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MYERS (A.W.)
Captain Anthony Wilding.
1st Ed., xii+306pp., 205x146mm, 37 photos. (including his original wooden grave marker near Neuve Chapelle), sketch (of the position near Aubers Ridge where he lost his life). Hodder & Stoughton.
1916
#69328
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/69328.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Anthony Wilding (1883-1915), a New Zealand born professional tennis player of international distinction and repute, was a former Wimbledon Tennis Champion, 1907 (Doubles), 1908 (Doubles), 1910 (Singles and Doubles), 1911 (Singles), 1912 (Singles) and 1913 (Singles). Educared (briefly) at Canterbury College, Christchurch, New Zealand, and Trinity College, Cambridge, B.A., he was called to the English Bar at the Inner Temple in 1906; qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 1909. He was a member of The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Queen's, and an early motorcycling enthusiast. He was commissioned in the Royal Marines in 1914 but all his service in France and Flanders, between October 1914 and his death in action on 8th May 1915 near Aubers Ridge, was with Royal Naval Air Service armoured cars. These cars towed small artillery pieces and in his final action, on 8th May, his gun fired some 400 rounds in support of the impending attack. Late that afternoon, having been in action since 4.50 a.m., Wilding crawled into a trench dugout to rest. Not fifteen minutes later "a heavy shell exploded on its roof… He had been killed instantly." He is buried in Rue-des-Berceaux Military Cemetery, Richebourg l'Avoué. Contains a detailed memoir of his life including numerous extracts from letters written before and during the war. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG, nice copy.
£45
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