Bea Seal

It was as an official that she was involved in a controversial incident in June 1972 at the London Grass Court Championships at Queen’s Club. The former world number one, the excitable American Pancho Gonzales, was playing a semi-final against Britain’s John Paish, the son of Geoff Paish, who with Tony Mottram was prominent in British tennis immediately after the war.

When one of his serves was called a fault, Gonzales shouted at the linesman saying: “That makes four in this goddam game.” When the line-call dispute could not be settled by the umpire, Gonzales demanded to see Bea Seal to adjudicate as championship referee.

“Either that linesman goes or I go,” said the scowling Gonzales, who at 6ft 3in towered over the redoubtable Mrs Seal. “The linesman stays,” she replied.

A stand up row ensued, with Bea Seal pointing a finger and Gonzales shouting: “Don’t come too close to me, lady, or I might lose my temper”. Bea Seal disqualified Gonzales from the tournament on the spot, the American packed up and left, and John Paish found himself in the final.

She was born Beatrice Mary Watson on January 13 1914 at Courtrai in Belgium, where her father worked in the flax industry. Before her parents fled from the advancing Germans, Bea had become the Belgian ladies’ golf champion.

Earlier in the 1930s, while still in her twenties, she had played at Wimbledon in the singles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles, making it into the third round in all three events on different occasions. Her playing partners included some of the best-known figures in prewar tennis: Audrey Osborne, Mary Halford, Georgie and Billie Woodgate and Peggy Dawson Scott in the ladies’ doubles and, in the mixed doubles, Don Butler, Geoff Ward and the Pole Czezlaw Spychala, among others.
After the war, she played at every Wimbledon championship from 1947 until 1960, in which year she was captain of the victorious British Wightman cup team. She had a successful county career playing tennis for Middlesex in the early 1950s. When her playing days ended, she became an official Lawn Tennis Association referee.
Following the failure of her marriage to Gerry Walter, tennis correspondent of the News Chronicle, she lived for several years with Vernon Seal until his sudden death in the early 1990s. Bea Seal played veterans’ tennis until she was in her eighties.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8296862/Bea-Seal.html