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Canadian tennis player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Fortescue Foulkes DSO (10 July 1872 – 22 June 1948), also known as Captain Foulkes, was an early star of Canadian tennis.[1] Foulkes may have been a three-time winner of the Canadian national championship, today known as the Rogers Cup. He was also a member of the Canadian team which reached the finals of the Davis Cup.[2]
Canada's 1913 Davis Cup team; J. F. Foulkes is at the right. | |
| Full name | John Fortescue Foulkes |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) | Canada |
| Born | 10 July 1872 Middlesex (now London), England |
| Died | 22 June 1948 (aged 75) Canada |
| Singles | |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Wimbledon | 3R (1908) |
| Other tournaments | |
| Olympic Games | 3R (1908) |
| Team competitions | |
| Davis Cup | F (1913) |
Foulkes was born in Middlesex, England, the second of six children born to Rev. Augustine Lempriere Foulkes and Francesca Forster (née Godfrey). His father, who had been a cricket player, was a graduate of Queen's College, Oxford, vicar of Steventon.[3] He had three brothers (Godfrey, Louis Augustine and Leonard) and two sisters (Francesca and Catherine). Louis was the father of Sir Nigel Foulkes.[4]
On 2 December 1899, he married Margaret May Thomas and they had two children.[5]
He moved to Canada as a teenager in 1891, and quickly began winning tournaments. A member of the Victoria Lawn Tennis Club, Foulkes may have captured the Canadian national championship in singles 1907, 1909, and 1910 - at least one source says otherwise however.[6] His 1907 win, if it did occur, broke a string of 13 consecutive wins by an American player and only the second for a Canadian in 18 years. The source that disputes that Foulkes won his titles claims he was, instead, runner-up in 1907 and again in 1908.
He competed in the men's singles and doubles events at the 1908 Summer Olympics.[7]
Foulkes along with fellow Victoria natives B. P. Schwengers, R. B. Powell and Victoria-based Henry Mayes reached the final of the 1913 Davis Cup in the country's first attempt. (All four players were members of the Victoria LTC.[8]) With the entire tournament played at Wimbledon in June–July, the upstart Canadians, with Powell and Schwengers playing each match, beat South Africa, 4 wins to 1 and then Belgium, 4-0, to reach the final. In the final, however, they were overwhelmed by the Americans losing each set of three matches they contested.
Foulkes was also a British Columbia, five-time Pacific Northwest champion, and two-time Washington State champion. He was ranked No. 1 singles in the USTA Pacific Northwest in 1914.[9]
Foulkes has been elected to both the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 1913 Davis Cup team. He was also elected to USTA Pacific Northwest Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008.[2][10]
Foulkes served in the Canadian Army during the Boer War, earning the Queen's Medal with four clasps. From then on he was frequently referred to as "Captain" Foulkes.[11][12][13] He served again during the First World War in the 4th Canadian Division in the Canadian Service Corps.[2] He was awarded the Order of Agricultural Merit from France and was mentioned in despatches three times in 1917 and 1918.[14] In the 1919 New Year Honours following the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.[15]
His wife's younger sister was the poet Rosemary Thomas. Her book of poems, Immediate Sun (1951), includes a poem about Foulkes entitled "The Colonel".[16]
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