Margaret May Hardcastle (6 May 1913 – 22 August 2002) was an Australian

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 ...

player of the 1930s and 1940s.

Biography

Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Hardcastle was educated at Brisbane Girls Grammar School and later the Presbyterian Girls' College in

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

. Following success at junior level, she competed at the Queensland Championships several times, winning on four occasions (1935, 1937, 1939 and 1940). She twice reached the final of the Australian Hard Court Championships in 1938 and 1939, winning the latter. Also in 1939, Hardcastle, in partnership with Emily Hood Westacott, reached the final of the women's doubles of the

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

, losing to duo Thelma Coyne and Nancye Wynne. Additionally, she won the 1938–39 edition of the ladies' singles and mixed doubles at the

New Zealand Championships The New Zealand Championships was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament founded in 1885 in Napier, New Zealand also known as the New Zealand National Lawn Tennis Championships or the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association Championships. The ...

. In the early 1940s, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Hardcastle enlisted to the Australian Army Medical Women's Service. She later joined efforts at Morotai before transferring back to Australia upon the end of the war. She was discharged in April 1946. Her last recorded tennis match was in 1947. Hardcastle died in 2002 at the age of 89.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1 runner-up)

References

1913 births 2002 deaths Australian female tennis players Tennis players from Brisbane Sportswomen from Queensland People educated at Brisbane Girls Grammar School 20th-century Australian sportswomen Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian women in World War II Women in the Australian military {{Australia-tennis-bio-stub