Maxwell Woosnam (6 September 1892 – 14 July 1965) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

sportsman who is sometimes referred to as the 'Greatest British sportsman' in recognition of his achievements. Among his achievements were winning an Olympic gold and silver in tennis at the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...

, winning the doubles at

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 * W ...

, compiling a 147 break in

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

, making a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

at Lord's Cricket Ground, captaining the British

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

team, captaining

Manchester City F.C. Manchester City Football Club is a professional football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Assoc ...

finishing ultimately runners-up for the Football League Championship in 1920–21, and captaining the

England national football team The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...

Background

Max Woosnam was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, the son of Maxwell Woosnam, a clergyman who served as

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of Chester and Archdeacon of Macclesfield, and his wife Mary Seeley, daughter of Hilton Philipson. The Woosnam family were landed gentry, of Cefnllysgwynne,

Brecknockshire Brecknockshire ( or ), also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon, was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was created in 1 ...

, Wales, originally of

Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire ( ) was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was named after its county town, Montgomery, Powys, Montgomery, which in turn was named after ...

. Woosnam spent most of his childhood in Aberhafesp, Mid Wales. He attended

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

, where he captained the golf and cricket teams, and also represented the school at football and squash. As a schoolboy, he made scores of 144 and 33

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

for a Public Schools XI while playing against the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. In 1911, Woosnam went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, representing

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

lawn tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...

and golf (being a scratch golfer), becoming a quadruple

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

. In the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he fought alongside

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...

on the western front and in the Gallipoli Campaign. Woosnam took part in a number of wartime sporting events, including football matches between a team of enlisted Corinthians players and Aldershot Command, and a Military vs Queen's Club tennis match.

Corinthian FC

Straight from his University years, Max was chosen to travel on the Corinthians tour of Brazil in the summer of 1913. Managing the tour's first goal, against Rio de Janeiro, he also scored against Paulistano and made quite a name for himself. In 1914, he again set sail with the Corinthians for Brazil...however this tour was cancelled when still at sea, the side discovered War had been declared at home. At once, the Corinthians decided, true to their ethos that there was more to life than just sport, to return and join the army. After a quick stop in Rio, allowing the players a brief walk around the town, they set sail for home. Dodging German U-boats and torpedo fire, they eventually made it back to England. For Max, it would be his last adventure abroad with Corinthian FC. He remained with Corinthian for five years, as well as making a handful of appearances for Chelsea.

Post-war

After the war, Woosnam continued his amateur sporting career, taking part in several sporting events. Woosnam was a finalist in the 1919 All England Plate tournament, a tennis competition held at the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

, consisting of players who were defeated in the first or second rounds of the singles competition. Following a defeat of Woosnam while representing Cambridge University in a tennis match against Queen's Club in April 1919, the ''Times'' remarked that "Woosnam is a player of many games, and he could excel at tennis if he could devote enough time to the game... ...tennis is a mistress who must be constantly wooed." However, Woosnam continued to divide his attention; he played football for Chelsea either side of the Queen's Club match, captaining the team. His performance for Chelsea led to selection for a North versus South international trial match. Once the football season finished, Woosnam took part in several tennis tournaments. He won both the singles and doubles titles in the Cambridge University tournament, and entered

for the first time. His tennis form in 1919 led ''The Times'' correspondent to describe his partnership with Noel Turnbull as a "doubles team of promise". Woosnam declined the opportunity to become a professional sportsman, finding the idea 'vulgar'.

Manchester City

Upon moving to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, he signed for

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

on amateur terms. He made his debut on 1 January 1920 against Bradford City, a match that also saw the debut of Sam Cookson. Initially he played only home matches due to other commitments. However, when Manchester City, without Woosnam, suffered a shock 3–0

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

defeat to Leicester City at the end of the month, some supporters blamed Woosnam's employers, Crossley Brothers. As a result, the engineering firm ordered Woosnam not to miss another game. Playing at centre half, Woosnam eventually became Manchester City captain at the recommendation of his teammates. This was highly unusual for an amateur among professionals. Eventually his success allowed him to play for England (both for the amateur team and as a full international as captain). Woosnam was also selected to captain the British football team at the Olympics, but refused, having already committed himself to the tennis team. He continued other sporting endeavours outside of football however, winning doubles titles at Wimbledon and the Olympics, and captaining the

Great Britain Davis Cup team The Great Britain Davis Cup team has represented the United Kingdom internationally since 1900 in the Davis Cup. Organised by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), it is one of the 50 members of International Tennis Federation's European associatio ...

Northwich Victoria

Woosnam had been working for chemical company ICI in Winnington,

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

, and, while still being on Manchester City's books, he played for Winnington Park and then for Northwich Victoria in the Cheshire County League. He made his debut for Northwich on Christmas Day, 1924, in a derby match against Witton Albion, resulting in a 3–0 victory for Northwich. He sometimes captained the side, before ending his football career in February 1926 due to injuries and other commitments.

Death and legacy

He was appointed to the board of ICI, and died in 1965 of

respiratory failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a r ...

, having been a heavy smoker all his life. His life is chronicled in the book ''All Round Genius – The Unknown Story of Britain's Greatest Sportsman'', by Mick Collins. Woosnam's uncle, Hylton Philipson, was a cricketer and played five Test matches for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He once defeated actor and film director

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

at table tennis, playing with a butter knife instead of a bat. Besides being a pioneer for table tennis, he was very accomplished at

, once achieving a

maximum break A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a onefourseven) is the highest possible in snooker in normal circumstances and is a special type of . A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 with 15 for 120 points, fo ...

of 147. Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, is Woosnam's sororal grandniece. Woosnam had three children: Denise Woosnam who was engaged to Peter Pease, and a friend of Richard Hillary (Author of The Last Enemy); Max, and Penny.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woosnam, Max 1892 births 1965 deaths English people of Welsh descent People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Tennis players from Liverpool Free Foresters cricketers Footballers from Liverpool English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Corinthian F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players English Football League players England men's international footballers English male tennis players British male tennis players English Olympic competitors Tennis players at the 1920 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1924 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic tennis players for Great Britain Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) Olympic medalists in tennis Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Cheshire cricketers Snooker players from Liverpool Cricketers from Liverpool British Army personnel of World War I Royal Welch Fusiliers officers Montgomeryshire Yeomanry officers Military personnel from Liverpool 20th-century English sportsmen