Wimbledon Champion Angela Mortimer Barrett Leaves Behind Six-Figure Fortune for Renowned Commentator Husband at 93
FORMER Wimbledon champion Angela Mortimer Barrett left over half a million pounds in her will, The Sun can reveal. The ex-world No. 1 women’s player passed all...
FORMER Wimbledon champion Angela Mortimer Barrett left over half a million pounds in her will, The Sun can reveal.
The ex-world No. 1 women’s player passed all her cash and assets to her famous commentator husband John Barrett.
Angela Mortimer Barrett with her husband John Barrett, a celebrated tennis journalist and historian Credit: Getty
Mortimer won the Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles title in 1961Credit: Getty
Plymouth-born Mortimer won four major Championships and was one of the best players in the world in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
She died in August last year following a battle with cancer.
Documents seen by The Sun show the former champion left a total of £676,887, which was reduced to £667,672 after costs and taxes.
Angela’s will was signed in 2023 and approved by the High Court this year.
Angela Mortimer, as she was known in her playing days, was an icon of British tennis Credit: Getty
The ex-world No. 1 women’s tennis player passed all her cash and assets to her famous commentator husband John Credit: Alamy
Mortimer and her husband John Barrett were both inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Angela’s first success came at the 1955 French Open in Paris.
Next up she lifted the in 1958 and then she beat fellow Brit Christine Truman across three sets in the 1961 Wimbledon final on Centre Court.
As a singles star, she lost in two major finals, both times to American Althea Gibson, first in the French capital in 1956 and then in London in 1958.
The former Wimbledon champion died aged 93 Credit: Getty
Angela, captain of the triumphant British team, holds aloft the Wightman Cup at Wimbledon, back in 1968 Credit: Getty
Angela Barrett with fellow British tennis player Virginia Wade Credit: Getty
In doubles play, Mortimer and Anne Shilcock were victorious in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon in 1955, beating compatriots Shirley Bloomer and Patricia Ward Hales 7-5 6-1.
To commemorate the 1961 success – the first British champion since Dorothy Round in 1937 – there is a sculpture bust of her head and shoulders outside Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
She sits alongside other British post-war ladies conquerors Ann Jones (1961) and Virginia Wade (1977).
Between 1964 and 1970, Mortimer served as Great Britain’s Wightman Cup captain, leading the team to one win, in 1968.
Mortimer was diagnosed with Entamoebic Dysentery, which was only cured by a three-week starvation diet that caused her to lose a huge amount of weight and left her extremely weak.
Initially, she feared she would never again compete at the top level but she managed to return to the top level.
In 1967, she was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to tennis.
In 1993, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and was later joined by her husband – the second married couple to achieve the distinction, following Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.
She married ex-Tennis player John Barrett in 1967.
Their son Michael is a trademark lawyer while daughter Sarah Jane worked in publishing.
At the time of her death just over a year ago, Deborah Jevans, Chair of the All England Club, said: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Angela Mortimer Barrett MBE, Wimbledon’s oldest surviving ladies’ singles champion, at the age of 93.
“Angela will be remembered for her determination and extraordinary dedication which saw her overcome significant challenges to rise to the top of , winning three Grand Slam singles titles and one Grand Slam doubles title.
“An Honorary Member since her triumph in 1961, Angela has been a familiar face and valued Member for more than six decades.
“Her passing leaves a hole in the fabric of the Club, and she will be greatly missed.”