Leitch, Cecil (1891–1977)

British golfer who was the foremost woman player of her day and one of the game's greatest personalities. Name variations: Charlotte Leitch. Born Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch on April 13, 1891, in Silloth, Cumberland, England; died at home in London on September 16, 1977; daughter of John Leitch and Catherine Edith (Redford) Leitch; had four sisters; never married.

At age 17, Charlotte Leitch made a dramatic debut in golf at the British Ladies' championship at St. Andrews (1908). Twenty years later, she retired from competition, having won the French championship five times, the English championship twice, and the Canadian championship once. She was elected to the American Golf Hall of Fame in 1967.

She was born Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch in 1891 in Silloth, Cumberland, England, into the comfortable circumstances of a physician's family. Not only Cecil, as she came to be known by family and friends at an early age, but all of her sisters grew up to be championship golfers, with Edith (Edith Guedalla ) and May (May Millar ) going on to be acclaimed as English Internationals. Though Cecil lost in the semifinals in her golfing debut at the 1908 British Ladies' championship, she had made her mark by playing decisively and powerfully. She employed a rather unorthodox flat swing and palm grip that enabled her to produce shots of exceptional accuracy and distance. In 1910, she defeated the leading amateur of the day, Harold Hilton, in the first challenge match to test the disparity between men and women players; the upset received at least as much attention in suffragist circles as in the golfing world.

After World War I, Leitch won the first postwar British championship in 1920. Later that same year, she was upset by Joyce Wethered , and for the next several years the duels between these two superb golfers provided the British press with one front-page story after another. Although she was defeated in the 1925 British Open played at Troon, succumbing to Wethered at the 37th hole in the final, Leitch regarded this as her greatest match. She regained the title the next year and retired from the game in 1928.

An accomplished writer as well as golfer, Leitch regularly contributed articles to newspapers and magazines on all facets of the game. She also published three books, Golf for Girls (1911), Golf (1922), and Golf Simplified (1924). She served for a number of years on the council of the Ladies' Golf Union, but after her retirement from the game concentrated on making a career for herself in business. Leitch first went into the antiques market but soon found employment with the Cinema House organization, concentrating on the importation of foreign motion pictures into the United Kingdom. In addition, she was active in several aspects of YWCA work and was also a productive member of the Embroiderers' Guild for many years. Perhaps her proudest achievement after retiring from competition was her work for the Women Golfers' Museum, for which she amassed an impressive collection of books and memorabilia. In the final years of her long life, she was often to be seen at both amateur and professional women's matches. Leitch died in her London home on September 16, 1977.

sources:

Millar, M.S. "Leitch, Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn (Cecil)," in Lord Blake and C.S. Nicholls, eds. The Dictionary of National Biography 1971–1980. Oxford and NY: Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 496–497.

Steel, Donald, and Peter Ryde. The Encyclopedia of Golf. NY: Viking Press, 1975.

Wilson, Enid. A Gallery of Women Golfers. London: Country Life, 1961.

John Haag , Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia