Louie Bickerton (Cozens)

By Cathy Jones (2005)

Louie Bickerton (later Cozens) (b. 1902 – 1998) was a prominent early Australian women’s tennis player.

Bickerton began her tennis carrier while at Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne but moved to Sydney to attend university at Sydney University where she graduated as a Bachelor of Science in 1923.

She won the Singles Championship at Sydney University and in 1927 won the Australian Tennis Women’s Doubles Championship with Meryl O’Hara Wood. In 1928, Bickerton toured South Africa and Europe as a member of the Australian Team and won 13 international titles. She often partnered Daphne Akhurst, winning the Australian Tennis Women’s Doubles in 1929 and 1930. Bickerton won the 1935 Australian Mixed Doubles with Christian Boussus as her partner. She was runner-up in the 1935 Women’s Doubles with Nell Hall Hopman as her partner.

Louie Bickerton married tobacco manufacturer Royston Cozens in 1935. Cozens was the widower of tennis player Daphne Akhurst, who tragically died in 1933 of an ectopic pregnancy.

In 1935, Cozens commissioned architects D T Morrow & Gordon to design a new house at 23 Newton Road Strathfield. This house was built in 1936, featuring a lawn tennis court at rear, and was the home of Royston and Louie Cozens for many years. After the house was completed, it was featured in the February 1937 magazine ‘Decoration and Glass’. Both Royston and Louie Cozens died in 1998.

It has been incorrectly reported that this house was the home of Ernest Davis, the inspector of the Child Welfare Department, whose family retained the home until 1970 and the house was built c.1928 on Lot 38.  The house at 23 Newton Road was built on Lot 37 in 1936 and owned by Mr & Mrs Cozens. In 1970, part of Lot 38 (25 Newton Road) was transferred to the owner of 23 Newton Road by the Davis family and added to the 23 Newton Road property.  This transfer of land may have caused confusion about the prior history of this site.

Louie Bickerton [later Louie Bickerton Cozens] Tennis Titles

References

Tennis Champion in Doubles Love Match, Evening News (Rockhampton Qld), 29 May 1935, page 11