player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameJohn Fortescue
LastnameFoulkes
GenderMale
CountryCanada
Date of birth1872-07-10
Place of birthMaylebone, Greater London, England
Date of death1948-06-22
Place of deathHayling Island, Hampshire, England

About

Adapted from Wikipedia, at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._Foulkes

John Fortescue Foulkes was born in July 1872 in Middlesex, England, the second of the six children born to Reverend Augustine Lemprière Foulkes and Francesca Forster (née Godfrey). His father, who had been a cricket player, was a graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford, and later Vicar of Steventon. John had three brothers: Godfrey, Louis Augustine and Leonard; and two sisters: Francesca and Catherine. Godfrey Foulkes was also a lawn tennis player.

John Foulkes moved to Canada as a teenager in 1891, and quickly began winning tournaments. A member of the Victoria Lawn Tennis Club in British Columbia, Foulkes notably won the men’s singles title at the International Canadian Championships in 1907, 1909, and 1910.

Representing Canada, Foulkes took part in the outdoor lawn tennis events at the Summer Olympics of 1908 in London. These events were held in early July at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Foulkes lost in the third round of the men’s singles event to the South African player John Richardson. In the men’s doubles event Foulkes and Robert Powell were beaten in the second round by the British pair of Walter Crawley and Kenneth Powell.

In 1913, Canada entered the Davis Cup competition for the first time with a team composed of Foulkes, Bernard Schwengers, Robert Powell and Henry Mayes. In the quarter-finals, played in late June at the Queen’s Club in London, Canada beat South Africa by 4 rubbers to 1. In the semi-finals, played at the Pleasure Gardens in Folkestone in the second week of July, Canada defeated Belgium by 4 rubbers to 0 (the fourth singles rubber was not played).

The all-comers’ final was played at Wimbledon in late July and pitted Canada against the USA. The Americans won the first two singles rubbers and the doubles on the second day to give themselves an unassailable lead; the remaining two singles rubbers were not played. In the three rounds that Canada played in the Davis Cup in 1913, Powell and Schwengers were chosen for the singles and also as the doubles team. Neither Foulkes nor Mayes was chosen for any of the rubbers.

Foulkes had 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. During World War One, he served in the 4th Canadian Division in the Canadian Service Corps. He was awarded the Order of Agricultural Merit by France, and was mentioned in despatches three times in 1917 and 1918. In the 1919 New Year Honours List, issued following the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Foulkes was later elected to the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was also elected to USTA Pacific Northwest Tennis Hall of Fame because of his successes at tournaments such as the British Columbia Championships, the Pacific Northwest Championships and the Washington State Championships, where he won the men’s singles title several times.

On 2 May 1899, John F. Foulkes married an American, Margaret May Thomas (1879-1967), in Washington State. They had two children together: a son called Fortescue Lemprière and a daughter called Francesca May. John F. Foulkes died in Hampshire, England, in June 1948 at the age of 75.

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