Issette Pearson’s Gifted Signature Album
Miss Issette Pearson (Miller) was the founder of the British Ladies Golf Union (LGU) in 1893 and its secretary for over 25 years One of her most important achievements was to develop the handicap system that allows golfers of mixed abilities to compete. She was runner up to Lady Margaret Scott in the first two Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championships.
When she formally retired from golf as an official, the LGU gave her, as her own choice, an album containing the signatures of as many of her friends as was possible to obtain. That album is pictured here. It is leather bound with 36 pages of signatures in a hard case, and includes those of most of the Champions and leading women golfers of the era. At the presentation ceremony during the LGU annual meeting, Mr. Horace Hutcheson (a VP of the LGU) gave a speech in her honor.
Also shown is one of the pages of that album which includes the signatures of Blanche Hulton, the treasurer of the LGU from 1893-1907, and Horace Hutcheson. What is ironic is that early in 1893 he had written a formal letter to Blanche about the proposed formation of the LGU, warning her that the idea was bound to fail due to the unlikelihood of women to unite without a quarrel, and that they are physically unfit for the strain of two rounds a day for the championship. He obviously reversed his opinion with the great success of the first championship later that year.