player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameSidney Howard
LastnameSmith
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1872-02-03
Place of birthStroud, Gloucestershire, England
Date of death1947-03-27
Place of deathStroud, Gloucestershire, England

About

Sidney Howard Smith was born on 3 February 1872 in the town of Stroud in Gloucestershire. He was the third of the six children – four sons and two daughters – of John James Smith, a native of the village of Branscombe in Gloucestershire, who worked in the coal industry in later life, and Emily Smith (née Biles), who was from Dorchester in Dorset.

In October 1905, in Stroud, Sidney H. Smith married Hilda Chapman (b. 1881), who was from Westoe in County Durham. They had two daughters together: Elizabeth Howard Smith (1907-75) and Hilda Katherine Smith (1911-76).

When the Census of England and Wales was taken in early April 1911, Sidney H. Smith was living in Beech Cottage in Stroud together with his wife and their younger daughter. Two servants and a children’s nurse were also present. The same census lists Sidney H. Smith’s occupation as being a ‘clerk to his father (in a coal factory)’. Twenty-eight years later, when the Register of England and Wales was taken on 29 September 1939, Sidney H. Smith was still living in Beech Cottage in Stroud. According to the register, his occupation was ‘coal factory company director’.

Sidney H. Smith died on 27 March 1947 in Stroud; he was 83. He left effects to the value of £86,714 in his will.
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The following piece is taken from the website of the All England Badminton Association:

“Sidney Howard Smith was a successful tennis and badminton player. As with many of the players at the turn of the nineteenth century, he played badminton in the winter and tennis in the summer, and excelled at both. He won the men’s singles title at the Badminton Association’s (restricted) Tournament in 1900, the first year that a singles event was included. The following year it became an open tournament, known as the All England Badminton Championships, and Sidney Smith is therefore regarded as the first winner of the men’s singles title at the All England Badminton Championships.

“After this success he stopped playing competitive badminton, but continued to have much success on the lawn tennis courts. Between 1902 and 1906, he and Frank Riseley played the Doherty brothers, Reggie and Laurie, in the final match of the men’s double event at Wimbledon, winning in 1902 and 1906, but losing on the other three occasions. In 1900, he had lost to Reggie Doherty, the holder, in the challenge round of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon. Smith was a member of the British Davis Cup team in 1905 and 1906.

“However, something that we have learned as a result of query from Gloucestershire archives is that he had to play in a leg iron. It is recorded that anything he lacked in getting to the ball was made up with the ferocity of his forehand which he played like a pile driver that was dubbed as the Smith Punch!

“This remarkable man’s name was recorded as that of the first winner of the men’s singles event at the All England Badminton Championships. Although in badminton there is less court to cover with a bad leg, it was at lawn tennis that he achieved much more success.”

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