to assist in putting
his suggestion into action.
In the meantime, keeping the club going was proving
immensely difficult. Jackson recalled just how tough it was:
My reader may find it difficult to realise the trouble I had to keep the
Stoke Poges golf-course open during the war. We had, I think, only one
old man and a boy at our disposal by way of labour, and eventually I asked
Miss Talbot, the head of our Women’s Section, whether she could not let
me have six or eight of her women to help on the farm and devote a day
or two each week to the golf-course. This she peremptorily refused to
consider, pointing out that their women could only work for genuine
production of food, and that it would look very bad if she, a director of
one department, were to assist me, a director of another, to break the
rules. I need hardly add that I realise she was quite right. She suggested,
however, that I might try the Ladies’ Legion, of which Lady Londonderry
was the head, and here I was more lucky, for I secured the services of a
party of girls who had gone to help on a large estate in Sussex, but had
The Mansion in the 1920s. Pa Jackson did his utmost to revive the pre-war spirit.
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been so disgusted with the accommodation offered them that they had
returned the next morning.
The assistance we received from those splendid girls it would be
impossible to over-estimate. They practically ran the whole of the farm,
and as we had about one hundred acres of wheat, in addition to other
crops, it may easily be imagined what hard work it was. Among the party
was one very fine, strapping girl belonging to a noble family, and she took
entire charge of a horse and mowing-machine and mowed nine of the
holes through the green each week, while a similar task was performed by
another young lady who afterwards became known as a successful sculptor.
Three others divided the eighteen greens between them and kept them in
excellent condition, while others attended to the general upkeep of the
course in a most satisfactory manner. And all this they did, let it be
remembered, in addition to their farm work.
Another circumstance which was of great help to Stoke Poges during
the war was that Mr Harold McIlwraith, a great friend of my youngest son,
took up our unissued shares and joined the Board. I shall always regret
that the claims of his large business prevented him from taking over the
club with my son, Alfred S. Jackson, who, filling the position of managing director for some seventeen years, relieved me of many duties which,
with my advancing years, it would have been very difficult for me to have
fulfilled. To him, and to Mr McIlwraith, I am exceedingly grateful for
their help. We three were the only directors of the club.
Among the twelve men from Stoke Poges killed in the First
World War, three had worked at Stoke Park. William Mayne
was a reservist, having joined the Oxford and Bucks Light
Infantry in 1903, and was one of the first to respond to general mobilisation. He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Oxford
and Bucks. The battalion left for France less than two weeks
after war broke out on 4 August 1914, and in early September
he was wounded in the Battle of the Aisne. He died of his
wounds on 22 September, leaving a widow and one child and
becoming the first soldier from Stoke Poges to die in the war.
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
Edwin Shepherd, the son of Ernest and Agnes Shepherd,
had lived at Lion Lodge because Ernest was employed at Stoke
Park. Edwin joined the Royal Navy at the age of fourteen in
1913. He served in a number of ships: HMS Powerful,
Impregnable, Vernon and Vanguard. He fought at the Battle of
Jutland on board HMS Vanguard and was recommended for
promotion. He died when Vanguard was destroyed by an internal explosion on 9 July 1917 when lying in Scapa Flow.
The third Stoke Park employee to die was Harold Skues,
who had worked there for fourteen years at the outbreak of
war. He joined the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry in June
1915, serving in the 5th Battalion. He was killed in an attack
on Delville Wood (part of the Battle of the Somme) on 24
August 1916.
Again, I am grateful to Lionel Rigby for his research into
former Stoke Poges people who fought bravely for their
country. Private Edmund Turner, who died at the Battle of
Isandhlwana in January 1879 following the outbreak of the
Anglo-Zulu War, was a Stoke Poges man. Rigby tells the story
as follows:
The Anglo-Zulu War began on 11 January 1879 when three separate
columns of British troops commanded by Lieut. General Lord
Chelmsford crossed the border into Zulu territory.
Chelmsford accompanied the Central Column, which was the
strongest and included the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 24th Regiment
of Foot, the 2nd Warwickshires. This regiment’s base was established
in Brecon in 1873 and although some of its recruits came from the
English-Welsh borders, most came from the industrial and agricultural
areas of England and Ireland, and one of its men came from our village.
He was Private Edmund Turner of Wrexham, Stoke Poges, known in his
family as Teddy.
The view from the 12th fairway.
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THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
The 2nd Battalion in which Edmund Turner served had been in Africa since March 1878
where they arrived in time to take part in the last skirmishes of the Cape Frontier War. Teddy
had also served in India from 1869 and was therefore an experienced and long-serving soldier.
Chelmsford passed through Rorke’s Drift – which he used as a depot on his line of communication – with just one company of the 24th and a company of the Natal Native
Contingent to garrison it.
Chelmsford reached Isandhlwana on 20 January and the next day he sent a probe into the
hills to search for the Zulus. The terrain and darkness prevented the British from establishing the strength of the enemy. Chelmsford received the report and erroneously concluded
this was the main enemy force. He took half of his army and they marched out before dawn
on the 22 January to engage the enemy.
1,700 British troops and their African allies were left behind to defend Isandhlwana. The
Zulus Chelmsford sought to engage twelve miles away were not the main force. The main
Zulu army, only five miles away, was concealed in a valley.
The British Officers at Isandhlwana realised too late that they faced not a small local
force but the main army of 20,000 Zulu warriors. The British line was too extended and
when it tried to fall back and regroup it was too late. The line was breached. Over 1,300
British soldiers died, with fewer than 60 managing to escape. Later that afternoon the Zulu
Army reached Rorke’s Drift and so began the epic defence of that post.
One of those killed at Isandhlwana – in what was one of the British Army’s worst disasters – was Teddy Turner. He would have worn a scarlet jacket with green regimental facings,
blue trousers and white sun helmet. He was awarded the South African Medal with clasp for
his three-year service in Africa.
A letter sent to him from his sister Charlotte on 4 February 1879 reached South Africa
but was returned marked ‘KILLED IN ACTION’.
The skaters could still enjoy the cold winters.
R.H. de Montmorency, a schoolmaster at Eton College, was not only a very good golfer but a great help to ‘Pa’
Jackson when he was setting up the Stoke Park Club. He also organised the Men’s team for the annual match
against the Ladies.
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Peace again
Even when the war ended in November 1918, life did not
immediately return to the good old days. Wars are always
inflationary, and Jackson noted that wages had increased by
no less than 100 per cent and the cost of food by 120 per
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
cent. He felt unable to increase members’ subscriptions by a
similar amount. He succeeded in returning the membership
to 800 but was now struggling to make a profit.
Jackson did everything he could to return the club to its
pre-war condition and recreate the atmosphere. In 1914 he
had arranged an athletic meeting for the club staff of more
than 100 people, plus the local police and postmen. All was
set fair when the outbreak of war brought cancellation, or at
least postponement. In 1919, the prizes were still there and
Jackson revived the sports day. As he wrote later:
They proved very successful, the only damper being the sad recollection
of the poor fellow who had entered in 1914 but had since been called
upon to make the great sacrifice.
In the same year he revived the Girls’ championships, which
had also lapsed during the war, and started a Golf Challenge
Competition for Corinthian footballers, past and present.
The revival of the club was strong enough for Jackson to be
able to welcome HRH the Prince of Wales. This is how he
recorded it:
I think it would be in 1924 or 1925 that I first met His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales. My experience of the Prince has not been very great, but
the little I have seen of him has impressed me with the belief that he is one
of the very finest sportsmen our country has produced, while his geniality and kindness rival his sportsmanship. It was his custom during the
If it was cold enough to skate, should the golfers have been playing? Maybe they used temporary greens.
Cyril Tolley, Amateur Champion in 1920. The great golf writer Bernard Darwin wrote this of him: ‘Many have gazed with envy on that apparently
perfect swing, so smooth, so round, so, if I may thus express it, well-oiled and having so admirable a rhythm – majestic!’
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Ascot race week to play golf at Stoke Poges, and the first time he came back
he was accompanied by, among others, the Duke of Roxburgh and the
Hon. Sir Harry Stonor, both of whom were members of the club. They
played early in the morning, leaving in time to change their clothes and
go to the races, and the Prince came back in the evening for another
round. This he did on every day of the Ascot meeting, which proved that
he must have been in superlatively good condition and have possessed a
vast reserve of energy.
He invariably shook hands with me on his arrival, and usually invited
me to meet him at the ‘nineteenth hole’ after the match. On one of these
occasions, when he had been playing with Prince Henry (now Duke of
Gloucester) and the three of us were having a little liquid refreshment
alone, the Prince said, ‘Do you know, Henry, that this is the longest
course in the kingdom?’ to which I added the information that it was also
the only one with a scratch score of 79. The Prince then asked me what was
the scratch score of Sunningdale, and, when I told him that on the old
course scratch was 76 and on the new one 77, he said, ‘Now, Henry, fancy
Bobby Jones going round in 66 in the morning and in 68 in the afternoon, and only having one 5 – in the second round!’ I remarked,
‘Wonderful your remembering that, sir, because I didn’t know you were
there.’ ‘No, I wasn’t’, the Prince answered, ‘but I remember it well from
reading about it, and I shall certainly make a point of seeing him play next
time he comes over.’ And His Royal Highness did!
He also welcomed Sir William Morris (later Lord Nuffield),
the founder of the Morris Motor Company which he later
merged with Herbert Austin’s company to form the British
Motor Corporation:
One of the most remarkable people I have played golf against is Sir
William Morris, who shares with Sir Herbert Austin, also a friend of
mine, a world-wide reputation as manufacturer of British motor-cars.
Sir William, in 1925, brought a Huntercombe team to Stoke Poges, and I
had the pleasure of beating him, but in the return match at Huntercombe
he had his revenge. He is quite a useful golfer considering how little prac-
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
tice he has, but what astonishes me is how, with his multitudinous engagements, he is ever able to play at all.
One of the larger-than-life characters seen regularly at
the Stoke Park Club between the wars was Cyril Tolley. In
the First World War he had served in the Tank Corps, was
wounded, won the Military Cross and was taken prisoner. As
a post-war student at Oxford, he won the first of his two
Amateur Championships in 1920 at Muirfield. His second
was at Royal St George’s in 1929, which made him favourite
to win at St Andrews the following year. He met the great
Bobby Jones in the fourth round and, followed by a huge
crowd, only lost at the 19th hole – to a stymie! He played in
all the early Walker Cup matches and continued playing
international golf until 1938.
In 1927 the Stoke Park Club and Messrs Colt & Allison
both made generous donations to The Golf Illustrated £3,000
Fund to enable a number of British professionals to sail to
‘America next June to compete in the United States Open
championship, and also to take part in the first official professional international match between Great Britain and
America, for a Cup kindly presented by Mr Samuel Ryder’.
Colt & Allison gave 25 guineas and Stoke Park 15 guineas
(c. £1,500 and £900 respectively in today’s money). Stoke
Park will perhaps have been pleased to have donated more
than Royal Mid-Surrey, Swinley Forest, Woking, Walton
Heath, Royal St George’s, Sunningdale, Royal Lytham,
Addington and Muirfield, all of which gave 10 guineas,
Wentworth which gave 6 guineas, and Royal Wimbledon and
Worplesdon which gave 5 guineas.
Stoke Park Club made the girls particularly welcome, and the Girls’ Championship was played there regularly in the 1920s and 30s.
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Ladies too
However, it was for the revival of golf, especially ladies’ golf,
at the Stoke Park Club in the 1920s that we should thank Pa
Jackson.
From the beginning, Stoke Park Club encouraged ladies’
golf as much as men’s. This was unusual. Indeed, women had
considerable trouble in being accepted as golfers at all for
most of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Blackheath Golf
Club was so averse to women that, in 1906, when a member
suggested that the ladies might be allowed into the clubhouse
to see the club’s trophies, the suggestion was refused.
In spite of such prejudice, the ladies persisted, supported
by some men. In 1893 Dr Laidlaw Purves, with the aid of
other enthusiasts and the Wimbledon Ladies’ Golf Club,
decided to form a Ladies’ Golf Union with the aims of
standardising the rules for women and the handicapping
system, and to prepare the way for national tournaments
for ladies. A meeting was held in London and eleven ladies’
clubs attended. A committee was set up, and vice-presidents,
a secretary etc. were appointed. For some reason they could
not agree on a President, and it was not until fourteen years
later that Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (wife of the
first President of the Stoke Park Club) was elected President.
Within two months of the first meeting of the Ladies’ Golf
Union, a championship was played at Royal Lytham St Anne’s.
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
So ladies’ golf was off and running and, as with the men’s
game, grew rapidly in popularity. One problem that women
had to cope with was their golfing attire, which had to conform to both fashion and decorum. In the 1890s, fashion
decreed that they had to wear a stiff, ‘stand-up’ collar, and
this caused most ladies to have a sore neck by the end of a
round. It was essential to have a wasp waist, and all the skirts
had stiff petersham belts. It was also considered necessary to
wear two petticoats coming down to the end of the skirt,
which itself had to come down to the boot. This meant that
the skirts tended to trail in the mud on wet days.
Furthermore, the fashion was for voluminous sleeves, which
prevented the ladies seeing the ball at the top of their backswing. It was obligatory to wear a hat, which caused further
problems on windy days.
Fortunately, as the 20th century progressed, fashions
changed, as did the general view on what women could show
of themselves. By 1911 they were allowed to show their ankles,
thus easing the wet skirt-hem problem. In the 1920s, dress
became more casual and practical, but it was not until the
1934 Ladies’ Championship at Westward Ho! that Gloria
Minoprio dared to wear trousers. She received more press
coverage than the winner, especially as she had the temerity to
play with only one club!
James Sheridan, caddie master at Sunningdale Golf Club
for 56 years, tells the story in his autobiography, Sheridan of
Sunningdale:
There was the case of the secretary who was always intent on keeping
women in their place and, presumably, in their proper attire. One day he
saw a woman in the club wearing slacks. He was furious and at once posted the following notice: ‘Women playing golf in trousers must take them
off before entering the clubhouse.’
And, even when they were established, women faced the
problem that they could not earn any money from their golfing prowess without infringing their amateur status. For
example, Pam Barton, one of the most popular of the women
golfers in the 1920s and 30s, was told in 1937 by the R and A
Committee that she was welcome to write her book, A Stoke a
Hole, but that she could not earn any money from it.
In spite of her financial problems, Pam Barton enjoyed a
very successful decade in the 1930s. She won the British
Open Amateur and the American Amateur in 1936, becoming only the second person to win both titles in the same year.
She also became one of the few British women to be elected
to the US Hall of Fame. Her book devoted one chapter to
each of eighteen holes on courses on which she had played
throughout the world. The one she chose from Stoke Poges
was the seventh. The book was full of firm advice such as:
Half measures never get anybody, especially golfers, anywhere. That is for
your encouragement. In America in 1936 I practised five or six hours a
day before the championship.
An aerial shot of the Club in 1926.
Archie Compston said of her:
This girl’s greatest asset is her attitude of mind. She has a wonderful
power of concentration and wonderful fighting qualities coming up the
home stretch when it matters most. Pamela Barton went out there to win.
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Bobby Jones, the great South African golfer in the immediate post-Second World War period, wrote in his book, Bobby
Locke on Golf:
I had the honour of being asked to play for the Men of England against
the Women at Stoke Poges. It was a great delight to me in the singles to
play against Pam Barton. It was a wonderful match. I had to give Pam six
strokes – the women drove off the men’s tees – but I managed after a big
struggle to win by 2 and 1.
She played in a different style from Joyce Wethered (see
below), using power as opposed to the delicate balance of the
Wethered swing. Barton’s strong leg action and robust grip
enabled her to develop a wide arc of swing. Firmly planted on
her left foot, she hit through the ball with great, but controlled, force. In the words of Enid Wilson (see below), she
gave the ball ‘an imperial bash’.
Barton became a WAAF officer during the Second World
War and was tragically killed in an air accident. Enid Wilson
said how much she would miss her red hair and outgoing personality, adding:
The last time I saw Pam was when we played in a Daily Mail charity match at
Purley in aid of a service fund. The Germans bombed the course while we
were playing.
Another very good golfer to play at Stoke Park was Cecil
Leitch. Born at Silloth in Cumbria on 13 April 1891, one of
five daughters of a Scottish doctor, she learned her golf on a
links on the southern shore of the Solway Firth.
Leitch won the French Ladies’ Championship in 1912 and
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
175
again in 1914. She also won the English and British titles in
that year, before world war closed everything down. After the
war she won the English Ladies’ in 1919 and the British and
French Championships in 1920. Only Joyce Wethered would
match her four victories in the British Championship.
Joyce Wethered
Joyce Wethered, later Lady Heathcote-Amory, was possibly
the best, certainly the most famous, lady golfer who played at
the Stoke Park Club. She was perhaps fortunate to have in
Roger Wethered an elder brother who was also a very good
golfer. He apparently said to her when she was eleven: ‘Oh,
Joyce, you will never play golf. You will never study the
game.’ Born in 1901, she came to public notice in 1920 and,
in the following decade, won the British Ladies’
Championships four times and the English Ladies’
Championship five times.
This is what Bobby Jones, considered by many to be the
greatest golfer of all time, said of Joyce Wethered:
Just before the British Amateur Championship at St Andrews Miss Joyce
Wethered allowed herself to be led away from her favourite trout stream
in order to play eighteen holes of golf over the Old Course in company
The great Henry Cotton said this of Joyce Wethered: ‘I have no hesitancy in saying that … she is the finest golfer I have ever seen.’
with her brother, Roger, Dale Bourne, then recently crowned English
Champion, and myself. At the time, I fully appreciated that Miss
Wethered had not had a golf club in hand for over a fortnight, and I certainly should have made no mention of the game had she not played so
superbly.
The great Henry Cotton agreed with Bobby Jones’s view of
Joyce Wethered’s ability, writing in his book, This Game of Golf:
In my time, no golfer has stood out so far ahead of his or her contempo-
raries as Lady Heathcote-Amory. I am pleased to add to the world’s acclamation my appreciation of this wonderful golfer – a figure of modesty
and concentration, and an example to everybody.
We played the Old Course from the very back, or the championship
tees, and with a slight breeze blowing off the sea. Miss Wethered holed
only one putt of more than five feet, took three putts rather half-heartedly from four yards at the seventeenth after the match was over, and yet
she went round St Andrews in 75. She did not miss one shot; she did not
even half miss one shot; and when we finished, I could not help saying
that I had never played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly out-classed.
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THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
It was not so much the score she made as the way she made it. Diegel, Hagen, Smith,
Von Elm and several other male experts would likely have made a better score, but one
would all the while have been expecting them to miss shots. It was impossible. She stands
quite close to the ball, she places the club once behind, takes one look toward the objective and strikes. Her swing is not long – surprisingly short, indeed, when one considers
the power she develops – but it is rhythmic in the last degree. She makes ample use of
her wrists, and her left arm within the hitting area is firm and active. This, I think, distinguishes her swing from that of any other woman golfer, and it is the one thing that
makes her the player she is.
Men are always interested in the distance which a first-class woman player can attain.
Miss Wethered, of course, is not as long with any club as the good male player.
Throughout the round, I found that when I hit a good one I was out in front by about
twenty yards – not so much when I failed to connect. It was surprising, though, how
often on a fine championship course fine iron play by the lady could make up the difference. I kept no actual count, but I am certain that her ball was the nearest to the hole
more often than any of the other three.
I have no hesitancy in saying that, accounting for the unavoidable handicap of a
woman’s lesser physical strength, she is the finest golfer I have ever seen.
Glenna Collett
Another great golfer to play at the Stoke Park Club was the American
Glenna Collett, who won over six United States national titles. Having
dominated US ladies’ golf in 1923 and 1924 after winning her first US
Glenna Collett won more than six United States titles. She met her match in Joyce Wethered, who won both of
their encounters. Furthermore, Diana Fishwick beat her in the English Ladies’ Open as well.
Women’s Championship at the age of nineteen in 1922, she came to
Europe in 1925 and, after winning the French Ladies’ Championship,
played in the Ladies’ Open in England. In the third round, she met Joyce
Wethered. This is how the golf commentator Herbert Warren Wind
remembered it:
For nine holes Glenna managed to stay on even terms with the great English stylist. As a
matter of fact, Glenna was only one over par in the 15 holes for the match, but what
could you do when your opponent played 4 pars and 6 birdies over 10 consecutive holes?
You could congratulate yourself on having stood up as well as you did against the most
correct and lovely swing golf has ever known and thank your lucky stars that there was
only one Joyce Wethered and that she lived in England.
Collett played against Wethered only once again, and that was in the
Ladies’ Open at St Andrews in 1929. She was five up with seven to play,
but Wethered then won six of the next seven holes to beat her again.
To bring joy to the hearts of members of Stoke Park Club, in the following year, when the Ladies’ Open was played at Formby, Glenna
Collett, who had been nominated outstanding favourite when Joyce
Wethered decided not to play, was beaten by another Stoke Park Club
favourite, Diana Fishwick.
The doyen of golf writers, Bernard Darwin, wrote:
I imagine that when this youthful heroine first took the lead, the onlookers thought it a
gallant but unavailing effort, and that as she went on and on, and they realised that she
was going to win they were overcome by an almost reverential awe.
Simone Thion de la Chaume won the British Girls’ Championship in 1924, the British Ladies’ Open in 1927,
and the French Close and Open Championships nine and six times respectively. She married the French
tennis star René Lacoste, and their daughter, Catherine Lacoste, remains the only amateur golfer to win the
US Ladies’ Open.
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Diana Fishwick played regularly in the Girls’ Championship
at Stoke Park Club during the 1920s, and won in 1927 and
1928. She went on to win the Open Amateur in 1930, the
English in 1932 and 1949, the French in 1932, the German
in 1936 and 1938, the Belgian in 1938 and the Dutch in
1946. She won the Florida West Coast in 1933, was Kent
Champion in 1934 and Surrey Champion in 1936 and 1946.
She played in the Curtis Cup in 1932 and 1934 and was nonplaying captain in 1950.
She was also captain of the Ladies’ Golf Club and of the
ladies’ section of the men’s club at Sunningdale, where she
met, and married in 1938, Brigadier-General Critchley, a
top-class golfer himself and father of Bruce Critchley, who
played on the British Walker Cup team in 1969 and is currently the chief golf commentator on Sky Television.
Enid Wilson
The lady golfer of the 1930s was Enid Wilson. Of considerable strength, she hit the ball a long way, but she also
possessed a deft short game (‘Drive for show, putt for dough’,
Enid Wilson, a dominating figure in English girls’ and ladies’ golf in the 1920s and 30s.
She won the English Girls’ Championship at the Club in 1925.
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
as Sam Snead memorably said). Wilson continued at the top
echelons of the Ladies’ Golf Union until the 1960s and constantly encouraged youngsters through her teaching and writing. She published articles from the age of eighteen and she
too suffered from the professional/amateur dilemma.
Although she had won the Ladies’ Championship three times
running, she was refused entry to the next championship at
Royal Porthcawl. In 1933 she had written captions of an
instructional nature for a series of photographs. The Ladies’
Golf Union asked if she had been paid, and Wilson replied
that she was no longer interested in international matches;
but to test the situation she sent her entry for Royal
Porthcawl. The R and A advised the LGU that Miss Barton
seemed to be exploiting her skill at the game and that her
entry should be refused. She retired from competitive amateur golf at the age of 24 and took a job at the sports store at
Piccadilly Circus, Lillywhite’s. She also designed a complete
range of golf equipment, wrote for Golf Illustrated and other
magazines, and only retired as the golf correspondent for the
Daily Telegraph in the 1970s. Wilson was always her own woman.
She even deliberately engineered her expulsion from school
by using four-letter words to a mistress, so she could concentrate on golf.
Molly Gourlay was another of the leading lady golfers of
the inter-war years. She played in the Curtis Cup (the biannual ladies’ match between Great Britain and the United
States) in 1932 and 1934, against France in 1931, 1932, 1933
and 1939, and was an English international consistently from
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The Daily Mail cartoonist was impressed with Enid Wilson’s strength at the age of only fifteen.
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STO K E PA R K
E.F. Storey, captain of Cambridge and one of England’s finest amateur golfers in the 1920s, is seen here blasting out of a bunker at the 18th.
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
R.H. Oppenheimer, Eustace Storey, R.H. de Montmorency and A.S. Bradshaw (l. to r.) in the Stoke Park Club v. Oxford University match in 1927.
181
the mid-1920s through to the mid-1930s. At the age of 71
she was still playing off a handicap of five, and then came
down to four at the age of 73!
A very successful and popular match played at Stoke Park
each year was the Ladies v. Men match. This was closely
followed in the press, and in 1925 Golf Illustrated wrote:
LADIES V. MEN AT STOKE POGES
For the first time since these matches commenced in 1912, the ladies
were victorious last Saturday at Stoke Poges, but the victory was indeed a
narrow one, and only decided by the last putt of the match. This was
bravely made by Mrs Cautley, who appeared to be much less excited than
the hundreds of ladies who watched her – all fervently wishing her to hole
the ball.
The ladies won, and bravely too; but apart from their play there were
two other factors which materially helped them to success. One of these
was the arrangement, due to a suggestion by Miss Wethered, that the nine
strokes given by the men should be taken at even holes instead of at the
odd holes, as in all previous matches, and possibly the other factor was the
decision of the lady captain, Miss Doris Chambers, to play the foursomes
in the morning. So far it had always been the custom to decide the singles
in the morning, and on two occasions these have resulted in each side
winning five; but the foursomes have always been the ladies’ undoing, for
never before have they won the majority of these. Last Saturday, however,
they secured three of the five foursomes, and this really won them the
Diana Fishwick, wife of Brigadier-General Critchley, and mother of Walker Cup player and
golf commentator Bruce Critchley, was one of England’s finest girl and lady golfers from
the 1920s to the 1940s.
match, for the singles were equally divided. Great credit is due to the Lady
champion and Miss Wethered, who made an excellent pair, for their
defeat of Mr Roger Wethered, the Amateur champion, and Mr R.H. de
Montmorency, who is usually unbeatable at Stoke Poges. On this occasion, however, he was inaccurate in his short game, and with Mr Wethered
a little wild in his long game, the combination was not so effective as it
might have been, and the ladies promptly took advantage of their opponents’ lapses. Miss Cecil Leitch played remarkably well with Miss Joan
Stocker against Capt. Pearson and Mr T.A. Torrance, who were somewhat
badly beaten. Mrs Lodge and Mrs Cautley started badly; but they made an
excellent recovery, and won fairly easily.
In 1926 in a four ball at the Stoke Park Club the American
and Canadian Presidents of their respective Senior Golfers’
Societies suggested to their English hosts that Great Britain
should form a similar society. Needless to say, this idea
appealed to Pa Jackson and, for twenty years until 1946, the
British Senior Golfers’ Society was based at the Stoke Park
Club. Membership, by invitation, was restricted to 750 and
matches were played at leading clubs throughout the country
with local match managers organising opponents from their
nearby clubs. In 1946 the headquarters moved to Woking
Golf Club probably because the then Secretary was a Woking
Golf Club member.
Abe Mitchell played in the first three Ryder Cup matches. He had been Samuel Ryder’s
teacher and one of England’s leading professionals throughout the 1920s.
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STO K E PA R K
THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS
185
the Stoke Park Club and to British sport in general, we could
do worse than quote his entry in the 1931 edition of Who’s Who:
The visionary retires
In spite of the these enjoyable interludes, Jackson was finding the running of the club increasingly onerous and, as he
pointed out in his book, he was no longer a young man (he
was born in 1849 and was therefore 79 in 1928):
All this while I had found the running of Stoke Poges a constant worry,
what with the changed conditions of domestic labour and one thing and
another, and I was very pleased, therefore, when, in 1928, Mr. A. Noel
Mobbs made an offer for the club, which my fellow-directors and I
accepted. Naturally it was a terrible wrench to me to leave Stoke Poges, for
the club was a child of my own. I had lived there for more than twenty
years, and I had made a whole host of friends among the members.
However, this was to a large extent compensated for by the welcome relaxation from worry, more especially as I had arrived at a time of life when
one wants to have an occasional period of rest. Mobbs, besides taking over
the club itself, purchased the freehold of the place, and I could see from
the first that it was his ambition to make Stoke Poges the finest rendezvous
for golfers in the neighbourhood of London. He has extended the short
course to one of eighteen holes, which, like the old course, was laid out
by H.S. Colt and is another monument to his high standard of golf architecture. Mobbs has also effected a great many other improvements, and I
fully anticipate that the future of the Stoke Poges Club will be a brilliant
one in all respects.
In summarising Jackson’s career and his contribution to both
Lane-Jackson, Nicholas; b. 1 Nov. 1849; s. of Nicholas Lane-Jackson of
Freehamlet, South Devon, and d. of late Admiral Pryor; m. Marianne (d.
1922); three s. one d. Educ: privately for army. Chiefly associated with
games and sports and sporting journalism; founder of Corinthian
Football Club, the London Football Association, of which he was the first
Hon. Sec. and afterwards Vice-President, and actively assisted in the formation of the Lawn Tennis Association; was for some years Hon. Assistant
Secretary of the Football Association, and afterwards Vice-President of
that body; served on committee of London Athletic Club; was for many
years one of the two referees and handicappers at the chief lawn tennis
tournaments in the United Kingdom, and was the first referee at most of
Continental lawn tennis tournaments; associated with late Sir John
Astley, Bt., whom he succeeded as Chairman of the Club, in founding the
Sports Club, and was Chairman of the Wimbledon Sports Club and
Managing Director of the Sheen House Club; originated and was the first
Hon. Secretary of the Lord Mayor’s Charity Football Cup and of the
Sheriff of London’s Charity Football Shield; started the Corinthian
Shield competition for London school boys; founder of the Stoke Poges
Club, and of the Le Touquet Golf and Sports Club and the Cabourg Golf
Club; assisted in the formation of the Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Golf
Union, and of the Berks and Bucks Golf Alliance, and was the first
Chairman of both. During the War was in the Food Production Dept. as
Assistant Director, and afterwards Transport Adviser of the Markets
Organisations Section. Publications: Association Football; handbooks on
Rugby Union Football, Association Football, Lawn Tennis, Hockey,
Lacrosse, Athletics, Swimming, and Golf; Editor of the Athlete’s Guide;
Editor of the Sovereign, Editor and Proprietor of the sporting journals
Pastime and The Cricket Field, both of which were purchased by The Field; has
written on sport for most of the chief periodicals in the United Kingdom,
etc.; donor of the Jackson Cup for the chief Curling Competition in
‘Pa’ Jackson was still
going strong when he
decided to retire from
running the Club in
1928. He would spend the
next year or two writing
his autobiography.
The Committee recorded its gratitude for ‘Pa’ Jackson’s achievements in building up and running the Club.
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STO K E PA R K
Switzerland. Recreations: has participated in nearly every British sport.
Address: Creston, Farnham Common, Bucks. Club: Royal Automobile.
On his retirement, the Golf Club Committee, after receiving
a letter from Pa Jackson ‘expressing his indebtedness to the
Committee for the assistance they had always given him’,
resolved:
That the Committee wish cordially to thank Mr Lane-Jackson for his
farewell letter and to record their report that the invariably pleasant relations which have so long existed between him and them have come to an
end and their sincere hope that for many years to come he may enjoy a
well earned rest after the exacting labours from which he is now retiring.
and, finally, a motor service between Slough station and the
Stoke Poges Club. It spoke of a ‘remarkably dry and healthy
climate, for it stands high above the Thames Valley and singularly free from mist and fog. The soil is so light and porous
that little discomfort is felt from the heaviest rains.’
A big change from the 1880s was the availability of houses.
The brochure offered ‘a few houses, already built, for sale on
very reasonable terms, and the Stoke Poges Estate Company
have arranged to build houses to suit purchasers’.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Keep Things Going, 1928–58
A brochure had been prepared for the sale. It was a more
modest affair than those of the 1880s but it nevertheless
emphasised the historical lineage:
The new mansion built by Thomas Penn about 1760, together with lovely
Gardens of sixteen acres in extent, and a Park of 250 acres, is now occupied by the Stoke Poges Club, which is undoubtedly the finest country
club in the world.
It mentioned all the attractive amenities, towns and villages
nearby – Eton, Windsor Castle, Burnham Beeches, Virginia
Water, Ascot and Hawthorne Hill racecourses, Cliveden,
Maidenhead, Beaconsfield, Marlow, Henley – and the excellent communications: 40 trains a day from Paddington to
Slough, taking 23 to 30 minutes, the Great Western Railway
running motor omnibuses to serve the Estate, one going by
Salt Hill and the other by Stoke Green to Farnham Royal,
The Club re-formed
A great entrepreneur and philanthropist
A visit from the Queen
Gray’s Meadow and the Gardens of Remembrance
Tournaments continue
Suspend Rudge forthwith
Gift of 200 acres