Arthur Wallis Myers (24 July 1878 – 17 June 1939) was an English

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

correspondent, editor, author and player. He was one of the leading tennis journalists of the first half of the 20th century.

Family life

Myers was son of the Rev. John Brown Myers, secretary of the

Baptist Missionary Society BMS World Mission is a Mission (Christian), Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its ...

, and Agnes Traphena (née Nutter). He attended the Watford Endowed School and

The Leys School The Leys School is a co-educational independent school in Cambridge, England. It is a day and boarding school for about 574 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen, and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Histo ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

.Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, ed. Arthur Hesilrige, Kelly's Directories, 1931, p. 1933 In 1900 Myers married Lilian Gentry, daughter of Captain George Gentry, of

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. The couple had seven children, the youngest of whom, Prue, wrote a tribute to her father entitled
A. Wallis Myers: A testament to tennis
'.

Playing career

He was a keen tennis player himself and was active mainly in amateur doubles competition. In April 1906 he won the doubles title with New Zealande
Anthony Wilding
at the Championships of Barcelona. He also won the Monte Carlo doubles championship in 1910 and 1921. In mixed doubles competition, Myers competed at

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

in 1909 and later at the 1914

World Hard Court Championships World Hard Court Championships was an annual major tennis tournament sanctioned by the International Lawn Tennis Federation and held from 1912 to 1923. It was principally held in Paris, on clay courts of the Stade Français in the Paris suburb of ...

with

Phyllis Satterthwaite Phyllis Helen Satterthwaite (née Carr; 26 January 1886 – 20 January 1962) was a female tennis player from Great Britain who was active from the early 1910s until the late 1930s. Tennis career In 1911, she participated for the first time in t ...

, reaching the semi-finals. He also teamed up with

Molla Bjurstedt Mallory Anna Margrethe "Molla" Bjurstedt Mallory (née Bjurstedt; 6 March 1884 – 22 November 1959) was a Norwegian tennis player, naturalized American. She won a record eight singles titles at the U.S. National Championships. She was the first woman ...

for the 1923 Monte Carlo tournament. Also in 1923 he won the doubles title at the

South of France Championships The South of France Championships its original name or Championnats du Sud de la France also known as the Championships of the South of France and the Championship of Southern France was a tennis event held from 1895 through 1971 it was originall ...

. He was the captain of British tennis teams on tour in Europe, South Africa and India.

Journalism

Myers was the editor of the ''Ayers Lawn Tennis Almanack'' beginning in 1908. The following year he began work as the lawn tennis correspondent of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

,'' a position he held until his death in 1939. He also served as lawn tennis editor of ''The Field'' and he wrote several books on tennis including a biography of four-time Wimbledon champion

Anthony Wilding Anthony Frederick Wilding (31 October 1883 – 9 May 1915), also known as Tony Wilding, was a New Zealand world No. 1 tennis player and soldier who was killed in action during World War I. Considered the world's first tennis superstar, Wildin ...

who was killed in the First World War. During that war Myers served in the Ministry of Information. In 1924 he founded the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain with

Lord Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the L ...

, former Prime Minister and later a Member of the Cabinet, as its first President. Myers was appointed Chevalier of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

by French President

Paul Doumer Joseph Athanase Doumer, commonly known as Paul Doumer (; 22 March 18577 May 1932), was the President of France from 13 June 1931 until his assassination on 7 May 1932. Biography Joseph Athanase Doumer was born in Aurillac, in the Cantal ''dépa ...

on 29 April 1932 for his service to the game of tennis."Legion of Honour For Tennis Player"
''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

'', 28 May 1932.

Bibliography

* ''Lawn tennis at home and abroad'' (1903)
online
* ''The complete lawn tennis player'' (1908)
online
* ''Leaders of lawn tennis'' (1912)
online
* ''C.B. Fry : the man and his methods'' (1912) * ''The story of the Davis Cup'' (1913) * ''Captain Anthony Wilding'' (1916)
online
* ''Twenty years of lawn tennis : some personal memories'' (1921)
online
* ''Fifty years of Wimbledon : the story of the lawn tennis championships'' (1926) * ''Lawn tennis, its principles & practice: a player's guide to modern methods'' (1930) * ''Memory's parade'' (1932)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Myers, A. Wallis 1878 births 1939 deaths British sports journalists British sports executives and administrators Tennis writers English male tennis players British male tennis players Tennis people from Northamptonshire