An Olympic medal won by a tennis star from Bradford more than a century ago is expected to fetch up to £2,000 at an auction today.
The medal is thought to be one of the first Olympic medals won by a British woman.
Trailblazing Edwardian tennis star Alice Greene was the daughter of Bradford-born Emma Greene, and Alice’s grandfather was Bradford timber tycoon, James Rhodes, who lived at North Parade.
Alice Norah Gertrude Greene eventually became one of the top British female tennis stars of the early 1900s.
She competed at Wimbledon and Monte Carlo, among other places. She also won the Ladies Singles’ title at Queens Club in London in 1907. The following year she was runner-up in the Indoor Tennis Ladies’ Singles event at the 1908 Olympics.
Now, 100 years later, the silver medal she won at the 1908 Olympics – along with her bronze 1908 Olympic competitors’ medal – is coming up for sale at Bonhams in Chester tomorrow, and the two medals together are expected to fetch up to £2,000.
Alice Greene, who was also a hockey international, was one of 37 women who took part in the 1908 Olympic Games.
It cost £15,000 to stage the Games, but the £60,000 it cost to build the state-of-the-art White City Stadium, in London, was extra.
In 1870, Alice’s mother, Emma, married an accountant named Edward Dickin and, following their marriage in Bradford, they set up home at Kirkgate, Shipley.
But their happiness was short-lived. In 1872, two years after their wedding and just weeks after the birth of their daughter, Louisa, Mr Dickin – still only in his late twenties – tragically died.
Emma found happiness again when she met and married, in Wharfedale in 1877, an American doctor named Richard Greene. Their daughter Alice was born two years later, on October 15, 1879.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here