Bibliotheque nationale de France via WikiMedia Commons
Late in the afternoon of May 9, 1915, a German heavy artillery shell came crashing through the roof of a British officer's dugout near Neuve Chapelle, France, killing three of its four occupants.The trio were just a handful of more than 11,000 British casualties from the Battle of Aubers Ridge, that began earlier that day.Yet the death of the highest ranked victim - a 31-year-old captain from New Zealand who was in charge of a Royal Marines armoured car detachment - would be felt more keenly, and reverberate further, than many others on the early World War I battlefield.Anthony Wilding, the best tennis player in the world, was dead.During his time on tennis's top tier between 1906 and 1914, the Christchurch-born former lawyer won 11 Grand Slam titles in both singles and doubles. Six of those were singles; four straight Wimbledon titles between 1910 and 1913, and two Australian Open victories in 1906 and 1909.Continue reading on VICE SPORTS.