The Way We Were: June 1954 issue of "Golf Monthly" (1/6)

BERNARD DARWIN, LEGENDARY GOLF WRITER
WHO BECAME CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL
AND ANCIENT GOLF CLUB

Click on the above page from the June 1954 issue of "Golf Monthly" (costing only one shilling and sixpence, 7 1/2p new pence) to read more clearly the cartoon-style artistry of "Mel" to mark the dinner in honour of Bernard Darwin at the Hall of the Worshipful Company of Grocers - what a super title! - in the City of London, presumably a month or two earlier that year, writes Colin Farquharson.

So who was Bernard Darwin (pictured top right)? Just about the most famous, certainly the first professional golf writer. But Bernard (nowadays he would have been knighted) was more than a golf writer. He was captain of the R&A, for instance in 1934. I cannot think of any other golf writer to have achieved that lofty position in golf.

Bernard, born on September 7, 1876, was still writing for "Golf Monthly" in the 1950s. He died on October 18, 1961.

GRANDSON OF NATURALIST CHARLES DARWIN

Here are some notes from "Wikipedia," the free Internet encyclopedia:

Bernard Darwin was the son of Francis Darwin and Amy Ruck.

His mother died from a fever only four days after his birth.
Bernard was the first grandson of the famous naturalist Charles Darwin, the man who said after studying evolution in nature that we are all descended from apes rather than Adam and Eve.

Bernard was brought up by Charles and his wife Emma. His younger half-sister was a poet, Frances Cornford.
Darwin was educated at Eton and Cambridge University where he was a Cambridge Blue in golf 1895-97 and captain in his final year.
He married the engraver Elinor Monsell in 1906. Their children were Sir Robert Vere Darwin and Ursula Mommens.

FIRST GOLF WRITER ON A DAILY BASIS
After Cambridge, Darwin became a court lawyer.He covered golf for "The Times" from 1907 to 1953 and for "Country Life" from 1907 to 1961. He was also still a regular contributor to the pages of "Golf Monthly" through the 1950s.

Bernard Darwin was the first writer ever to cover golf on a daily basis, instead of an occasional feature. He was Captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in 1934.

In 1938 Bernard, alongwith Percy Huggins, Frank Moran, Henry Longhurst and others, were founder members of the Association of Golf Writers. Darwin became president of the AGW, probably the first before Moran and Huggins.
A Commander of the British Empire, Bernard was elected to the World Golf Hall of Game in 2005, some 44 years after his death.

Laurence Viney also wrote a very nice piece on the life of Bernard Darwin.

Here is part of it:

There has been no finer writer on the game of golf than Bernard Darwin, who was the grandson of Charles Darwin, author of the Origin of Species, the great work on evolution which challenged all earlier theories on the subject.

Bernard Darwin had a conventional up-bringing of the sons of successful men, being educated at Eton college and Cambridge University, where he gained his golf blue 1895-97, being Captain in his last year.

After Cambridge he was a court lawyer in London for a few years. He was not happy in his work and soon began to write about his first love, the game of golf.
Over the years he became acknowledged as one of the best essayists in Britain and the first man to describe golf in immaculate prose, often with touches of humour. His weekly articles in the London Times revealed a prodigious memory for literature in general and great appreciation of all aspects of golf.

He would quote an apt passage from Charles Dickens, of whom he was a leading authority, both in articles and reports of tournaments and matches. Such was his wide horizon, he was later to be the Editor of the renowned Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. His articles were enjoyed by nearly as many non-golfers as players of the game.
No mean player himself, he reached the semi-finals of the British Amateur Championship in 1909 and 1922 and won numerous amateur tournaments. He played in the first Walker Cup match at the National, Long Island, New York in 1922. Accompanying the team as Times correspondent, Darwin took took the place of the team captain, Robert Harris, who fell ill, both as player and skipper.

"OUR GOLF CORRESPONDENT"

Partnering Cyril Tolley in the 36-hole foursomes, they were heavily defeated by Francis Ouimet and Jesse Guilford, but Darwin was one of three GB&I team winners in the singles, beating W.C. Fownes, jun., the US captain, by 3 and 1.
Darwin was golf correspondent of "The Times" for 46 years from 1907. Always writing anonymously as "Our Golf Correspondent", it was not until some years after he retired that the paper began to name its writers.

Yet Bernard was so well-known that many readers were aware of his identity. His mellifluous style was easily recognised. Indeed when the Editor required a report of an event of special interest or a light-hearted leader column, Darwin was often invited to produce it.
He wrote many books, mostly about golf, some of them collections of his articles in the "The Times" and "Country Life," a sporting magazine for which he contributed a weekly golf article for over 50 years.

No man has left a greater literary legacy to golf. Very few have approached his standard; perhaps Herbert Warren Wind and Henry Longhurst have come closest to it. Some of Darwin's earlier works are collectors' pieces, selling for more than $1000 each in the market. Fortunate is the man who has a complete set of his works.
It was not only in golf literature that he was prominent. At the Royal and Ancient he was Chairman of the Rules of Golf Committee and in 1934 Captain of the Club. He was a member or honorary member of numerous well-known clubs, of which his favourites were St Andrews, Hoylake, Rye, Woking and Aberdovey in Wales, where he regularly spent his summer holiday.

His writing style was the envy of other correspondents. In the torrid atmosphere of the press tent or the chatter of a clubhouse he could run off a report in rapid time without hesitation and with seldom a word altered (by the sub-editor).

Bernard would not relate any part of a tournament which he had not witnessed himself: if he did, it was always "a kind friend told me that ..." He seemed to have a sixth sense which ensured he was at the right place at the crucial moment.
Golfing history he revered, as he did famous players and events; indeed he took part in some himself. His only other visit to the USA was in 1913 when he actually marked the card of Francis Ouimet when he beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the famous US Open play-off at The Country Club, Brookline. The framed card with his signature is to be seen there today.

PARTNERED BY "AN ELDERLY GENTLEMAN"

Darwin was always modest about himself when he had to report one of his successes. Typical is his passage about the Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes in his "Golf Between Two Wars."

It was a top-class event in those days, which Joyce Wethered, the greatest lady golfer of her time, was in the winning pair on eight occasions with seven different partners. Darwin lists six of them and describes the seventh as "an elderly gentleman whose name for the moment escapes me".

Bernard Darwin had won the event playing with her in 1933 when he was 57.

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