160 STOKE PARK

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 On the day before Prince Albert left for the last time he was of which I then held) at a very handsome premium, but owing to my sen- talking with my daughter in the lounge of the club and told her that next Peace again timental affection for the place I asked for a little time to consider the morning he would be going to Germany for six months. ‘Are you pleased matter. Unfortunately the war began during this period of delay, and it at the prospect?’ she asked, and the answer was that he disliked the idea Ladies too need scarcely be added that the offer was immediately withdrawn. Even so, intensely, but that he had to go, as otherwise he would lose his income. I however, I was not so very perturbed, for, like many another, I believed believe I am right in saying that at the actual moment of the declaration Joyce Wethered the war would soon be over. I therefore decided to close the short course, of war between England and Germany the Prince was on board the but to keep the club and eighteen-hole course open. Had I been wise I Kaiser’s yacht, and that he begged so earnestly not to be put on active Glenna Collett should have closed the club altogether ‘for the duration’, and have service against the British that he was appointed to some post or other in merely kept the greens in order; but as it was I tried to run it as well as Berlin and remained in it throughout the war. I have been told, too, that circumstances would allow and what with labour-shortage and one thing whenever he heard of an Old Carthusian being taken prisoner he did Enid Wilson and another I experienced the greatest difficulty in doing so. everything in his power to assist him. The visionary retires

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‘The lamps are going where they were finding it difficult to dispose of their sur- plus. Jackson suggested that small markets should be set up to put the small consumer in touch with small producers and, as out all over Europe’ 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 The war made a big impact on the club, as it did at every immensely difficult. Jackson recalled just how tough it was: other sporting club. Many young men volunteered for the armed forces immediately, and others were conscripted when My reader may find it difficult to realise the trouble I had to keep the the country needed more than volunteers. The rest were Stoke Poges golf-course open during the war. We had, I think, only one working so hard that they could scarcely take time off during old man and a boy at our disposal by way of labour, and eventually I asked the week. The only players on the course apart from at week- 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 ends were officers on sick leave. The only caddies available on or two each week to the golf-course. This she peremptorily refused to weekdays were men unfit for service, though at weekends consider, pointing out that their women could only work for genuine munition workers were available. production of food, and that it would look very bad if she, a director of In early 1915, the Director General of the Food 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, Production Department wrote to all the owners of large gar- however, that I might try the Ladies’ Legion, of which Lady Londonderry dens, requesting that they grow as many vegetables as possi- was the head, and here I was more lucky, for I secured the services of a ble. The club was already doing this, indeed to the point 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. 164 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 165 been so disgusted with the accommodation offered them that they had Edwin Shepherd, the son of Ernest and Agnes Shepherd, returned the next morning. had lived at Lion Lodge because Ernest was employed at Stoke The assistance we received from those splendid girls it would be Park. Edwin joined the Royal Navy at the age of fourteen in 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 1913. He served in a number of ships: HMS Powerful, crops, it may easily be imagined what hard work it was. Among the party Impregnable, Vernon and Vanguard. He fought at the Battle of was one very fine, strapping girl belonging to a noble family, and she took Jutland on board HMS Vanguard and was recommended for entire charge of a horse and mowing-machine and mowed nine of the promotion. He died when Vanguard was destroyed by an inter- holes through the green each week, while a similar task was performed by another young lady who afterwards became known as a successful sculptor. nal explosion on 9 July 1917 when lying in Scapa Flow. Three others divided the eighteen greens between them and kept them in The third Stoke Park employee to die was Harold Skues, excellent condition, while others attended to the general upkeep of the who had worked there for fourteen years at the outbreak of course in a most satisfactory manner. And all this they did, let it be war. He joined the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry in June remembered, in addition to their farm work. Another circumstance which was of great help to Stoke Poges during 1915, serving in the 5th Battalion. He was killed in an attack the war was that Mr Harold McIlwraith, a great friend of my youngest son, on Delville Wood (part of the Battle of the Somme) on 24 took up our unissued shares and joined the Board. I shall always regret August 1916. that the claims of his large business prevented him from taking over the Again, I am grateful to Lionel Rigby for his research into club with my son, Alfred S. Jackson, who, filling the position of manag- former Stoke Poges people who fought bravely for their ing 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 country. Private Edmund Turner, who died at the Battle of fulfilled. To him, and to Mr McIlwraith, I am exceedingly grateful for Isandhlwana in January 1879 following the outbreak of the their help. We three were the only directors of the club. Anglo-Zulu War, was a Stoke Poges man. Rigby tells the story as follows: Among the twelve men from Stoke Poges killed in the First World War, three had worked at Stoke Park. William Mayne The Anglo-Zulu War began on 11 January 1879 when three separate was a reservist, having joined the Oxford and Bucks Light columns of British troops commanded by Lieut. General Lord Chelmsford crossed the border into Zulu territory. Infantry in 1903, and was one of the first to respond to gen- Chelmsford accompanied the Central Column, which was the eral mobilisation. He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Oxford strongest and included the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 24th Regiment and Bucks. The battalion left for France less than two weeks of Foot, the 2nd Warwickshires. This regiment’s base was established after war broke out on 4 August 1914, and in early September in Brecon in 1873 and although some of its recruits came from the he was wounded in the Battle of the Aisne. He died of his English-Welsh borders, most came from the industrial and agricultural areas of England and Ireland, and one of its men came from our village. wounds on 22 September, leaving a widow and one child and He was Private Edmund Turner of Wrexham, Stoke Poges, known in his becoming the first soldier from Stoke Poges to die in the war. family as Teddy. The view from the 12th fairway. 166 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 167

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 sol- dier. Chelmsford passed through Rorke’s Drift – which he used as a depot on his line of com- munication – 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 establish- ing 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 disas- ters – 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’.

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 The skaters could still enjoy the cold winters. against the Ladies. 168 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 169

cent. He felt unable to increase members’ subscriptions by a Peace again 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 Even when the war ended in November 1918, life did not pre-war condition and recreate the atmosphere. In 1914 he immediately return to the good old days. Wars are always had arranged an athletic meeting for the club staff of more inflationary, and Jackson noted that wages had increased by than 100 people, plus the local police and postmen. All was no less than 100 per cent and the cost of food by 120 per 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 genial- ity 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 tem- porary 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 tice he has, but what astonishes me is how, with his multitudinous engage- he was accompanied by, among others, the Duke of Roxburgh and the ments, he is ever able to play at all. 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 One of the larger-than-life characters seen regularly at 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 the Stoke Park Club between the wars was . In he must have been in superlatively good condition and have possessed a the First World War he had served in the Tank Corps, was vast reserve of energy. wounded, won the Military Cross and was taken prisoner. As He invariably shook hands with me on his arrival, and usually invited a post-war student at Oxford, he won the first of his two 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 Amateur Championships in 1920 at Muirfield. His second Gloucester) and the three of us were having a little liquid refreshment was at Royal St George’s in 1929, which made him favourite alone, the Prince said, ‘Do you know, Henry, that this is the longest to win at St Andrews the following year. He met the great course in the kingdom?’ to which I added the information that it was also in the fourth round and, followed by a huge the only one with a scratch score of 79. The Prince then asked me what was crowd, only lost at the 19th hole – to a stymie! He played in 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 all the early matches and continued playing Bobby Jones going round in 66 in the morning and in 68 in the after- international golf until 1938. noon, and only having one 5 – in the second round!’ I remarked, In 1927 the Stoke Park Club and Messrs Colt & Allison ‘Wonderful your remembering that, sir, because I didn’t know you were both made generous donations to The Golf Illustrated £3,000 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 Fund to enable a number of British professionals to sail to time he comes over.’ And His Royal Highness did! ‘America next June to compete in the United States Open championship, and also to take part in the first official pro- He also welcomed Sir William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), fessional international match between Great Britain and the founder of the Morris Motor Company which he later America, for a Cup kindly presented by Mr ’. merged with Herbert Austin’s company to form the British Colt & Allison gave 25 guineas and Stoke Park 15 guineas Motor Corporation: (c. £1,500 and £900 respectively in today’s money). Stoke Park will perhaps have been pleased to have donated more One of the most remarkable people I have played golf against is Sir than Royal Mid-Surrey, Swinley Forest, Woking, Walton William Morris, who shares with Sir Herbert Austin, also a friend of Heath, Royal St George’s, Sunningdale, Royal Lytham, mine, a world-wide reputation as manufacturer of British motor-cars. Addington and Muirfield, all of which gave 10 guineas, 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 Wentworth which gave 6 guineas, and Royal Wimbledon and he had his revenge. He is quite a useful golfer considering how little prac- 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. 172 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 173

So ladies’ golf was off and running and, as with the men’s saw a woman in the club wearing slacks. He was furious and at once post- game, grew rapidly in popularity. One problem that women ed the following notice: ‘Women playing golf in trousers must take them off before entering the clubhouse.’ Ladies too had to cope with was their golfing attire, which had to con- form to both fashion and decorum. In the 1890s, fashion decreed that they had to wear a stiff, ‘stand-up’ collar, and And, even when they were established, women faced the this caused most ladies to have a sore neck by the end of a problem that they could not earn any money from their golf- However, it was for the revival of golf, especially ladies’ golf, round. It was essential to have a wasp waist, and all the skirts ing prowess without infringing their amateur status. For at the Stoke Park Club in the 1920s that we should thank Pa had stiff petersham belts. It was also considered necessary to example, Pam Barton, one of the most popular of the women Jackson. wear two petticoats coming down to the end of the skirt, golfers in the 1920s and 30s, was told in 1937 by the R and A From the beginning, Stoke Park Club encouraged ladies’ which itself had to come down to the boot. This meant that Committee that she was welcome to write her book, A Stoke a golf as much as men’s. This was unusual. Indeed, women had the skirts tended to trail in the mud on wet days. Hole, but that she could not earn any money from it. considerable trouble in being accepted as golfers at all for Furthermore, the fashion was for voluminous sleeves, which In spite of her financial problems, Pam Barton enjoyed a most of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Blackheath Golf prevented the ladies seeing the ball at the top of their back- very successful decade in the 1930s. She won the British Club was so averse to women that, in 1906, when a member swing. It was obligatory to wear a hat, which caused further Open Amateur and the American Amateur in 1936, becom- suggested that the ladies might be allowed into the clubhouse problems on windy days. ing only the second person to win both titles in the same year. to see the club’s trophies, the suggestion was refused. Fortunately, as the 20th century progressed, fashions She also became one of the few British women to be elected In spite of such prejudice, the ladies persisted, supported changed, as did the general view on what women could show to the US Hall of Fame. Her book devoted one chapter to by some men. In 1893 Dr Laidlaw Purves, with the aid of of themselves. By 1911 they were allowed to show their ankles, each of eighteen holes on courses on which she had played other enthusiasts and the Wimbledon Ladies’ Golf Club, thus easing the wet skirt-hem problem. In the 1920s, dress throughout the world. The one she chose from Stoke Poges decided to form a Ladies’ Golf Union with the aims of became more casual and practical, but it was not until the was the seventh. The book was full of firm advice such as: standardising the rules for women and the handicapping 1934 Ladies’ Championship at Westward Ho! that Gloria system, and to prepare the way for national tournaments Minoprio dared to wear trousers. She received more press Half measures never get anybody, especially golfers, anywhere. That is for for ladies. A meeting was held in and eleven ladies’ coverage than the winner, especially as she had the temerity to your encouragement. In America in 1936 I practised five or six hours a clubs attended. A committee was set up, and vice-presidents, day before the championship. play with only one club! a secretary etc. were appointed. For some reason they could James Sheridan, caddie master at Sunningdale Golf Club An aerial shot of the Club in 1926. not agree on a President, and it was not until fourteen years for 56 years, tells the story in his autobiography, Sheridan of said of her: later that Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (wife of the Sunningdale: first President of the Stoke Park Club) was elected President. This girl’s greatest asset is her attitude of mind. She has a wonderful Within two months of the first meeting of the Ladies’ Golf There was the case of the secretary who was always intent on keeping power of concentration and wonderful fighting qualities coming up the Union, a championship was played at Royal Lytham St Anne’s. women in their place and, presumably, in their proper attire. One day he home stretch when it matters most. Pamela Barton went out there to win. 174 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 175

Bobby Jones, the great South African golfer in the immedi- again in 1914. She also won the English and British titles in ate post-Second World War period, wrote in his book, Bobby that year, before world war closed everything down. After the Locke on Golf: war she won the English Ladies’ in 1919 and the British and French Championships in 1920. Only Joyce Wethered would I had the honour of being asked to play for the Men of England against match her four victories in the British Championship. 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 Joyce Wethered 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 con- trolled, force. In the words of Enid Wilson (see below), she Joyce Wethered, later Lady Heathcote-Amory, was possibly gave the ball ‘an imperial bash’. the best, certainly the most famous, lady golfer who played at Barton became a WAAF officer during the Second World the Stoke Park Club. She was perhaps fortunate to have in War and was tragically killed in an air accident. Enid Wilson Roger Wethered an elder brother who was also a very good said how much she would miss her red hair and outgoing per- golfer. He apparently said to her when she was eleven: ‘Oh, The great said this of Joyce Wethered: ‘I have no hesitancy in saying that … she is the finest golfer I have ever seen.’ sonality, adding: Joyce, you will never play golf. You will never study the game.’ Born in 1901, she came to public notice in 1920 and, with her brother, Roger, Dale Bourne, then recently crowned English raries as Lady Heathcote-Amory. I am pleased to add to the world’s accla- The last time I saw Pam was when we played in a Daily Mail charity match at in the following decade, won the British Ladies’ Champion, and myself. At the time, I fully appreciated that Miss mation my appreciation of this wonderful golfer – a figure of modesty Purley in aid of a service fund. The Germans bombed the course while we Championships four times and the English Ladies’ Wethered had not had a golf club in hand for over a fortnight, and I cer- and concentration, and an example to everybody. were playing. Championship five times. tainly should have made no mention of the game had she not played so We played the Old Course from the very back, or the championship This is what Bobby Jones, considered by many to be the superbly. tees, and with a slight breeze blowing off the sea. Miss Wethered holed Another very good golfer to play at Stoke Park was Cecil only one putt of more than five feet, took three putts rather half-heart- greatest golfer of all time, said of Joyce Wethered: Leitch. Born at Silloth in Cumbria on 13 April 1891, one of The great Henry Cotton agreed with Bobby Jones’s view of edly from four yards at the seventeenth after the match was over, and yet five daughters of a Scottish doctor, she learned her golf on a she went round St Andrews in 75. She did not miss one shot; she did not Just before the British Amateur Championship at St Andrews Miss Joyce Joyce Wethered’s ability, writing in his book, This Game of Golf: even half miss one shot; and when we finished, I could not help saying links on the southern shore of the Solway Firth. Wethered allowed herself to be led away from her favourite trout stream that I had never played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or pro- Leitch won the French Ladies’ Championship in 1912 and in order to play eighteen holes of golf over the Old Course in company In my time, no golfer has stood out so far ahead of his or her contempo- fessional, who made me feel so utterly out-classed. 176 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 177

It was not so much the score she made as the way she made it. Diegel, Hagen, Smith, Women’s Championship at the age of nineteen in 1922, she came to Von Elm and several other male experts would likely have made a better score, but one Europe in 1925 and, after winning the French Ladies’ Championship, would all the while have been expecting them to miss shots. It was impossible. She stands played in the Ladies’ Open in England. In the third round, she met Joyce quite close to the ball, she places the club once behind, takes one look toward the objec- tive and strikes. Her swing is not long – surprisingly short, indeed, when one considers Wethered. This is how the golf commentator Herbert Warren Wind the power she develops – but it is rhythmic in the last degree. She makes ample use of remembered it: her wrists, and her left arm within the hitting area is firm and active. This, I think, dis- tinguishes her swing from that of any other woman golfer, and it is the one thing that For nine holes Glenna managed to stay on even terms with the great English stylist. As a makes her the player she is. matter of fact, Glenna was only one over par in the 15 holes for the match, but what Men are always interested in the distance which a first-class woman player can attain. could you do when your opponent played 4 pars and 6 birdies over 10 consecutive holes? Miss Wethered, of course, is not as long with any club as the good male player. You could congratulate yourself on having stood up as well as you did against the most Throughout the round, I found that when I hit a good one I was out in front by about correct and lovely swing golf has ever known and thank your lucky stars that there was twenty yards – not so much when I failed to connect. It was surprising, though, how only one Joyce Wethered and that she lived in England. often on a fine championship course fine iron play by the lady could make up the dif- ference. 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. Collett played against Wethered only once again, and that was in the I have no hesitancy in saying that, accounting for the unavoidable handicap of a Ladies’ Open at St Andrews in 1929. She was five up with seven to play, woman’s lesser physical strength, she is the finest golfer I have ever seen. 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 fol- lowing 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 Glenna Collett favourite, Diana Fishwick. The doyen of golf writers, Bernard Darwin, wrote:

Another great golfer to play at the Stoke Park Club was the American 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 Glenna Collett, who won over six United States national titles. Having was going to win they were overcome by an almost reverential awe. dominated US ladies’ golf in 1923 and 1924 after winning her first US

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 Glenna Collett won more than six United States titles. She met her match in Joyce Wethered, who won both of tennis star René Lacoste, and their daughter, Catherine Lacoste, remains the only amateur golfer to win the their encounters. Furthermore, Diana Fishwick beat her in the English Ladies’ Open as well. US Ladies’ Open. 178 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 179

Diana Fishwick played regularly in the Girls’ Championship as Sam Snead memorably said). Wilson continued at the top at Stoke Park Club during the 1920s, and won in 1927 and echelons of the Ladies’ Golf Union until the 1960s and con- 1928. She went on to win the Open Amateur in 1930, the stantly encouraged youngsters through her teaching and writ- English in 1932 and 1949, the French in 1932, the German ing. She published articles from the age of eighteen and she in 1936 and 1938, the Belgian in 1938 and the Dutch in too suffered from the professional/amateur dilemma. 1946. She won the Florida West Coast in 1933, was Kent Although she had won the Ladies’ Championship three times Champion in 1934 and Surrey Champion in 1936 and 1946. running, she was refused entry to the next championship at She played in the in 1932 and 1934 and was non- Royal Porthcawl. In 1933 she had written captions of an playing captain in 1950. instructional nature for a series of photographs. The Ladies’ She was also captain of the Ladies’ Golf Club and of the Golf Union asked if she had been paid, and Wilson replied ladies’ section of the men’s club at Sunningdale, where she that she was no longer interested in international matches; met, and married in 1938, Brigadier-General Critchley, a but to test the situation she sent her entry for Royal top-class golfer himself and father of Bruce Critchley, who Porthcawl. The R and A advised the LGU that Miss Barton played on the British Walker Cup team in 1969 and is cur- seemed to be exploiting her skill at the game and that her rently the chief golf commentator on Sky Television. entry should be refused. She retired from competitive ama- teur 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 Enid Wilson 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 concen- The lady golfer of the 1930s was Enid Wilson. Of consider- trate on golf. able strength, she hit the ball a long way, but she also Molly Gourlay was another of the leading lady golfers of possessed a deft short game (‘Drive for show, putt for dough’, the inter-war years. She played in the Curtis Cup (the bi- annual ladies’ match between Great Britain and the United States) in 1932 and 1934, against France in 1931, 1932, 1933 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. and 1939, and was an English international consistently from The Daily Mail cartoonist was impressed with Enid Wilson’s strength at the age of only fifteen.

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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. 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. the mid-1920s through to the mid-1930s. At the age of 71 match, for the singles were equally divided. Great credit is due to the Lady she was still playing off a handicap of five, and then came champion and Miss Wethered, who made an excellent pair, for their defeat of Mr Roger Wethered, the Amateur champion, and Mr R.H. de down to four at the age of 73! Montmorency, who is usually unbeatable at Stoke Poges. On this occa- A very successful and popular match played at Stoke Park sion, however, he was inaccurate in his short game, and with Mr Wethered each year was the Ladies v. Men match. This was closely a little wild in his long game, the combination was not so effective as it followed in the press, and in 1925 Golf Illustrated wrote: might have been, and the ladies promptly took advantage of their oppo- nents’ lapses. Miss Cecil Leitch played remarkably well with Miss Joan Stocker against Capt. Pearson and Mr T.A. Torrance, who were somewhat LADIES V. MEN AT STOKE POGES badly beaten. Mrs Lodge and Mrs Cautley started badly; but they made an excellent recovery, and won fairly easily. 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 In 1926 in a four ball at the Stoke Park Club the American 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 and Canadian Presidents of their respective Senior Golfers’ the ball. Societies suggested to their English hosts that Great Britain The ladies won, and bravely too; but apart from their play there were should form a similar society. Needless to say, this idea two other factors which materially helped them to success. One of these appealed to Pa Jackson and, for twenty years until 1946, the was the arrangement, due to a suggestion by Miss Wethered, that the nine British Senior Golfers’ Society was based at the Stoke Park 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 Club. Membership, by invitation, was restricted to 750 and decision of the lady captain, Miss Doris Chambers, to play the foursomes matches were played at leading clubs throughout the country in the morning. So far it had always been the custom to decide the singles with local match managers organising opponents from their in the morning, and on two occasions these have resulted in each side nearby clubs. In 1946 the headquarters moved to Woking winning five; but the foursomes have always been the ladies’ undoing, for never before have they won the majority of these. Last Saturday, however, Golf Club probably because the then Secretary was a Woking they secured three of the five foursomes, and this really won them the Golf Club member.

Diana Fishwick, wife of Brigadier-General Critchley, and mother of Walker Cup player and played in the first three matches. He had been Samuel Ryder’s golf commentator Bruce Critchley, was one of England’s finest girl and lady golfers from teacher and one of England’s leading professionals throughout the 1920s. the 1920s to the 1940s.

184 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 185

the Stoke Park Club and to British sport in general, we could The visionary retires do worse than quote his entry in the 1931 edition of Who’s Who: 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 In spite of the these enjoyable interludes, Jackson was find- Football Club, the London Football Association, of which he was the first ing the running of the club increasingly onerous and, as he Hon. Sec. and afterwards Vice-President, and actively assisted in the for- pointed out in his book, he was no longer a young man (he mation of the Lawn Tennis Association; was for some years Hon. Assistant was born in 1849 and was therefore 79 in 1928): 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 All this while I had found the running of Stoke Poges a constant worry, tournaments in the , and was the first referee at most of what with the changed conditions of domestic labour and one thing and Continental lawn tennis tournaments; associated with late Sir John another, and I was very pleased, therefore, when, in 1928, Mr. A. Noel Astley, Bt., whom he succeeded as Chairman of the Club, in founding the Mobbs made an offer for the club, which my fellow-directors and I Sports Club, and was Chairman of the Wimbledon Sports Club and accepted. Naturally it was a terrible wrench to me to leave Stoke Poges, for Managing Director of the Sheen House Club; originated and was the first the club was a child of my own. I had lived there for more than twenty Hon. Secretary of the Lord Mayor’s Charity Football Cup and of the years, and I had made a whole host of friends among the members. Sheriff of London’s Charity Football Shield; started the Corinthian However, this was to a large extent compensated for by the welcome relax- Shield competition for London school boys; founder of the Stoke Poges ation from worry, more especially as I had arrived at a time of life when Club, and of the Le Touquet Golf and Sports Club and the Cabourg Golf one wants to have an occasional period of rest. Mobbs, besides taking over Club; assisted in the formation of the Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Golf the club itself, purchased the freehold of the place, and I could see from ‘Pa’ Jackson was still Union, and of the Berks and Bucks Golf Alliance, and was the first the first that it was his ambition to make Stoke Poges the finest rendezvous going strong when he Chairman of both. During the War was in the Food Production Dept. as decided to retire from for golfers in the neighbourhood of London. He has extended the short Assistant Director, and afterwards Transport Adviser of the Markets running the Club in course to one of eighteen holes, which, like the old course, was laid out 1928. He would spend the Organisations Section. Publications: Association Football; handbooks on by H.S. Colt and is another monument to his high standard of golf archi- next year or two writing Rugby Union Football, Association Football, Lawn Tennis, Hockey, his autobiography. tecture. Mobbs has also effected a great many other improvements, and I Lacrosse, Athletics, Swimming, and Golf; Editor of the Athlete’s Guide; fully anticipate that the future of the Stoke Poges Club will be a brilliant Editor of the Sovereign, Editor and Proprietor of the sporting journals one in all respects. Pastime and The Cricket Field, both of which were purchased by The Field; has The Committee recorded its gratitude for ‘Pa’ Jackson’s achievements in building up and running the Club. written on sport for most of the chief periodicals in the United Kingdom, In summarising Jackson’s career and his contribution to both etc.; donor of the Jackson Cup for the chief Curling Competition in 186 STOKE PARK

Switzerland. Recreations: has participated in nearly every British sport. and, finally, a motor service between Slough station and the Address: Creston, Farnham Common, Bucks. Club: Royal Automobile. Stoke Poges Club. It spoke of a ‘remarkably dry and healthy climate, for it stands high above the Thames Valley and sin- On his retirement, the Golf Club Committee, after receiving gularly free from mist and fog. The soil is so light and porous a letter from Pa Jackson ‘expressing his indebtedness to the that little discomfort is felt from the heaviest rains.’ Committee for the assistance they had always given him’, A big change from the 1880s was the availability of houses. resolved: The brochure offered ‘a few houses, already built, for sale on CHAPTER ELEVEN very reasonable terms, and the Stoke Poges Estate Company That the Committee wish cordially to thank Mr Lane-Jackson for his have arranged to build houses to suit purchasers’. farewell letter and to record their report that the invariably pleasant rela- tions 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 Keep Things Going, 1928–58 well earned rest after the exacting labours from which he is now retiring.

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 occu- The Club re-formed pied by the Stoke Poges Club, which is undoubtedly the finest country club in the world. A great entrepreneur and philanthropist

It mentioned all the attractive amenities, towns and villages A visit from the Queen nearby – Eton, Windsor Castle, Burnham Beeches, Virginia Gray’s Meadow and the Gardens of Remembrance Water, Ascot and Hawthorne Hill racecourses, Cliveden, Maidenhead, Beaconsfield, Marlow, Henley – and the excel- Tournaments continue lent communications: 40 trains a day from Paddington to Slough, taking 23 to 30 minutes, the Great Western Railway Suspend Rudge forthwith running motor omnibuses to serve the Estate, one going by Salt Hill and the other by Stoke Green to Farnham Royal, Gift of 200 acres