Part 1 - Sir Norman Brookes. 2 Games for St Kilda in 1898.
Norman Brookes was born in Melbourne on 14 November 1877 he excelled at all sports in his youth and like most young men had a go at almost anything.
The earliest record of him playing sport at the elite level was in 1898 aged 21 when he played 2 games for the Saints in what was to be a fairly uneventful year in St Kilda’s history. Wooden spooners for the second year in a row, the Saints had failed to record a win in 28 games over the first two years of VFL history.
The closest the Saints got to a win in 1898 was two losses to Carlton in Round 7 by 10 points and Round 14 by 14 points. Carlton won 3 games that year 2 against the Saints and against the Swans in Round 1. They were not much better.
Young Brookes who was to prove an elite athlete at the highest level was probably persuaded by these events, to pursue other avenues to express his talent. Perhaps the two games with the Saints were just a passing interest but whatever the reason, he is a Saint and goes down in Saints history as a past player.
So at the end of 1898 Norman Brookes set off in pursuit of his brilliant career but his second elite level success was strangely to come in Golf. In 1901 aged 24 partnered by Walter Riddell, Brookes won the Australian Amateur Foursomes Golf Championship. He repeated that feat again with Walter Riddell in 1906 but in between his legendary Tennis career began to take shape.
On 9 July 1905, Norman Brookes was runner up at Wimbledon to British Champion “Little Do” Hugh Doherty, who won 8.6, 6.2, and 6.3. In the same year representing Australasia with New Zealander Tony Wilding they were defeated by the USA. This was Brooke’s first selection in the Davis Cup team.
Following these losses and soon after his second Australian Golf Championship Norman Brookes won Wimbledon in 1907 the first Australian to win the prestigious title.
In 1911 Brookes took out his first Australian Tennis title and in 1912 played singles for Australasia helped the combined Australia New Zealand team win its first Davis Cup against the previously dominant USA.
On 18 January 1913 Norman Brookes defeated J. Parkes to win the First Australia vs. England Lawn Tennis Test Match and on 7 July 1914 Brookes defeated Anthony Wilding of New Zealand to win his second Wimbledon title. He was now Tennis Champion of the World. In the same year he again led the Australasian team to win the Davis Cup.
The Storm clouds of the Great War were now firmly on the horizon and Norman Brookes like many great Australian sportsmen weighed up how he could serve his country. He accepted a position with the Red Cross, which carried, commissioned army rank so Norman Brookes was appointed as Red Cross commissioner in Egypt in 1915. This was a greatly important task and one, which was to prove arduous. He oversaw the repatriation of Australian soldiers from the disasters of Gallipoli and other theatres of war and did all he could to ensure support networks were established.
He returned to Australia in 1917 after 2 yrs overseas . Curiously in 1918 he returned to the Middle East. Records show that Lieutenant Colonel Norman Brookes won the Singles, Doubles and mixed doubles championships of Baghdad at a sporting week to celebrate the taking of Baghdad by the British.
In 1926 Norman Brookes was appointed as the President of the Lawn Tennis association of Australia. A position he held for 30 years. In 1944 in his 68th year he partnered Harry Hopman in a charity doubles match at Kooyong. The Argus reporter at the time wrote, “ He still retains many of his skills, particularly at the net”
On 28 September 1968 Sir Norman Brookes died aged 80 yrs. He had lived to see his Saints win their first premiership in 1966 and in his final year the Saints had given it a shot making the final four bowing out in the first semi. Thus passed one of Australia’s sporting greats and an important figure in the history of the St Kilda Football Club. Sir Norman Brookes is truly a Saints icon.
Article by Allan Grant
