Tony Wilding

A lower middle-order batsman and change bowler, Tony Wilding played twice for Canterbury as a teenager, but it was as a tennis player that he really made his mark. He honed his game at Cambridge University, making his Davis Cup debut in 1905 as a member of the Australasian team. In 1906 he won the Australian Open singles and doubles titles, the same year that he was called to the Bar in London. Between 1907 and 1909 he helped the Australasian team win the Davis Cup and won his second Australian Open in 1909, the same year he qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor at the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Between 1910 and 1913 he won four successive Wimbledon titles, losing the 1914 final to Norman Brookes. He also won four doubles crowns, and in 1914 returned to Davis Cup competition, leading the Australasian side to another success. He joined the Royal Marines on the outbreak of WW1 and served on the Western Front. He was killed on May 9, 1915 during the Battle of Aubers Ridge at Neuve-Chapelle, France. He is buried in the Rue-des-Berceaux Military Cemetery in Richebourg-L'Avoue, Pas-de-Calais, France. In 1978, he was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
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