Thelma Kingsbury

Who is Thelma Kingsbury?

Thelma Kingsbury was an English-born, USA naturalized, sportswoman who won major badminton titles in the British Isles and then in the USA from the early 1930s to the early 1950s. Equally adept in singles and doubles she won two women's singles titles and four women's doubles titles at the prestigious All-England Championships between 1933 and 1937. In the 1935-1936 season she achieved a British "Grand Slam" by winning the open singles titles of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. After emigrating from Britain to the USA she won the U.S. women's singles title in 1941 and shared the U.S. women's doubles title with Janet Wright in 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950. Though reaching 40 in the early 1950s she continued to play highly competitive singles matches against such formidable opponents as Ethel Marshall, Margaret Varner, and a teenage Judy Devlin. Thelma Kingsbury was among the initial class of players elected to the U.S. Badminton Hall of Fame in 1956.