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Patricia Ward Hales

British tennis player (1929–1985)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ2021385
Source-derived summary

Patricia Ward Hales (née Ward; 27 February 1929 – 22 June 1985) was a tennis player from the United Kingdom who reached the singles final of the 1955 U.S. Championships, losing to Doris Hart.

Hales partnered Shirley Bloomer to reach the women's doubles final at the 1955 Wimbledon Championships, where they lost to the team of Angela Mortimer and Anne Shilcock in two sets and at the French Championships, where they lost to the team of Darlene Hard and Beverly Baker Fleitz in three sets. She again reached the women's doubles final at the French Championships, where she and Ann Haydon lost to the team of Hard and Maria Bueno in straight sets.

With George Worthington, she reached the semifinals of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1953. She won the singles title at the Italian Open in 1955, beating Erika Vollmer; she also won the doubles with Christiane Mercelis. Ward had been runner-up to Maureen Connolly in 1954. Also in 1955, she won Monte Carlo, beating Shirley Bloomer. She reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1956, beating Angela Mortimer in straight sets, then lost to Angela Buxton. She reached the final of the British Hard Court Championships in 1957, scoring victories over Darlene Hard and Ann Haydon on the way, then losing in three sets to Shirley Bloomer. At Wimbledon in 1958, she defeated the seeded Karol Fageros, then lost to Ann Haydon in three sets in the round of 16.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Patricia Ward Hales” is british tennis player (1929–1985). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Patricia, Ward and Hales, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 1985, 1955, 1953—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1929-02-27. For this dossier, Patricia, Ward and Hales is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british tennis player (1929–1985)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2021385. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 1985, 1955 and 1953.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Patricia Ward Hales”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Patricia Ward Hales primary sources, Patricia Ward Hales archive and Patricia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Patricia Ward Hales”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Patricia Ward Hales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.