Violet Pinckney

Violet Pinckney was the daughter of William Pinckney, a Major in the 1st Wiltshire Rifle Volunteers and later a banker. She was one of six children and her two younger siblings, Elsie and Percy, both became competitive tennis players but without having the same level of success as Violet. Percy and Violet played in the mixed doubles together at Wimbledon in 1914 and 1922.

Violet started playing competitively in the early 1890s but gave up for a while before returning to the sport in 1902, and a year later she made the first of her 10 appearances at Wimbledon. Her best performance in the singles was in reaching the quarter-finals on three occasions – in 1906 when she lost to Charlotte Sterry, in 1908 when she was beaten by Dora Boothby and in 1920 when, at the age of 49, she had to scratch from her match with Elizabeth Ryan. She fared slightly better in the women’s doubles, reaching the semi-final in 1914 with the French girl Marguerite Broquedis but they were beaten by Edith Hannam and Ethel Larcombe 6-2, 6-0.

In the period before World War I, Violet competed in the covered court singles at the 1908 Olympics. She received a bye in the first round but was eliminated 7-5, 7-5 by Gladys Eastlake-Smith, the eventual champion. Violet did win many titles prior to the War including the London Grass Court Championship in 1907 and 1908 when she beat probably the best female player in Britain at the time, Dorothea Lambert Chambers. Violet also won the 1903 German Championship (her brother Percy reached the men’s semi-finals that same year), and on home soil won the Welsh indoor title, and championships at Shropshire, Bournemouth, Lamington, Cinque Ports and Romsey. In 1930, aged 59, she reached the last eight of the women’s doubles at the Hampshire championship at Bournemouth.