player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameWalter Cecil
LastnameCrawley
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1880-03-29
Place of birthMasham, Yorkshire, England
Date of death1940-10-11
Place of deathGraffham, West Sussex, England

About

Walter Cecil Crawley was born on 29 March 1880 in Marsham, Yorkshire. He was the youngest of the five children born to Samuel Crawley, a Church of England clergyman and grammar school headmaster from Leicester, and Elizabeth Hannah Crawley (née Cross), who was from Nottingham. Walter’s eldest sibling, Alfred Ernest, also became a lawn tennis player.

Walter C. Crawley attended Oxford University, where he took part in the annual Varsity lawn tennis matches pitting Oxford against Cambridge University. In this respect he notably beat Tony Wilding, then an undergraduate at Cambridge, in a singles match, in July 1904. This was the New Zealander’s only loss in the twelve Varsity matches he played (six in singles and six in doubles).

An excellent lawn tennis player, Crawley notably reached the quarter-finals of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1908, when he lost to Major Ritchie. Crawley also twice reached the semi-finals of the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon, in 1910 (with the Irishman James C. Parke) and in 1913 (with Augustus Hendricks, who was English). Crawley continued to take part in the Wimbledon tournament on and off until 1927, when he was 47.

In 1908, Crawley took part in the outdoor lawn tennis events during the Olympic Games in london. In the men’s singles event he won one match before losing in straight sets to the eventual gold medallist Major Ritchie, while in the men’s doubles event he and Kenneth Powell reached the quarter-finals before losing in four sets to Reginald Doherty and George Hillyard, the eventual champions.

In January 1914, Walter C. Crawley married Florence Mary Magdalene Wormleighton (1895-1982) in Kensington, London. She was a native of Leicester. A son, Maurice Cecil Crawley, was born of this marriage on 21 March 1919 in Somerset.

Although Crawley originally qualified and practised as a solicitor, he later gave up the law to focus on entomology (like his brother Alfred, he was something of a polymath). Over the years he wrote several articles on entomology, a number of which were published in The Entomologist’s Record (see a sample from his writings below).

When the special Register of England and Wales was taken on 29 September 1939, Walter and Florence Crawley were living in a cottage in the market town of Midhurst in Sussex. Somewhat surprisingly, the register lists Walter’s profession as “metal merchant’s broker”. Walter C. Crawley died on 11 October 1940 in Graffham, West Sussex. He was 60 years old.
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The following piece by Walter C. Crawley was published in The Entomologist’s Record in early 1925:

Formicidae. A new genus.

By Walter C. Crawley, B.A., F.E.S., F.R.M.S

https://ia801601.us.archive.org/30/items/entomologistsrec371925tutt/entomologistsrec371925tutt.pdf

Sub-fam. Myrmicinae, Lep.
Tribe. Myrmectnini, Ash.
Sub-tribe. Myrmecinini, Em. (sens. str.)
Genus. Pseudopodomyrma, gen. nov.

Between Podomyrma, Sm., and Dacryon, For. General appearance of Podomyrma, but the clypeus quite distinct.

Monomorphic. Antennae 11-jointed, club 3-jointed.

Mandibles as in Podomyrma, thick, dentate, widely grooved along the inner border. Central portion of clypeus arched posteriorly, descending abruptly over the mouth, as in Dacryon. Lateral portion rises from the base of the mandible to a point a short distance from the frontal carinae; from this point it descends in a sharp curved ridge, rising again to join the frontal carinae, and limiting the antennal fossa in front. Beneath this ridge it is excavate. The points thus dividing the two halves of the lateral portion give the clypeus, viewed from in front, the appearance of being dentate. Frontal area indistinct. Head thick and massive.

Anterior angles of pronotum dentate, promesonotal suture absent; there is a moderately deep impression between the mesonotum and the eqinotum, where the thorax is constricted.

Petiole as in Podomyrma, with an elongate node; postpetiole rounded. Deeclivity of epinotum with a flange on each side of the insertion of the petiole.

Pseudopodomyrma Clarki sp. nov.

L. 4.4mm. Dark reddish brown; dorsum of head and gaster almost black; mandibles, lateral portions of clypeus, neck, articulation of pedicel, and legs (sometimes also the sides of pronotum), dark castaneous.

Terminal and outer border of mandibles with a few long yellowish hairs, a pair of fairly long blunt hairs close together at the centre of the anterior border of clypeus, one each side of the central portion, one at each tooth of the lateral portion, and one above the antennal sockets; a pair on the occiput, a pair at the junction of pro- and mesonotum, a pair at posterior border of postpetiole, and a few on the apical borders of the gaster.

All these hairs are of the same character, of even thickness and blunt at apex. Antennae feebly pubescent, the joints of the funiculus, except the apical, with a few blunt hairs; legs and gaster with a scattered pubescence.

Mandibles with five teeth, the two apical large and pointed. Clypeus with a faint carina reaching from the posterior border to the centre, the anterior border depressed in the middle and emarginate, the border convex on each side of the emargination. (For rest of clypeus see characters of genus).

Frontal carinae short, wide apart. Scapes slightly curved, swelling to the apex where they are nearly twice as broad as at base. They reach to rather less than twice their breadth from the occipital border; the latter concave, marginate. Eyes slightly behind middle of sides, moderately large and prominent. Head, excluding mandibles, a shade longer than broad, broader at base of mandibles than at occiput, thickest at vertex, the sides convex, the occipital angles evenly curved from the eyes.

Promesonotum broader than long, the anterior border sinuate, the lateral angles with a small sharp tooth, the sides convex, narrowing rapidly from the commencement of the mesonotum to the suture, where it is about ⅔ as broad as in front. In profile the promesonotum is evenly convex, widely and shallowly emarginate at the meso-epinotal suture. Base of epinotum nearly twice as long as the declivity, feebly convex, the angle joining the two rounded.

Petiole from above nearly twice as long as broad, the sides almost parallel, narrowing slightly at the anterior ¼, in front of which the sides expand into two small projections. In profile it forms an oblique angle at the centre of the upper surface, and is slightly thicker behind; beneath it is feebly concave except in front, where it forms an angle but not a tooth.

Postpetiole from above ¾ as long as broad, nearly 3 times as wide behind as at its junction with the petiole, the posterior border transverse. In profile it rises to its highest point ⅓ from the posterior border. Beneath in front is a blunt process. First segment of gaster ¾ as long as broad, broadest behind, the anterior border concave. The remaining segments are almost entirely concealed beneath the first.

Moderately shining. Mandibles strongly striate at base, feebly elsewhere, with a few small scattered points. Clypeus microscopically reticulate with one or two shallow indistinct punctures at the sides of the central portion, and one or two strong lateral ridges running parallel to the frontal carinae. The lateral portions finely reticulate. Scapes with minute points.

Between the frontal carinae is a short longitudinal impression. Whole of head above and below covered with small round clean-cut punctures, and in addition the surface, particularly at the cheeks and between the frontal carinae, is microscopically reticulate.

Dorsum of thorax punctured similarly to the head, but not quite so densely. Sides of pronotum superficially reticulate only, rest of sides with widely-spaced punctures. Pedicel covered with punctures smaller than on rest of body, and in addition has a denser ground reticulation. Legs smooth, tibiae with a few points. Basal border of first segment of gaster edged with extremely short longitudinal striae, the rest microscopically reticulate.

Swan River, West Australia. (J. Clark, no. 488) Type in my collection.

The formation of the clypeus is curious, and separates the insect from the sub-tribe Podomyrmini, though its general facies is extremely like Podomyrma., The dense puncturation is unlike that of any Podomyrma with which I am familiar.

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