Dorothy Campbell

Who was Dorothy Campbell?

Dorothy Iona Campbell was the first internationally dominant female golfer. She was also known in her lifetime as Dorothy Hurd, Mrs. J.V. Hurd and as Dorothy Howe. She has also been referred to by the portmanteau, Dorothy Campbell Hurd Howe.

Born into a golfing family in North Berwick, Scotland, she began swinging golf clubs when she was just 18 months old. Within a few years she was competing with her sisters. She was the first woman to win the American, British and Canadian Women's Amateurs.

Over the course of her career, she won 11 national amateur crowns between Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Scotland, the last of which came in 1924 at the age of 41. She moved to Canada in 1910 and three years later moved to the United States permanently, where she married Jack V. Hurd in 1913. She won many of her titles as Mrs. J. V. Hurd, but she and Hurd were divorced in 1923. She married Edward Howe in 1937 and divorced again in 1943.

She won over 700 first prizes during her golf career. She died in a railway accident, through a moment's inattention when failing to notice an oncoming train.