Blue Plaque for Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Godfree, Wimbledon Champion
Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Godfree (1896-1992), Olympic and Wimbledon lawn tennis champion, will be commemorated today (Monday 23 October at 12 noon) with an English Heritage blue plaque at 55 York Avenue, East Sheen, London, SW14, where she lived from 1936 to 1992.
An outstanding tennis player, Kitty Godfree is particularly renowned for winning 5 medals, including gold, over two Olympic Games (1920 and 1924), the most Olympic tennis medals won by any player. Kitty won Wimbledon twice (1924 and 1926), scooping both the singles and mixed doubles titles. She shared the 1926 mixed doubles win with her husband Leslie Godfree - they are the only husband and wife team to win this title together.
Kitty and her husband ran the West Kensington Tennis Club from 1927 to 1936. She wrote two instruction manuals, Lawn Tennis: How to improve your game (1923), and Lawn Tennis Simplified (1928). Dan Maskell, the BBC Commentator, wrote of her: “Her victories sowed the seeds of (other British) Wimbledon wins. I feel she showed Britain the way in the world of tennis”.
Kathleen Godfree, born Kathleen McKane, was affectionately known as 'Biddy' to family and friends and 'Kitty' to the press. Coming from a family which enjoyed sports, she excelled in lacrosse and cricket during her time at St Leonard’s School in St Andrews. During the First World War she worked in the War Office, and played at the Kew Lawn Tennis Club.
Kitty made her debut at Wimbledon in 1919 and enjoyed a very successful tennis career until 1936. On top of her triumphs at the Olympics and Wimbledon, she shared three doubles titles in the United States Championships (1923, 1925 and 1927), and featured in the earliest Wightman cup matches (1923 -1927, 1930, 1934). She was a prolific player, winning 111 of her 146 Wimbledon matches and was the only player to beat Helen Wills Moody in a singles final at Wimbledon (in 1924).
An all-round athlete, Kitty was selected to play lacrosse for Scotland in 1914 and was four times All England Badminton Champion (1920 to 1924). She was also a skater, golfer and cricketer. Kitty Godfree continued to play competitive tennis into her nineties. In 1988 she took part in an International Club match between Britain and France, winning a mixed doubles game against Jean Borotra.
55 York Avenue was Kathleen and Leslie Godfree’s home for over fifty years. When Leslie died in 1971, their younger son and his family moved in with Kathleen and continue to live there today. Shortly before her death (1992), Kathleen moved to Viera Gray House, a nursing home on the site of the Lowther Lawn Tennis Club where the Godfrees had often played tennis.
Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Godfree was part of a golden age of British tennis. She is remembered not only for her sporting triumphs, but also for the modesty and good-nature with which she achieved them.
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