Maxwell ‘Max’ Woosnam - Britain's Greatest Sportsman?

Maxwell "Max" Woosnam (6 September 1892 – 14 July 1965)

Steve Ovett, George Best, Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell, Steven Redgrave, Virginia Wade. All the best of British and all sporting heroes whose names trip off the tongue. If you were to ask the general public who the greatest British sporting hero of all time was, I’m sure they’d all get a mention. However, if you were to ask a bona fide sporting history buff, I believe Mersey Olympian Maxwell Woosnam would be one of the first names that came to mind.

The one thing Ovett, Best, Christie and most of the greats have in common; is they were world-class in their chosen fields, but could Linford have turned his hand to Tennis? Could Redgrave have set five world records for the 1500 metres? Could Wade have won gold in the 400-metre hurdles? I think not. Their deep wired will to master only their chosen fields makes them specialists, whereas Maxwell Woosnam could do it all!

Woosnam excelled at tennis, winning Wimbledon and Olympic gold.

Maxwell Woosnam was born in Liverpool, on the 6th of September 1892, to a wealthy priest who served as the Archdeacon of Macclesfield. As a child, he was forced to grow up rather quickly. Aged seven, he was sent off to boarding school, first at Horris Hill and later at Winchester College. Though Winchester was a school for Upper-Class boys, the living conditions and restrictions came as a shock to Woosnam. His days now started at seven in the morning and finally ended at around nine or ten. While discipline was not as harsh at Winchester as in other public schools, flogging was par for the course, and there was always the threat of violence from the boys themselves. Woosnam did not do well with the endless repetition, recitation and copying of the classics. Neither did he enjoy the endless hours of Greek, Latin, word formation and mathematics. Woosnam was so uninterested in being taught by rote academically speaking he never excelled. However, there was a saving grace at Winchester, sports! Athletics, football, fives, competitive rifle shooting and squash. Hurdles and high jump, steeplechase and cricket. Winchester offered them all, and it was at Winchester Max Woosnam first learnt the extent of his sporting abilities.

Woosnam (front row with ball) for Manchester City

Golf was a game Max only flirted with occasionally at Winchester. Even so, he played off scratch and was good enough to earn his Blue. By the time Woosnam was fifteen, he was captain of the school's golf and cricket teams. He also played for Winchester's squash and football teams. In 1911, while still a schoolboy, he stepped onto Lord’s cricket ground to represent a Public Schools XI team against Marylebone Cricket Club. M.C.C. had the upper hand at 65 for 5 when Woosnam hit 144 not-out in his first innings and 33 not-out in his second. Woosnam had single-handedly saved the game. The Wisden Cricketers Almanack described him as 'school player of the year', but the best of his sporting achievements were yet to come.

In the same year he hit his century at Lord’s, Woosnam moved up from Winchester and enrolled at Cambridge. At Cambridge, Max continued to play golf and cricket. At the same time, he turned his attentions to football and tennis. Woosnam’s ability as a footballer was recognised immediately, and he was chosen to captain the Cambridge University Association Football Club. Already an exemplary cricketer, he was so good at football, in the summer of 1913, he was invited to join the Corinthians Football Club.

Woosnam captained Manchester City, making 96 appearances.

Woosnam joined the Corinthians tour of Brazil and made quite the splash when he scored the 'tours' first goal. He later managed to score against Paulistano, considered one of the best Brazilian teams of the day. Woosnam made a name for himself as an outstanding centre-half, so it was no surprise when in early 1914, he was asked to play for Chelsea. His Chelsea career lasted just three games, but they were all wins giving him a clean sheet. Later that year, Woosnam, having returned to Corinthians, once again set sail to tour Brazil. That tour would never happen, as while Woosnam was still at sea, the British declared war on Germany.

Woosnam enlisted almost immediately, and in a twist of fate, fought alongside the famed English poet Siegfried Loraine Sassoon. Woosnam witnessed the blood-soaked horrors of both the Western Front and the Gallipoli Campaign. By all accounts, he fought bravely and with distinction.

Woosnam for Manchester City presenting the Lord Mayor to each player at the opening of Maine Road, 1923.

The war did nothing to dent Woosnam’s appetite for sport, and soon after his return from the front line, he moved to Manchester and signed on to play with Manchester City. Once again, his natural talent shone through. So much so he was described in the Daily Mail Sports as an 'Admirable Crichton of sport, the epitome of physical energy and English hope'. Eventually, and at the behest of his teammates, Max would become Manchester City captain. Woosnam would also gain an England cap when he was chosen to captain England against Wales in 1922. Woosnam had become an internationally renowned football player, so who better to captain Great Britain’s football team at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics? There was just one issue, Woosnam had already been selected for and accepted a place on the British Olympic tennis squad. Yes, you read correctly; Maxwell Woosnam would now represent his country playing tennis. They say Woosnam picked up his love of tennis from his mother Mary, herself a keen tennis player.

Max had already reached the finals of the All-England Plate tournament at Wimbledon in 1919. Though he lost, a sports correspondent at The Times wrote, 'Woosnam could excel at tennis if only he would devote enough time to the game. Tennis is a mistress that must be wooed'. It was only a year later Max Woosnam, a player of many games would do just that.

At the Antwerp Summer Olympics, Woosnam partnered Noel Turnbull in the men’s doubles and Kathleen ‘Kitty’ McKane in the mixed. Turnbull and Woosnam faced Frantisek Tyr and Otto Wojek of Czechoslovakia in the 2nd round and thrashed them 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. The Quarter-final saw them do away with Mino Balbi Di Robecco and Cesare Colombo of Italy with the same ease. After winning a nail-biting match in the fourth set of the Semi-final against France 10-8, Woosnam and Turnbull went on to snatch victory from Seiichiro Kashio and Ichiya Kumagai of Japan in the Final. Woosnam had won an Olympic Gold! Oh, and we must not forget his efforts in the mixed doubles with Kitty McKane. Having won Gold with Turnbull in the morning, he trotted out with Kitty in the afternoon and took home the Silver. Of course, his triumphs in tennis wouldn’t end there. Woosnam went on to win the Davies Cup and Wimbledon with Randolph Lycett in 1921. He won the Davies cup a second time in 1924 with Leslie Godfree.

In his lifetime, Maxwell Woosnam also won gold for shooting at Bisley. He played snooker on occasion and was good enough to score a perfect 147. He was an early pioneer of Table Tennis beating all who challenged him and was Captain of Sandiway in 1929, holding the Sandiway course record for the original 1920’s layout with a score of 74 against a bogey of 76.

Now while Woosnam’s exploits are so impressive, they’re almost fantastical. What is even more so is that Woosnam realised all of his achievements as an amateur. Meaning while he was scoring centuries at Lords, becoming a six-time Cambridge Blue at golf, tennis, and squash, playing for Corinthians, Chelsea, Witton Albion, and captaining Northwich Victoria, Manchester City and England. Taking Gold and Silver at the Olympics and winning the Davies Cup twice, the man was never paid a fig.

Notable Achievements:

Gold and Silver medals at 1920 Olympics (Tennis)
Wimbledon Doubles Champion (Tennis)
Scored a century at Lords (Cricket)
Captained Manchester City and England (Football)
Played off scratch (Golf)
147 break (Snooker)

Throughout his sporting career, Woosnam brought home the bacon working as an engineer. In later life, he would take a position with industrial giant ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), where he eventually became a member of the board. He would hold appointment with ICI for 31 years. Woosnam married twice, firstly to Edith Adelaide Johnston in 1917, who died in 1939 and then to Dorothy E Perrin in 1940. Woosnam and Edith had two daughters, and it is only in his family life that a small shadow is cast on Woosnam’s story.

While being interviewed for Woosnam’s biography, his daughter Penny described her father as an ‘imperfect hero’. She said of Woosnam, “He was never really Max the father as much as he was Max, the sportsman”. His daughter Denise said, “Even in later life, sports took him away from his home with great frequency. Golf, snooker, squash and social games of tennis occupied every out-of-office moment. The sad truth is I never really felt I knew him”. Though the girls didn’t see as much of their father growing up as they may have wished to, they were not resentful. They, like everybody else, adored him.

Woosnam’s sporting accomplishments in so many different disciplines make him a worthy candidate for the title of ‘Britain’s Greatest Ever Sportsman’. How his legacy has become so diminished, I do not know. There should be statues, news clippings, documentaries and books galore honouring the man. Sadly, all I could find commemorating him was a small alleyway in Manchester named ‘Max Woosnam Walk’.

“And none will hear the postman’s knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?”

W.H. Auden

Words By George~Carter Cunningham

Maxwell Woosnam’s life is chronicled in the book All Round Genius – The Unknown Story of Britain's Greatest Sportsman, by Mick Collins.