player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameArthur William Charles (Wentworth)
LastnameGore
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1868-01-02
Place of birthLyndhurst, England
Date of death1928-12-01
Place of deathKensington, England

About

A Biographical Sketch of Arthur Wentworth Gore

By Mark Ryan

Arthur William Charles Wentworth Gore was born on 2 January 1868 at The Orchards, the family home in Lyndhurst, Hampshire. He was the fourth of the five children – four sons and one daughter – of Augustus Frederick Wentworth Gore (1835-1919), a career soldier in the British Army who had been born in Paris, and Emily Anne Gore (née Curzon; 1842-1917), who was a Londoner by birth.

There were distinguished relatives on both sides of the family. Augustus Gore was the son of Lieutenant Charles Arthur Gore and the novelist Catherine Grace Gore (née Moody). Emily Curzon was the daughter of the Honourable Edward Cecil Curzon, a solicitor from the well-known family of that name, and Amelia Sophia Charlotte Curzon (née Daniell). Augustus Gore and Emily Curzon were married on 19 September 1861 in Saint Mary Abbotts Church, Kensington, London.

Arthur W. Gore’s siblings were Charles Cecil Howard Wentworth Gore (1862-1929), Catherine Frances Gore (1864-70), Frederick Wentworth Gore (1865-1952) and Francis Southwell Cecil Gore (1879-1917). The first four of the Gore children were born in England, but the youngest, Francis, was born in the French coastal resort of Dinard in Britanny in 1879. Catherine Gore died of scarlet fever in 1870 at the age of six.

The Gore family had moved to Dinard in the mid-1870s, and it was there that Arthur W. Gore received his early education, in both the traditional and the lawn tennis sense. At that time the relatively new sport of lawn tennis was being popularized in towns along the French coast by British holidaymakers, and the young Arthur first began to learn the game on the clay, or clay-like, courts in Dinard.

The Lawn Tennis Club de Dinard, the oldest lawn tennis club in France, was founded in 1879. In the mid- to late 1880s, it would become the venue for one of the main early outdoor tournaments held on French soil. Arthur W. Gore would win the men’s singles title at this tournament in 1889, 1891, 1892, and, for a fourth and last time, in 1898.

Gore did not have much formal education after the age of fifteen. Instead, beginning in 1884, when he returned to London from Dinard, he began an apprenticeship in the wine and spirit trade. Later on he would have a good deal of success as a wine and spirit merchant. Although he won some minor lawn tennis tournaments in his youth, his first notable successes at the sport came in 1888, the year he turned twenty. In that particular year he won the men’s singles title at the tournaments held in Stevenage and Hitchin in Hertfordshire.

The year 1888 also marked the first time that Gore took part in the Wimbledon tournament. Following this first appearance in the men’s singles event at Wimbledon, he would take part in the same event every year thereafter up until 1914, with one exception, that being the year 1895. Although he appears to have sent in his name in that particular year – he received a ‘bye’ in the first round and was due to take on his compatriot Wilfred Baddeley in the second round – Gore did not, in fact, take part in the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1895.

He won his first singles match in the main draw at Wimbledon on his fourth attempt, in 1891, when he beat another Englishman, James Baldwin, in four sets, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. Gore then lost his next match, which was a quarter-final, to the Irishman Harold Mahony, 6-4, 8-6, 6-3. It was not until 1898, at his tenth attempt, that Gore reached the semi-finals of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon for the first time. His opponent at that stage was once again Harold Mahony, and once again the Irishman, Wimbledon singles champion in 1896, beat Gore, this time in five sets, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

In 1899, Gore reached the challenge round in the men’s singles event at Wimbledon for the first time, beating, along the way, Harold Mahony, in the semi-finals, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1, and, in the all-comers’ final, his fellow Englishman Sidney Smith, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. In the challenge round the defending champion, Reginald ‘Reggie’ Doherty, another Englishman, proved too strong for Gore who, nevertheless, managed to win the first two sets. The final score was 1-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3

In 1900, Gore had another excellent lawn tennis season, highlighted by three victories over the up-and-coming Lawrence ‘Laurie’ Doherty, younger brother of Reggie. Gore had the first of these victories at the Irish Championships, then a prestigious tournament usually attracting the top British players and held in late May in Fitzwilliam Square, near the centre of Dublin. In the all-comers’ final in Dublin, Gore beat Laurie Doherty, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. However, in the challenge round Reggie Doherty, the defending champion, proved too strong, although Gore once again pushed him to five sets before losing, 6-4, 7-5, 7-9, 7-9, 6-3.

In mid-June 1900, Gore beat Laurie Doherty for the second time, in the all-comers’ final at the Kent Championships, another of the top tournaments, held in Beckenham in the run-up to Wimbledon. This time the score was 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. In the challenge round, Gore beat Harold Mahony, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to take the men’s singles title for the first time.

A few weeks later, in early July at Wimbledon, Gore beat Laurie Doherty for the third time, in the semi-finals, the score being 4-6, 8-6, 8-6, 6-1. However, Sidney Smith was too strong for Gore in the all-comers’ final, and won, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Later on in the lawn tennis season of 1900, Gore was one of three players chosen to represent the British Isles in what was effectively the first edition of the Davis Cup, but was then known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge. The other members of the British team were Edmund D. Black and Herbert Roper-Barrett. (The Doherty brothers did not want to make the trip abroad). The tie was held from 10-12 August, on the grass courts of the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston. The Americans were represented by Dwight Davis (donor of the cup), Malcolm Whitman and Holcombe Ward.

In the first of the singles Davis beat Black in four sets, while Whitman easily beat Gore in the second singles, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. Davis and Ward then easily beat Black and Roper-Barrett to give the United States an unassailable 3-0 lead, the format being four singles separated by one doubles match. The British team was very unhappy about the condition of the courts at Longwood and the balls provided, but were powerless to prevent their defeat.

Soon after the end of the Davis Cup tie, Gore took part in the United States Championships tournament. In those days the men’s singles event was held on the courts of the Casino in Newport, Rhode Island, in mid to late August. In 1900, Gore won three matches to reach the semi-finals in Newport, where he met George Wrenn, brother of Robert Wrenn, who had won the men’s singles title at the U.S. Championships four times in the mid to late 1890’s. Although George was the lesser player of the two brothers, he beat Gore in the semi-finals in Newport in 1900, though only after a five-set battle, 9-7, 1-6, 0-6, 6-2, 6-2.

In 1901, Gore enjoyed his most successful season of lawn tennis so far, in the sense that he won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon for the first time, at his thirteenth attempt and aged 33. Although Gore had lost twice to Laurie Doherty earlier in the season (after beating him three times in 1900), the younger Doherty was upset in the third round at Wimbledon by another Englishman, George Hillyard. Gore then beat Hillyard in five sets in the quarter-finals, 6-1, 2-6, 4-6, 8-6, 6-2.

In the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1901, Gore beat Herbert Roper-Barrett, 8-6 6-1 7-5, and in the all-comers’ final, another Englishman, Charles Dixon, 6-4 6-0 6-3. Gore’s opponent in the challenge round was Reggie Doherty, who had won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon in the previous four years and in recent years had been virtually invincible in singles and, with his younger brother, in doubles.

However, by 1901, Reggie Doherty’s health, never robust, had declined significantly, and several people in his circle advised him not to defend his Wimbledon singles crown. But he took to the court nevertheless and managed to build a 6-4, 5-2 lead before his energy began to dissipate. Gore made up the deficit in the second set, eventually winning it 7-5, and the next two as well, for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Although Reggie Doherty had not been at the top of his form, it would be wrong to say that Arthur W. Gore did not deserve his victory because few, if any, players had tried harder and for longer to win the most prestigious title in lawn tennis. What type of player was he? According to an unsigned obituary published in The Times newspaper after his death:

“[…] it is his peculiar distinction that his most famous victories were surprises. Perhaps they were not surprises to himself, for the more there was at stake, the more confidently he played – as is suggested by his poise, as he hit at the ball, that he had got it and his opponent just where he would have them. There could be no doubt that he liked the battle, and that was an advantage to him at a pinch.”

Referring to his forehand, The Times obituary writer called Gore a ‘one-stroke player’: “A horizontal drive, that met the ball the top of the bound and with the freest of sweeps. It seemed to be done with a flat racket, and that made the combination of accuracy with pace the more amazing. And the ball was travelling at its fastest after pitching. He never temporized when he had an opportunity for that stroke; if his hard one came back he hit the next harder still – realizing, like the fighter he was, that if he could not win with his forehand stroke, he could not win with any other.

“But besides the forehand he had court craft. Resolute as he was in hitting out with his forehand, he was quite as resolute in playing for safety when not allowed to bring it into action. His backhand drive was the least imposing of strokes, and he made his cross his crutch. It was much surer than it seemed to be, and it lured the enemy into attacking it before the ground had been prepared. […] Gore volleyed little and without aptitude – but, when drawn up, resolution and coolness often provided another disappointment for the enemy. Well as he played lawn tennis, it was not his business in life. It was his pleasure…”

Gore’s victory in the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1901 was also the second occasion when he had won one of the national titles of the British Isles. In 1892, he had taken the singles title at the Scottish Championships, beating a Scotsman, Richard M. Watson, in the final match, 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4. Gore successfully defended this title in 1893. In the latter year he was also appointed Scottish representative on the British Lawn Tennis Association Council. He would for many years play an important role in the administrative side of the sport.

On 2 October 1893, in Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, London, the 25-year-old Gore had married Minnie Jane Alexander (1865-1952). A Londoner by birth, she was the daughter of Francis Rutledge Alexander, an accountant, and Clara Jane Holloway Alexander (née Mitchell). Both of Minnie’s parents were also from London. The marriage between Arthur W. Gore and Minnie Alexander produced no children.

When the decennial Census of England and Wales was taken on 31 March 1901, Arthur and Minnie Gore were living at Barton Court, Chelsea, London. The census return lists Gore’s occupation as “Wine agent”. By that time he was well established in the wine and spirit trade together with his business partner Pelham Brown. Together, they ran Brown, Gore & Co., Wine & Spirit Merchants and Shippers from offices in a building located close to the Tower of London.

However, in 1901 Pelham Brown began to suffer from poor health. He retired from the business in 1902 and died in 1906 at the age of 41. As a tribute to him his name was kept in the title of the company, which continued to prosper over the years thanks to several successful partnerships. As his obituary from The Times indicates, Arthur W. Gore only played lawn tennis for pleasure, when he was able to take time off from his real job running his business.

In 1902, Gore returned to Wimbledon in late June to defend his singles title. Because he was the defending champion, he did not have to play through, but instead “stood out” to see whom he would face in the challenge round once the all-comers’ event had been completed. In 1902, Laurie Doherty proved to be the challenger. At age 26, the youngest of the Doherty brothers had been enjoying an unbeaten season in singles – indeed, after 1901, he rarely lost a singles match to anyone anywhere – and duly won his first Wimbledon singles title by beating Gore in four sets, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

Four more years would pass before Gore again went at least as far as the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon. This was in 1906, when he won five matches to reach that stage for the fifth time in his career. In the semi-finals he beat Anthony Wilding, the up-and-coming New Zealander, 9-7, 6-1, 8-6. In the all-comers’ final Gore’s opponent was his compatriot Frank Riseley, who was perhaps better at doubles than at singles. In 1906, Riseley nevertheless beat Gore at Wimbledon by the one-sided score of 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

One year later, in 1907, Gore reached the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon for the sixth time. This time his opponent was the redoubtable Australian Norman Brookes, who was bidding to become the first overseas player to win the men’s singles title. Brookes was in excellent form at Wimbledon in 1907 and easily beat the 39-year-old Gore, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. (Because Laurie Doherty, the holder, was not defending the men’s singles title, this win effectively made Brookes Wimbledon singles champion.)

In 1908, Gore returned to Wimbledon for a twentieth attempt at the men’s singles title. Although now forty years of age, he had been enjoying an excellent season, having for the second time won the singles title at the British Covered Championships, held on the wooden courts at the Queen’s Club in London in early May. In the challenge round at the Queen’s Club, Gore beat Tony Wilding, the holder, 4-6, 8-6, 6-0, 8-6. (In 1900, Gore had won the men’s singles title at this tournament for the first time, an indication of his skill across all surfaces.)

A week or so later, Gore took part in the indoor lawn tennis events forming part of that year’s London Olympic Games. The indoor lawn tennis events were also held on the wooden courts of the Queen’s Club, from 6 to 11 May 1908, but received a very poor entry. Although Gore won the gold medal in the singles event, he had to play only two matches, defeating his compatriot Major Ritchie at the semi-final stage, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, and, in the final, another Englishman, George Caridia, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

Together with Herbert Roper-Barrett, Gore also won the gold medal in the men’s indoor doubles event at the 1908 Olympic Games. In the final they beat Caridia and another Englishman, George Simond, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In early June 1908, in the run-up to Wimbledon, Gore won the men’s singles title at the Northern Championships tournament, held that year in Liverpool. In the final Gore beat the best Irish lawn tennis player of that era, James Cecil Parke, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-8, 6-4.

As already stated, Gore was forty years of age at the time of the 1908 Wimbledon tournament, held that year in late June-early July. However, his competitive powers were by no means diminished, and he won five matches on his way to the all-comers’ final, where his opponent was Herbert Roper-Barrett, who was aged 34. After winning the first two sets Gore dropped the next two before recovering to win the fifth and the match, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4. Because Norman Brookes, the holder, was not defending, this effectively made Gore the Wimbledon men’s singles champion for the second time. At forty years of age, he was the oldest winner of a singles title at Wimbledon.

One year later, in 1909, Gore returned to Wimbledon in early July to defend his singles title. As in 1902, he was able to “stand out” as the defending champion until the winner of the all-comers’ event came through to face him (the challenge round was not abolished at Wimbledon until 1922).

In 1909, Gore’s opponent in the challenge round at Wimbledon was Major Ritchie (Major was this player’s real first name; he had not been in the army). Like the 41-year-old Gore, Ritchie, aged 39, was also a veteran. The latter won the first two sets and appeared to be on his way to victory when the indefatigable Gore took the third and then the fourth and fifth sets to win what had earlier looked like an improbable victory, 6-8, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

At 41, Gore extended by one year his record as the oldest winner of the men’s singles title at Wimbledon. This record still stands. Although Gore attempted to defend his Wimbledon singles title one year later, in 1910, he lost in the challenge round to the now fully mature player that was Tony Wilding, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Gore made a sixth and last appearance in the challenge round of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1912, when he lost to Wilding again, this time by the score of 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. By that time Gore was 44 years of age, while Wilding was 27. No older player has ever reached the final round of a singles event at Wimbledon.

In 1909, Arthur W. Gore had won also the doubles title at Wimbledon with Herbert Roper-Barrett, when they beat the Australian Stanley Doust and the New Zealand-born Harry Parker in the all-comers’ final, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. The holders, Major Ritchie and Tony Wilding, were not defending in 1909; one year earlier they had beaten Gore and Roper-Barrett at the same stage to become champions. In 1910, Ritchie and Wilding beat Gore and Roper-Barrett 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in the challenge round of the same event.

Despite their comparatively advanced ages, Gore and Roper-Barrett were an effective team. Some observers consider their greatest victory to be the one they achieved in the challenge round of the 1907 Davis Cup competition. Although the British Isles were the defending champions that year, neither of the Doherty brothers was taking part for the first time in several years, and the Australasian team of Norman Brookes and Tony Wilding, which came through to the challenge round to face Gore and Roper-Barrett, were considered the favourites.

The challenge round of the 1907 Davis Cup competition took place at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon in late July, soon after the end of The Championships tournament. In the first singles match Brookes easily defeated Gore, 7-5, 6-1, 7-5, while Wilding defeated Roper-Barrett in four sets in the second singles match to give Australasia a strong 2-0 lead after the first day.

In the doubles Gore and Roper-Barrett took on Brookes and Wilding and, after losing the first two sets, found themselves match point down in the third set before the British pair staged a tremendous recovery, eventually winning 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 13-11. On the third and final day, in the reverse singles, Gore beat Wilding, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2. However, Brookes thrashed Roper-Barrett for the loss of only five games to give Australasia the trophy for the first time, by a margin of 3-2.

Arthur W. Gore and Herbert Roper Barrett made an excellent combination, but Gore enjoyed success in the men’s doubles event at tournament with several other players throughout his long career. He also took part in the mixed doubles event regularly, notably with his compatriot Constance (Connie) Wilson. Together, they won the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon in 1905, when the event did not yet have official championship status. In the final they beat Tony Wilding and the Englishwoman Ethel Thomson, 8-6 6-4.

Throughout the years Gore also regularly turned out to play in the London vs Paris matches, held early in the year and pitting British against French players, and as a member of the All England Lawn Tennis Club and Middlesex against other clubs and teams.

In 1912, Gore travelled to Stockholm to take part in the indoor lawn tennis events, held in early May as part of the Olympic Games. In the men’s singles event he lost in the second round to George Caridia, while in the men’s doubles event he and Herbert Roper Barrett were defeated by their compatriots Alfred Beamish and Charles Dixon in the playoff for the bronze medal.

Arthur W. Gore continued to take part in lawn tennis tournaments up until World War One, though not with as much success as he had enjoyed in previous years. Two tournaments at which he did enjoy success in those years, and in the years just after the war, were the Leicester Open Championship, held in Leicestershire, and the Nottingham Open in Nottinghamshire. Both of these tournaments were held in the early summer.

When war broke out in the late summer of 1914, Gore was 46 years old. He volunteered for the Territorial Army and, over the next four years, also helped raise money for the armed forces through charitable work. A number of lawn tennis matches were also played to this end, but in Great Britain virtually all sporting competition ceased until after the end of the war. In fact, lawn tennis tournaments did not resume in Great Britain until Monday, 7 April 1919, when the Covered Court Championships began at the Queen’s Club in London.

Arthur W. Gore took part in lawn tennis tournaments intermittently after the war (he turned 51 in January 1919). The last time he won a singles title was in June 1921, when, at the age of 53, he defeated a W. Radcliffe in the final of the fledgling tournament held in Formby, Lancashire. Gore continued to take part in the Wimbledon tournament until 1927, although he restricted his participation to the men’s doubles event after 1923, the year in which he was forced to miss the tournament as he was travelling abroad.

In 1922, the All England Lawn Tennis Club had moved from its original location of Worple Road in Wimbledon to Church Road. This move had partially been necessitated by the increasing number of visitors to the tournament each year and the inadequacy of the original facilities. Gore remained a member of the committee of British Lawn Tennis Association until December 1922, when he was voted off (he had been vice president for several years and a group of reformers considered that he and a number of other long-term members were holding back the progress of the sport in Great Britain).

In 1923, Gore spent seven months in the Far East, promoting his business and taking part in some exhibition lawn tennis matches. His wife, Minnie, accompanied him on this trip. In Singapore, Gore played some matches against the colony’s top players at the Singapore Cricket Club. He subsequently visited the Straits Settlements (including Penang, where he played matches against Lum Pao-Hua and Khoo Hooi-Hye, two of the top Chinese players), Hong Kong, Tientsin and Shanghai. The Gores returned to England in August 1923.

In July 1927, Gore took part in the Wimbledon tournament for the thirty-fourth and last time. He and Herbert Roper Barrett, aged 60 and 53, respectively, were beaten in four sets in the first round of the men’s doubles event by their compatriots, Francis Stowe and Ulysses Williams, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 12-10. Since 1888, the first year in which he had took part in the Wimbledon tournament, Gore had been present every year except 1895 and 1923 (the tournament was not held during the war years 1915-18).

Gore would very likely have returned to Wimbledon for a thirty-fifth time in 1928. However, in the late summer he became seriously ill with what was eventually diagnosed as actinomycosis of the lung, an infection whose symptoms included fever, weight loss and a persistent cough. Although penicillin would prove to be an effective treatment for the disease, it was difficult to treat it successfully in the late 1920s.

Normally a very active man, actinomycosis of the lung left Gore incapacitated and homebound for much of the remainder of his life. Although he rallied towards the end of 1927, his condition worsened in the early months of 1928. He lingered on until 1 December 1928, when he died in London at the age of 60.

A memorial service was held for Gore on 4 December 1928 in the Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, London. According to the British publication Lawn Tennis and Badminton of 8 December 1928: “... The Lawn Tennis Association, the All-England Club and many county associations were among those who sent wreaths. […] The chief mourners were Mrs A.W. [Minnie] Gore (widow), Mr Charles Gore and Mr Frederick Gore (brothers), Miss Eileen Gore and Mr Gerald Gore... Amongst others present at the service was Roderick McNair, Alfred Sterry, Dudley Larcombe, Theodore Mavrogordato, Arthur Wallis Myers (representing the International Club) and Harry Scrivener...”

Arthur W. Gore left nearly £43,500 (net) in his will. He was survived by his wife, Minnie, who died in Worthing, West Sussex, in February 1952 at the age of 87.
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