The son of a Manchester iron founder, Sydney Wallwork started skating in the years leading up to World War I, and in 1913 won the Northern Cup, as the Manchester District men’s champion. A member of the Manchester Skating Club, he retained the trophy the following year and, also in 1914, finished second with Ethel Muckelt in the first ever pairs competition organized by the National Skating Association, which was billed as the Pairs Amateur Figure Skating Championship of Great Britain. Wallwork spent a lot of his time performing exhibitions around Britain prior to the War. In 1920, just a month before the Antwerpen Olympics, Wallwork and Mukelt won a pairs competition at the Haymarket Ice Rink, Edinburgh, which assured them of Olympic selection, where they finished fifth of eight.
