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   What a sensation Anthony Wilding would have been today. The dashing 
        New Zealander, who won eight Wimbledon crowns in the early years of the 20th 
        century,  had female spectators swooning because of his 'Manly brand of tennis' 
        He was handsome, chivalrous and was always on the lookout for adventure. 
        Wilding would have been a gift for the promoters, agents and advertising 
        men who are so much a part of modern sport. As it was, he was tennis's 
        first matinee idol. In his time, players wore long trousers and women 
        wore ankle length dresses. Racquets were made of wood, balls were white 
        and a single umpire judged all line calls, without, of course, any electronic 
        assistance. Newspapers of the day referred deferentially to "Mr Wilding" 
        and Mrs Hillyard". Wildings was an era of serenity and decorum, long since 
        gone. But if any player could have adapted to today, it would have been 
        the bon vivant New Zealander. He motorcycled around Europe on his bat-JAP, 
        stopping off to play in the great tournaments of the Riviera, Germany, 
        Serbia, Hungary, Sweden and Norway. He drove cars fast and ,shortly before 
        the first world war, he became a pilot. During the war, Wilding worked in various
        positions for the British Army - from the Naval Brigade and the Royal Marines
        through to the Naval Air Force on the ground. He was a hero there as much as
        he was on the tennis court.

        In his book On the Court and Off, he describes his first flight, at Rheims:
        " Suddenly the wretched engine began to misfire. I knew a misfire well by 
        sight and sound, but at this moment it was more significant to me than ever
        before.We went at a great pace towards earth. Just as we looked like making a 
        hole in it, the elevating planes seemed to be raised a bit and we glided up. The 
        sensation was very fine, and I hope to have many more…" 
        There were no more though. Captain Anthony Wilding died at Neuve

Chappelle, France, while fighting in the battle of Ypres on May 9, 1915. He was 31, vital, cheerful and about to marry American
actor Maxine Elliot. The day before his death, he wrote to a friend: " For really the first time in seven and a half months, I have a 
job in hand which is likely to end in gun, I and the whole outfit being blown to hell. However, it is a sporting chance and if we 
succeed, we will help our infantry no end. "I know the job exactly, and the objects in view from my study of them - it is the only 
way to play in business or war." Daily Telegraph tennis correspondent Andrew Wallis Myers, in his 1916 biography of Wilding, 
writes: "Wilding observed and directed the fire, both from the gun platform and the trench, all the time under the hottest counter
-shelling. It was miraculous that he wass not hit, considering that the gun was four feet above the parapet of the trench. "When 
his gun crew came down into the trench, Wilding sought out a place to lie down, cracking a joke with his chief petty officer. 
More than one officer warned him not to go into the dugout. It was located directly in the danger zone and more exposed to the
fire of the enemy. "But Anthony, acting always on his own judgement crawled in….Shells came hurtling near. It was one of the 
greatest trench bombardments of the war."At 4.45, there came a hearty burst of laughter from the dugout. Immediately afterwards
, a heavy shell exploded on its roof…. "Lying intact amid the wreckage, blown out of his pocket, was a gold cigarette case - 
souvenir of his Riviera lawn tennis triumphs in 1914."  Wilding was born at Opawa, near Christchurch, on October 31, 1883, 
one of five children of Frederick (A barrister) and Julia. The family owned a huge property called Fownhope. Frederick 
played cricket for New Zealand, was a good horseman, footballer, athlete and oarsman.