Capt. Anthony F. “Tony” Wilding (1883-1915) was a New Zealander who was the greatest tennis player of his generation – over a hundred years later he still holds a number of singles records including the most titles won in one season (23 in 1906). He was a 1905 Cambridge graduate and motivated by a strong sense of duty (with the assistance of the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill), in October, 1914 he was commissioned as a Royal Marine artillery officer. He was briefly seconded to the newly-formed Intelligence Corps, then he joined the Duke of Westminster’s Royal Naval Air Service Armored Car Detachment. On May 9th, 1915, while assisting artillery, he was killed by accurate German counter battery fire at Aubers Ridge in Artois, France.
You can read the whole Tony Wilding story by clicking here or here.
James Patton
James (“Jim”) Patton BS BA MPA is a retired state official from Shawnee, Kansas and a frequent contributor to several WW1 e-publications, including "Roads to the Great War," "St. Mihiel Tripwire," "Over the Top" and "Medicine in the First World War." He has spent many hours walking the WW1 battlefields, and is also an authority on British regiments and a collector of their badges. An Army Engineer during the Vietnam War, he does work for the US World War 1 Centennial Commission and is affiliated with the WW1 Historical Association, the Western Front Association, the Salonika Campaign Society and the Gallipoli Association.
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