Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves
MBE (10 December 1867 – 10 February 1920) was an Australian-born
tennis player from the United Kingdom. At the
1908 London Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...
he won a bronze medal in the Men's Singles tournament.
Biography
Eaves was born in
Melbourne, Australia, son of William and Eunice Eaves of
St Kilda, Victoria
St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 6 km (4 miles) south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip Local governmen ...
.
[Captain Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves]
CWGC casualty record.
He reached the Men's Singles All-Comers' final at the
Wimbledon Championships in 1895 and lost against
Wilfred Baddeley despite having had a match point in the third set. In 1897 he became the first non-American to reach the final in the U.S. National Singles Championships. He lost the final in five sets to American
Robert Wrenn. He was particularly successful on clay courts at the Dinard International Tournament in
Brittany, France organized by the Dinard Lawn Tennis Club where he won that title ten times between (1894-1896) and (1902-1909).
Eaves won the
Welsh Championships in 1895 and the
Irish Championships Irish Open may refer to:
* Irish Open (golf), a golf tournament on the European Tour
** Irish Senior Open, a golf tournament on the European Seniors Tour
** Ladies Irish Open, a golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour
*Irish Open (darts)
The ...
in 1897, defeating
Wilfred Baddeley in a five-set final. He became the
Scottish singles champion in 1901 and won the
British Covered Court Championships
The British Covered Court Championships (BCCC) was an indoor tennis event held from 1885 through 1971 and played in London, England. The dates of the tournament fluctuated between October and March.
History
For its first five years the tournament ...
, played on wooden courts at
Queen's Club
The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "cinch Championships" for sponsorship reas ...
in London three consecutive times from 1897 until 1899. He won against seven-time tournament champion
Ernest Lewis and Wimbledon champions
Laurence Doherty and
Harold Mahony in the respective finals.
Qualified as a doctor of medicine, he served as a civil surgeon in the
Boer War, and took a temporary commission in the
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
in the first week of
World War I, on 10 August 1914, being promoted to Captain after a year's service.
He was later awarded a
MBE for his services and died in London, where he is buried in
Greenwich Cemetery.
[
]
Grand Slam finals
Singles (1 runner-up)
See also
*World number one male tennis player rankings
World number 1 ranked male tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the male tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources. The annual source rankings from which the No. 1 players are drawn are cited ...
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaves, Wilberforce
1867 births
1920 deaths
19th-century British people
19th-century male tennis players
British Army personnel of World War I
British male tennis players
British people of Australian descent
Members of the Order of the British Empire
Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain
Olympic medalists in tennis
Olympic tennis players of Great Britain
Royal Army Medical Corps officers
Tennis players from Melbourne
Tennis players at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics