Kathleen McKane Godfree “Kitty”
Born: May 07, 1896
Died: June 19, 1992
Hometown: London, United Kingdom
Citizenship: United Kingdom
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1978
Grand Slam Record
Wimbledon Singles 1924, 26
Singles finalist 1923
Doubles finalist 1922, 24, 26
Mixed 1924, 26 (with husband)
Mixed finalist 1927
U.S. Singles finalist 1925
Doubles 1923, 27
Mixed 1925
Mixed finalist 1923
French Singles finalist 1925
Tournament Record
Wightman Cup 1923-27, 1930, 1934
Olympic Gold Medal Doubles 1920
Silver Medal Mixed 1920
Silver Medal Mixed 1924
Kathleen McKane Godfree, a sturdy, good-natured competitor, may have been the best female player Britain has produced. In winning Wimbledon for the first time in 1924, she charged back from 1-4 in the second set to hand Helen Wills her lone defeat in nine visits to the Big W, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. She also beat Wills in the British Wightman Cup victory that year at Wimbledon. Who else could boast of royal-flushing “Little Miss Poker Face” twice in a season?
Kitty won Wimbledon again two years later over Lili de Alvarez, who was within a stroke of a 4-1 lead in the decisive third, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Thus Kitty and Dorothy Round (1934,’37) were the only Brits to win twice since World War I. She was one of a select group to play more than 100 matches (146) at Wimbledon, 19th on the list: 38-11 in singles, 33-12 in doubles, 40-12 in mixed between 1919 and 1934.
In 1923 Kitty had reached her third Wimbledon final by beating Elizabeth Ryan, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, but lost to Suzanne Lenglen, 6-2, 6-2. In the U.S. Championships that year, Kitty offered a dangerous quarterfinal challenge to Wills, coming from 2-5 to 5-all in the third set before losing, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. In 1925 she pushed Wills in the final of the U.S. Championships, losing 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, after eliminating Molla Mallory and Ryan.
She was a member of the British team that played the United States for the Wightman Cup in the inaugural matches in 1923 in the Forest Hills stadium. She lost to Wills and Mallory, both members of the host team. But the following year, in the first of these international team competitions held in Britain, Kitty beat Mallory as well as Wills, and the home team won by a surprising margin of 6-1. Then in 1925 the British won again, 4-3, with Kitty defeating Mallory and losing to Wills. In 1926 she beat both Mary K. Browne and Ryan, but the British lost, 4-3, at Wimbledon despite Kitty’s heroics.
In 1925 she arrived in the French final but was beaten by Lenglen, 6-1, 6-2.
Speedy, smart and a fighter with an all-around game, she was her country’s most successful Olympian, gathering five medals in the 1920 and 1924 Games. In 1920 she won a gold medal in the doubles with Winifred McNair, a silver in mixed doubles with Max Woosnam and a bronze in singles. Four years later, a silver medal in doubles with Phyllis Covell and a bronze in singles. Active throughout her long life, she was a 92-year old spectator at the 1988 Games in Seoul, and approved the entry of professionals, saying, “It’s a sign of the times if you want the best in the Olympics.”
Kitty and her husband, Leslie Godfree, were the only married couple to win the Wimbledon mixed, in 1926. In 1922 she and Margaret McKane Stocks were the only sisters to contest a Wimbledon doubles final, losing to Lenglen and Ryan. She was in the World Top Ten 1925, 1926 and 1927, No. 2 in 1926.
She was among the champions of the past who received Centenary medallions on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 1977 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978. Born May 7, 1896, in London, she died there at the age of 96, June 19, 1992.
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