Max Woosnam

A Great British Sporting All-Rounder

By Margaret Brecknell

Above: Woosnam (far right) with other members of 1924 GB Olympic tennis team

The name of Liverpool-born Max Woosnam is little known to modern sports fans. Yet such was his all-round sporting prowess during the early part of the 20th century that he has been labelled by some as the greatest British sportsman of all time.

Maxwell Woosnam, the son of a clergyman, was born 130 years ago in September 1892. His parents were living at the time in Grassendale Park, an upmarket residential suburb of Liverpool, but the Woosnams originated from Builth Wells in mid-Wales, where the family estate, Cefnllysgwynne, was situated.

Woosnam’s career as a sportsman began at Winchester College, where he captained the golf and cricket teams, as well as representing the school at football and rackets. His maternal uncle, Hylton Philipson, was a wicketkeeper of some note, who had played Test cricket for England during the 1890s, and the young Woosnam showed a similar aptitude for the summer sport. In its review of the 1911 season, the cricketing bible, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack, described him as one of the school players of the year. This followed an impressive batting display for a Public Schools XI against MCC when he scored a century at the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground.

He continued his education at Cambridge University and became one of the few people to win a coveted “Blue” in four different sports, namely football, golf, lawn tennis and real tennis. Perhaps, surprisingly, cricket is not on the list, as Woosnam failed to make the Cambridge XI for the allimportant Varsity cricket match, for which the “Blue” was awarded.

Whilst still at university, Woosnam, a talented defender, occasionally turned out for Chelsea, but played on a more regular basis for Corinthians FC. Despite consisting entirely of amateurs, the Corinthians were a leading light in the game during the 1890s and early 1900s. The club was also among the very first to travel abroad, touring all over Europe as well as North and South America and South Africa.

Woosnam was a member of the Corinthians squad that set sail from Southampton for Brazil in the summer of 1913. He played several games during the tour and made quite a name for himself.

The following summer, Woosnam returned with the Corinthians to Brazil. Having made the long journey by boat from Southampton, the team arrived in South America only to be told the news that war had broken out in Europe. The players set off home for England within the day and endured a hazardous journey home, dodging German U-boats along the way.

Like all but one member of that squad, Woosnam never played for the Corinthians again, although he was more fortunate than many of his teammates who lost their lives on the battlefields of Europe during World War I. He himself served with distinction as an officer with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Following the end of the war, Woosnam, now a married man with two young children, moved to Altrincham and started work for Manchester-based engineering firm,

Above: Woosnam (on left) with Noel Turnbull at 1920 Olympics

Crossley Brothers. It seems that news of his previous exploits on the football field travelled fast and both Manchester clubs expressed an interest in signing him. He chose Manchester City and made an immediate impression, with one early match report declaring that “Max Woosnam’s leadership had much to do with the success of Manchester City”.

Woosnam was playing as an amateur and was initially only available for home games. Presumably Crossley Brothers were reluctant to allow him time off on Saturday mornings to travel to away games, as, prior to an FA Cup tie at Leicester, the Leicester Daily Post reported that he was unavailable for the match because he found it difficult “to undertake long journeys, owing to business claims”. Following City’s shock defeat in the tie, the firm is said to have received such strong criticism from some of its own employees, who were fans of the club, that the management changed its mind.

Woosnam was by this stage already enjoying significant success at the top level of another sport. During the summer of 1919, he had made his debut at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and had formed a promising doubles partnership with Noel Turnbull. because of work commitments. He was, however, selected to represent Great Britain at tennis in the 1920 Olympics and, using two weeks of his annual leave, travelled to Antwerp in Belgium where the Games were to be held. He focused on tennis at the expense of football, turning down a similar invitation to appear for the GB football team at the Olympics.

The decision to concentrate on tennis proved to be correct. Woosnam came home with two Olympic medals, winning gold in the men’s doubles with Noel Turnbull, followed later the same day by a silver with Kitty Godfree in the mixed doubles.

Following this success, Woosnam was urged to focus entirely on tennis and abandon his football career. However, after some deliberation, he returned to City (much to the club’s relief, no doubt) and, in a highly unusual move for an amateur, was made captain of the side. The 1920/21 football season proved hugely successful, with City finishing second and only narrowly missing out on the First Division title.

In the summer of 1921, Woosnam switched his attention once again to tennis. This time he was partnered in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon with the experienced Randolph Lycett. His new partner’s defeat at the quarterfinal stage of the men’s singles that year attracted some controversial media coverage. On a very hot day, Lycett was reported to have drunk champagne during breaks in play and was portrayed by some as being rather the worse for wear by the fifth set, falling over on several occasions. More generous reporters attributed his behaviour to heat exhaustion, with one commenting that the way in which Lycett battled on showed the “same spirit that won us the war”.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Woosnam’s decision to partner Lycett in the doubles proved entirely sound. He and Lycett triumphed in the men’s doubles final in straight sets, giving Woosnam his first Wimbledon title.

Just weeks later, Woosnam was chosen to captain Britain for the forthcoming Davis Cup in the USA. Lycett controversially missed out on selection. for New York aboard the luxurious White Star liner, RMS Baltic, with Woosnam’s wife, Edith, one of several spouses who accompanied their husbands on the journey. Sadly, the Davis Cup run did not last long, with GB losing to Australasia in the quarterfinal (which may at least have afforded the discarded Lycett a wry smile or two). Woosnam did, however, enjoy some personal success in the USA when he reached the semi-final of the singles in the prestigious Seabright Invitational Tournament.

During their time in the States, the British Davis Cup team members were invited to the Beverley Hills mansion of Charlie Chaplin, who was then one of Hollywood’s biggest silent movie stars. According to Woosnam’s biographer, Mick Collins, the great sportsman appears to have been distinctly underwhelmed at meeting Chaplin. The film star is reported to have challenged him to a game of table tennis, which Woosnam proceeded to win comfortably, despite swapping his bat for a butter knife. Later, bored with a lengthy speech which the actor was making to his guests, Woosnam proceeded to push Chaplin, fully clothed, into his own swimming pool. Amidst great laughter, Chaplin stormed off and his humiliation at the hands of Woosnam was complete.

Below: Charlie Chaplin in 1922, the year after his infamous encounter with Woosnam

Above: Trinity College Cambridge where Woosnam excelled at sport prior to WWI | Photo Credit: giomodica/CC BY 3.0

Upon his return home from the USA in late September, Woosnam made his first appearance of the 1921/22 season for Manchester City in a home draw against Blackburn Rovers. It proved to be another memorable football season, with Woosnam winning his first – and only - international cap for England when he captained the national side in a game against Wales at Anfield in March 1922. “Tackling with his usual energy, untiring, and always placing himself in a position to reach the ball, the English captain certainly enhanced his reputation”, one newspaper reported.

In a newspaper interview given just after his England appearance, Woosnam revealed that his tournament play during the 1922 tennis season would be greatly restricted because of “the calls of his business of consulting engineer to a well-known Manchester firm”. In the event, he did not play any tennis that summer, as he broke his leg in City’s last league game of the season against Newcastle.

He did resume his tennis career the following summer with considerable success, having his best run ever in the Wimbledon singles when he reached the quarter final. In August 1923, he also returned to captain the Manchester City side in their first ever game at Maine Road, but, following his injury, he never played for City regularly again.

Woosnam was selected to compete in tennis again at the 1924 Olympic Games, held in Paris, but was unable to repeat his success of four years previously. Now aged 32, the great sportsman’s top-class career was beginning to come to an end. In early 1925, he did return briefly to play in the FA Cup for Manchester City, but any hope of a longer run in the side was ended when he was struck down with a severe bout of influenza.

After taking on a new job at the Cheshire based chemicals business, Brunner Mond, he ended his football playing days at local non-league side, Northwich Victoria. A highly adept golfer who played off a scratch handicap, he was, in 1929, captain of the Sandiway Golf Club in Northwich and held the course record there for a while.

In the same year, Woosnam fell seriously ill with typhoid fever, which he is reported to have caught from a recently acquired pet parrot. The indomitable Woosnam made a full recovery and lived on to be as successful in business as he had been in sport, eventually becoming a board member of chemicals giant, ICI.

Max Woosnam died in July 1965 at the age of 72. Ardent Charlie Chaplin fans may beg to differ, but his exceptional sporting achievements deserve to be remembered. As a Daily Mail columnist commented during the 1920s, Woosnam was an “Admirable Crichton of sport, the epitome of physical energy and English hope”. His many accomplishments are all the more remarkable, bearing in mind that for four years from 1914 to 1918, when he should have been at the height of his powers, he was competing on the battlefield and not in the sporting arena.