English Chess Forum

I have a couple of questions about the history of English women's chess that I hope someone will be able to answer.

I am trying to find out when two current English WIMs gained their titles.

(1) Rita Atkins (1969) f [ENG] WIM (title year unknown, age: unknown)
(2) Anne Mothersill (1927) f [ENG] WIM (title year unknown, age: unknown)

Anne Mothersill's WIM title was awarded at some point prior to 1987. Rita Atkins I can't find many records for, so possibly her name changed due to marriage, though it would be interesting if she was a relative of H. E. Atkins (1872-1955). As with any biographical history of female players, details of name changes and birth names would be much appreciated to help when looking up early records.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:I have a couple of questions about the history of English women's chess that I hope someone will be able to answer.

I am trying to find out when two current English WIMs gained their titles.

(1) Rita Atkins (1969) f [ENG] WIM (title year unknown, age: unknown)
(2) Anne Mothersill (1927) f [ENG] WIM (title year unknown, age: unknown)

Anne Mothersill's WIM title was awarded at some point prior to 1987. Rita Atkins I can't find many records for, so possibly her name changed due to marriage, though it would be interesting if she was a relative of H. E. Atkins (1872-1955). As with any biographical history of female players, details of name changes and birth names would be much appreciated to help when looking up early records.

I've been told Anne Mothersill is Anne Sunnucks (that is the name that is more familiar, thanks to John Upham for this) and she gained the WIM title in 1954. I'm also told that Rita Atkins was Rita Hennigan, and from looking at various lists, her title was awarded at some point before 1998, but when I am still trying to ascertain.

EDIT: It now seems (thanks to Roger de Coverly for this) that Rita Hennigan was born Rita Zimmersmann and was awarded the WIM title in 1991 while registered for Hungary.