Dorothy Shepherd-Barron

Dorothy Shepherd-Barron made her Wimbledon début as Dorothy Shepherd at the age of 22 in 1920 and, apart from a brief spell when she lived and played her tennis in India after her marriage to engineer William Barron in 1921, she was a regular competitor at Wimbledon up to the outbreak of World War II. She appeared in seven Grand Slam doubles finals, winning just one.

In the mixed doubles Shepherd-Barron lost at Wimbledon in 1923, 1924 and 1934 and was also runner-up in the French Championship in 1931. In the ladies doubles Dorothy and Phyllis Covell were beaten in both the Wimbledon and US Championship finals in 1929 by another British pair, Peggy Saunders and Phoebe Watson. But Shepherd-Barron’s moment of glory came at Wimbledon in 1931 when, partnering Phyllis Mudford King, the unseeded British pair beat the fourth seeds Doris Metaxa (France) and Josane Sigart (Belgium) in three sets after losing the first.

Dorothy appeared at the 1924 Olympics, taking part in both the singles and ladies doubles. She reached the singles quarter-final but lost to French girl Julie Vlasto in straight sets. She finished third in the doubles with Evelyn Colyer after beating the French pair Marguerite Broquedis-Billout and Yvonne Bourgeois in the bronze medal match.

A Wightman Cup player, Shepherd-Barron played in 1924, 1926 and 1929 and was the playing captain in 1931. She was also the non-playing captain in 1932, 1950,1951 and 1952 and almost certainly would have had the position in 1953 had it not been for her untimely death in February 1953 following an accident when a car driven by her husband hit some railings in Cambridgeshire and caught fire. Dorothy died but her husband escaped unhurt. Dorothy’s son John Shepherd-Barron was involved in the development of the first cash dispensing machine to be installed in Britain, at Barclay’s Bank, Enfield on 27 June 1967.