player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameMajor Josiah George
LastnameRitchie
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1870-10-18
Place of birthWestminster, Greater London, England
Date of death1955-02-28
Place of deathAshford, Surrey, England

About

A Biographical Sketch of Major Ritchie

By Mark Ryan

Major Josiah George Ritchie was born in London on 18 October 1870 to Josiah Ritchie (b. 1841), who was also a native of London, and Elizabeth Anne Ritchie (née Edis; b. 1850). According to the Censuses of England, Josiah Ritchie’s father, George (b. 1807), had at various times been a hatmaker (1841), a dissenting minister (1851) and a “proprietor of houses” (1861). In addition to Josiah, he and his wife Ann (b. 1813) had two other children: another boy, also called George (b. 1833), and a girl, Charlotte (b. 1838).

Major Ritchie’s mother, Elizabeth, was born in the county of Cambridgeshire, which was also the native county of both her parents, John (b. 1822) and Hannah (b. 1822). According to the Census of England and Wales taken in March 1851, John Edis was a college servant, in other words more than likely employed as a servant within Cambridge University.

By the time the next Census of England and Wales was taken, in April 1861, the Edis family had moved from their native Cambridgeshire to Fetter Lane, a busy area located just off Fleet Street in the City of London. According to the same census, Hannah Edis was now a widow and the mother of four children. In addition to Elizabeth, these were Agnes (b. 1851), George (b. 1853) and Carrie (b. 1856). Agnes and George had both been born in Cambridgeshire, but the youngest child, Carrie, was born in the London borough of Saint Pancras. This indicates that the Edis family had moved to London at some point during the years 1853-56.

According to the Post Office London Directory for 1859, John Edis, a grocer, was running a business from 29 Tottenham Court Road, near the heart of the capital. However, John Edis’s death was recorded soon after, in September 1860, as occurring in Ely in his native Cambridgeshire. It appears that Hannah Edis moved the family – and the grocery shop – to London soon after her husband’s death. In the Census of England and Wales taken in 1861, Hannah Edis and her family were living at 220 Fetter Lane in the City of London. Hannah’s profession was given as grocer, while the four children, including the eldest, 11-year-old Elizabeth, were all listed as scholars (schoolchildren).

By the time the next Census of England and Wales was taken, in April 1871, the Edis family was still living in Fetter Lane, but at number 143, not at number 220. Hannah Edis was still a grocer, while Agnes, now aged 19, was a (private) governess; 17-year-old George was a commercial clerk and 14-year-old Carrie was still a scholar. Elizabeth, the eldest child, was no longer a resident in the Edis household. At some point in the years intervening between the census of 1861 and that of 1871, she had met Josiah Ritchie and become engaged to him.

Elizabeth Edis and Josiah Ritchie were married on 1 January 1870, in Saint John the Evangelist Church in Drury Lane, Westminster. The witnesses were Thomas Edis, Agnes Edis and George Ritchie. By the time of the marriage Josiah Ritchie’s profession was being given as manufacturing dentist. At this point in time he was working and/or living in Saint Anne’s parish in the Soho area of London, also located within Westminster.

Major Ritchie was born almost exactly nine-and-a-half months after his parents’ wedding. Although his mother was only twenty-two years old (nine years younger than her husband) at the time of his birth, Major would be their only child. Despite some later confusion, the boy had really been christened Major. His second name, Josiah, came from his father, while Major’s third name, George, came from his paternal grandfather.

Major Ritchie was sent off to be privately educated when still very young, probably at the age of seven or eight. When the Census of England and Wales was taken in 1881, the nine-year-old Major was a boarder at Laburnum House in Broadstairs, Kent. This establishment was run by one William Oak and his wife, Hannah. In the census return Mr Oak describes himself and his wife as schoolmasters. Another boarder in the house was one Maria Whittaker, a French governess. Four other boys of a similar age to Major Ritchie were also boarding with the Oaks at that point in time.

According to Ayres’ Lawn Tennis Almanack (1928), Major Ritchie learned the basics of lawn tennis between the ages of ten and fourteen, in the grounds of the family home, The Cedars, in Putney, a suburb located in south-west London, not far from Wimbledon. Major Ritchie stopped playing lawn tennis around the age of fifteen and did not start to play again until he was nearly twenty-five. At the same time he joined two lawn tennis clubs – the Norwood Club in Croydon, south London, and the Chiswick Park Lawn Tennis Club in Chiswick, west London.

By the time the decennial Census of England and Wales was taken on 5 April 1891, Major Ritchie and his parents, together with a number of servants, were living in a new residence, The Grange, in Upper Norwood, Croydon. The same census listed Josiah Ritchie, then aged 50, as a dental surgeon. No profession was given for the 19-year-old Major.

One of Ritchie’s first appearances in the final of the men’s singles event at an important tournament came in July 1897 at the London Championships, held on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club in London. At this particular tournament Ritchie met another up-and-coming English player, namely Lawrence (“Laurie”) Doherty, against whom Ritchie lost rather easily, by the score of 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

Almost two years later, in April 1899, Ritchie won his first singles title of real significance, at the French Covered Court Championships, held each Easter on the wooden courts of the Tennis Club de Paris in the suburb of Auteuil. In the final of this tournament Ritchie beat the talented Frenchman Paul Aymé, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. At that time Ritchie was already 28 years old, a late bloomer in sporting terms. However, he did not really start to take part in tournaments regularly until the late 1890s.

In subsequent years Ritchie would patronize not only the main tournaments held in the British Isles, but also many of the nascent lawn tennis tournaments held on the Continent, and enjoy some of his greatest successes while doing so. He would notably win the men’s singles title at the International German Championships five times (1903-06 and 1908) and at the International Austrian Championships, also five times (1900-03 and 1905). He would also enjoy success at the clay court tournaments held on the French Riviera early in the lawn tennis season.

When the next Census of England and Wales was taken, on 31 March 1901, the 30-year-old Major Ritchie was still living with his parents, Josiah and Elizabeth, at The Grange in Croydon. Once again, no profession was listed for Major, although by that time his father had become managing director of the Royal Aquarium in Westminster, London, a short-lived establishment located close to Westminster Abbey.

One year later, in 1902, Ritchie enjoyed his greatest successes on the lawn tennis court to date. These included a first appearance in the penultimate round of the men’s singles event at the Wimbledon tournament. In late June 1902, Ritchie won four matches to reach the all-comers’ final in that event. In those days, in fact up until 1922, the defending champion in the men’s singles, women’s singles and men’s doubles events did not have to play through the tournament, but was able to “sit out” and see whom they would face in the challenge round.

In 1902, Ritchie’s opponent in the all-comers’ final at Wimbledon was a familiar face, namely Laurie Doherty, who by then was really coming into his own as a singles player. Doherty beat Ritchie in straight sets, 8-6, 6-3, 7-5, before going on to win the men’s singles title for the first of five consecutive years.

The following year, 1903, Major Ritchie once again reached the all-comer’s final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon. This time his opponent was Frank Riseley, a native of Bristol. Riseley defeated Ritchie in four sets, 1-6, 6-3, 8-6, 13-11 before going on to lose to Laurie Doherty in the challenge round.

One year later, in 1904, Ritchie reached the all-comer’s final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon for the third year in a row, an indication of just how well he was playing in those years. Once again he faced Frank Riseley and once again the younger man emerged the winner, this time by the very one-sided score of 6-0, 6-1, 6-2. In the challenge round Riseley lost again to Laurie Doherty.

Ritchie’s best performance in the men’s singles event at Wimbledon came five years later, in 1909, when, at the age of 38, he reached the challenge round for the first and only time. He won seven matches to reach that stage and in the all-comer’s final beat his compatriot Herbert Roper Barrett in four sets, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

The challenge round pitted Ritchie against Arthur Wentworth Gore, one of the most doggedly persistent players in the history of lawn tennis. After winning his first Wimbledon singles title in 1901, at the age of 33, Gore had won his second seven years later in 1908, at the age of 40, easily making him the oldest player to win the title in question. In 1909, the combined age of the two antagonists in the challenge round was thus 79!

For just over two sets, a victory by Major Ritchie looked very likely. He won the first set, 8-6, and the second easily, 6-1. However, after the beginning of the third set the whole atmosphere of the match changed and, slowly but surely, the indefatigable Gore began to take control, winning the last three sets, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

Ritchie was not only an excellent singles player, but also excelled at doubles. In 1908, he had won the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon for the first time, in partnership with the New Zealander Tony Wilding. They won five matches to reach the all-comers’ final where they defeated Arthur Gore and Herbert Roper Barrett, 6-1 6-2, 1-6, 9-7. (Wilding had won the same title in 1907 with the Australian Norman Brookes, but Brookes did not compete at Wimbledon in 1908.)

Tony Wilding did not compete at Wimbledon in 1909, but one year late he was back and, in addition to winning the men’s singles title for the first time, teamed up with Ritchie in the men’s doubles event again. They won four matches to reach the all-comers’ final where they met and beat Kenneth Powell, who was English, and Robert B. Powell, who was from Canada, 9-7, 6-0, 6-4. The challenge round match was a repeat of the one of 1908, with Ritchie and Wilding taking on Arthur Gore and Herbert Roper Barrett. Ritchie and Wilding were in superb form and easily won the championship match by the score of 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.

In addition to his successes at annual lawn tennis tournaments, Major Ritchie also became a multiple Olympic champion at the sport. In 1908, the Olympic Games were held in London, with the indoor lawn tennis events being held on wood at the Queen’s Club in early May, and the outdoor events being held on grass at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon in early July.

In the men’s singles event at the indoor lawn tennis events Ritchie lost a five-set match to Arthur Gore, but won the bronze medal by default when the Australian-born player Wilberforce Eaves defaulted their match. At the outdoor lawn tennis events at Wimbledon, Ritchie won the gold medal in the men’s singles event, defeating the German Otto Froitzheim in the final match, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. In the men’s doubles event Ritchie took the silver along with the Irishman James Parke. They were beaten in the final match by Reggie Doherty (elder brother of Laurie) and another Englishman, George Hillyard. The final score was 9-7, 7-5, 9-7.

On 18 October 1909, at All Saints’ Church in Hove, Major Ritchie had married Ethel Wolfe Slattery, who was born in Brighton on 30 December 1886, to an Irish-born father and an American-born mother. They would have one child together, a boy called Richard Josiah Ritchie, who was born on 22 April 1910 in Nice, France. Like his father, Richard would go on to become an accomplished lawn tennis player, although he would never be as good a player as his father.

In addition to lawn tennis, Major Ritchie was also active in other sports. In 1903, he competed in a regatta in Laleham, a village located along the River Thames, to the west of London, and won the single sculls and coxless pairs events. He also competed in table tennis tournaments and at one point was the secretary of the Table Tennis Association, which was originally called the Ping Pong Association. In 1902, together with Walter Harrison, Ritchie co-authored a book on table tennis entitled Table Tennis and How to Play It. In 1909, Ritchie’s book The Textbook of Lawn Tennis was published by Ewart, Seymour & Co., Ltd., of Kingsway in London.

In the years leading up to World War One, Ritchie continued to enjoy a good deal of success at lawn tennis tournaments, especially those held in his native England, though his best playing days were behind him. In early April 1914, at the age of 43, he notably won the men’s singles title at the Covered Court Championships tournament held at the Queen’s Club in London, defeating his compatriot Percival Davson, the holder, in the challenge round, 8-6, 6-3, 6-1. Ritchie had also won the same title at the same tournament in 1909.

When lawn tennis tournaments resumed after the end of the war, Major Ritchie and Percival Davson met again in the challenge round of men’s singles event at the Covered Court Championships at the Queen’s Club in early April 1919. This time Davson beat Ritchie, the holder, in straight sets, 6-2 6-3 8-6. The runner-up was 48 years old at that point in time and continued to play a busy schedule of tournaments well on into the 1920s.

In July of 1921, at the age of 50 Ritchie won the men’s singles title at the Welsh Championships tournament in Newport. In the final he beat the Welshman Montagu Nigel-Jones, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2, 2-6 6-3. One of Ritchie’s last wins in the men’s singles event came in early July 1927, at the tournament held in the town of Epsom, where he beat his fellow Englishman Humphrey Milford in the final, 6-4, 6-2. The winner was 55 years old, the runner-up 50.

When the Register of England and Wales was taken on 29 September 1939, 68-year-old Major Ritchie was living in a house in the town of Staines-upon-Thames in northwest Surrey. According to the register in question, his occupation was “Event organiser (retired)”. His widowed mother, Elizabeth, then aged 89, was also living in the same house. Josiah Ritchie, Major’s father had died in 1919 at the age of 79. Elizabeth Ritchie would die in 1942 at the age of 93.

Ethel Ritchie, Major’s wife, was not present in the house in Staines when the Register of England and Wales was taken in September 1939. She would die in London in 1970 at the age of 83. Like both of his parents, Major Ritchie lived a long life, dying in Surrey on 28 February 1955 at the age of 84. The following tributes to him were published in Lawn Tennis and Badminton on 15 March 1955:

The late M.J.G. Ritchie

[Unsigned]

“We record with much regret the passing on February 28 of Mr Major Josiah George Ritchie in his 85th year. For many years in the early part of the century he had been one of the best known and most successful tournament players in this country, and in more recent times he was a familiar figure at the Queen’s Club, playing almost daily on the club courts or in the role of critical spectator at some of the season’s big events. His son Richard J. Ritchie acts as secretary of the club.

“From about 1900 until the first World-War there was probably no more successful a tournament player or prolific winner on European courts than ‘M.J.G.’. His biography in those days occupied over a page in Ayres’ Almanack and he won practically every honour in the game, save the [Wimbledon] Championship itself. Beaten three times in the final of the All-Comers’ singles at Wimbledon, he reached the challenge round once (over Herbert Roper Barrett) in 1909, then losing to Arthur W. Gore. He was doubles champion in the years 1908 and 1909 [1910] with Anthony Wilding.

“Ritchie’s record would naturally have been even more distinguished if his peak form had not coincided with the reign of the immortal Doherty brothers, but he had his successes too over these idols of Wimbledon. He brought about the first defeat for over three years of Laurie Doherty in the London Covered Court Championship of 1903, and he did it again in Monte Carlo in 1907.

“Ritchie represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup in 1908, and after the European war he won the All England veterans’ title at Eastbourne, and on his fiftieth birthday achieved the remarkable feat of reaching the semi-final of the world’s covered court championship at the Queen’s Club in 1920.

“No player, save perhaps Jean Borotra a generation later, was more familiar with conditions on the east covered court at Queen’s than Ritchie, whose usual practice it was to request a full panel of linesmen for his key matches. He used to assert and with every justification: ‘I play for the line itself, and in indoor conditions it is not possible for the chair umpire to see me hitting the line consistently!’

“Ritchie’s ball control was phenomenal and he possessed such an attacking forehand that he seldom had to visit the net. The embodiment of physical fitness, he never played a really bad match and was therefore unusually immune from defeat except by the player of real champion class.”
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A Great Player and Sportsman

Mr Stanley Doust contributes the following appreciation:

“The passing of M.J.G. (‘Major’ to his friends) Ritchie will be a sad blow to players and spectators of his generation. I was one generation younger than he, nevertheless when I became a regular tournament player in this country we seemed to be doomed to meet each other either in the finals or semi-finals of the singles. Needless to say that Major generally beat me, but once or twice I had the luck of the game and managed to beat him.

“It was those isolated wins of mine that led to my admiration of him as an opponent. Admittedly Ritchie loved to win. At the end of a close match, when he had won the last stroke his face would wreath in smiles, and he and his defeated opponent would retire for some liquid refreshment.

“But I found Ritchie just as good a loser as a winner. Talking over our matches, he always praised my good points and if I had won he would give me a nudge in my midriff and say, ‘Wait till the next time’; and usually that ‘next time’ ended in his favour.

“Playing against each other so often, both in British and Continental tournaments, drew us together as friends. We both liked each other for a doubles partner. His returns of the service were so accurate that one never had any doubts on that score. My returns were erratic (always were) and if he ever felt peevish with me he never let me know, but would plod along with returning the best services and quietly wait until I could support him.

“Ritchie seldom gave up trying. He used to say, ‘We must win the last shot. That is all that matters.’ I remember one rubber in the London-Paris match in which we played together, the Paris pair led by two sets to one, 5-4 and 40-15 in the fourth set with Frenchmen serving. Ritchie made an outright winner off the next return, I managed to win mine and the score was deuce. Again Ritchie scored another brilliant return and the French muffled my return and the score was 5 games-all. Believe it or not, he and I won the match without losing another game. How well I remember Major’s delight.

“I found Ritchie’s lobbing his most potent shot. In my early days I used to ‘live’ at the net, but when I came up against Ritchie, his depth of lob was so accurate that I was forced to play the return from the ground. Seldom did he put up a short lob.

“He was a great tactician. His footwork was not considered first class, but his sense of anticipation was so good that he was seldom beaten by an outright return or by a lightning service. His victories over Laurie Doherty in 1903 and against Beals Wright in the Davis Cup a few years later are proof of Major being a very great player. He certainly was a good sportsman and nobody will regret his passing more than I.”
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