This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Angela Murphy. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 26 March 1905, Ireland
Died: 21 August 1962
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
Stoker, Norma Esmée (1905–62), sportswoman and chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, was born 26 March 1905 at 23 Westland Row, Dublin, daughter of Francis Owen Stoker (1867–1939), surgeon dentist, and Mayont Stoker (née Maunsell). She graduated from TCD in 1928 with a senior moderatorship in modern languages, coming first in her final French examinations. In January 1929 she began working in the French consulate in Dublin as private secretary to the consul-general. Over the years she served at the legation (later embassy) as private secretary to ministers and ambassadors and was well known in diplomatic circles. In recognition of her service she was awarded the cross of a chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in 1949.
Her sporting career was an outstanding one; she was one of the greatest all-round sportswomen in Ireland, winning international status in three sports. Clearly, she inherited her interest in sport from her father, who won 5 international rugby caps (1886–91) and was the only Irishman to win Wimbledon doubles titles (1890, 1893); he also won the Irish tennis doubles title 4 times in the 1890s. In 1929 she won her first international cap in hockey, when she played in goal. In tennis she won the Irish ladies’ doubles championship six times, with Hilda Wallace (1930–33, 1935), E. Goddard (1940), and Mrs P. Egan (1941). As a result, she became one of the leading tennis players in Europe. From 1933 to 1938 she was selected for the Irish badminton team thirteen times. She won the Irish close singles championship in 1937 and the Irish open women’s doubles four times. She took up golf in 1948 and immediately went on to win the captain’s prize at Foxrock Golf Club, and soon reduced her handicap to nine. In 1958 she began to play croquet and yet again excelled in the sport by winning the Coronation Cup doubles event in Carrickmines a year before her death.
Unmarried, she lived most of her life in 5 Eglinton Park, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. She died of cancer in Monkstown Hospital, Co. Dublin, aged 57, on 21 August 1962.