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Poppy Wingate
Leeds

Hannah Sophia Wingate, known as Poppy, was born in Harborne, Staffordshire, in 1903, the daughter of Frank Wingate and his wife, also Hannah Sophia, née Morris. With her father and uncle both professionals, and two brothers who would follow the same path, it was no surprise Poppy was introduced to golf at a young age.

What was a surprise was when brother Syd became professional at Temple Newsam in 1923 and took Poppy to Leeds with him as an assistant. She gave lessons to both men and women so this set her apart from earlier professionals such as Maud Robertson who had given lessons only to ladies.

She married Herbert Arnott Eadie, a Leeds doctor, in 1928 and stepped back from golf to raise children. Sadly she was widowed in 1931 as a result of an accident at a local motor club event. With a family to support she returned to teaching golf. When the Yorkshire Evening News tournament was played at Temple Newsam in October 1933 she entered and played, the first woman in Britain to play in a professional tournament. She played in the Irish Open that year also and in the next two Yorkshire Evening News tournaments, beating brother Syd in it in 1935.

It may not be too surprising to learn that the tabloid press was as interested in what she wore as how she played. Rather than rage against this she embraced it to develop a successful business with a range of her clothing sold by Avison Hare of Leeds with the marketing tag “Smartness with Freedom”. She went on tour around major British cities in 1936 at venues like Binns in Newcastle and George Henry Lee in Liverpool where she gave twice-daily golf lectures from 30 March – 3 April complemented by ‘talks on ideal sports clothes for ladies’ where ‘great interest was shown in some happy designs of her own in golf outfits including a divided skirt which is proving a great favourite’. The clothes were also a sub-topic in a talk about her career, “Golfing Temperaments and Golfing Wardrobes” which she gave on the National programme on BBC radio in February 1937. She even designed a range of sports make-up for Elizabeth Arden. Her golf, though, was not trvialised. She ran a golf school in London from 1933 and the BBC also made a television programme in 1937 called Tee Time with her demonstrating a range of shots and with introduction and commentary by Bernard Darwin.

Poppy married again in 1940, the barrister Roger Hinchcliffe. When he was knighted she became Lady Hinchcliffe. She died in Yorkshire on 14 April 1977.

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