player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameErnest Wool
LastnameLewis
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1867-04-05
Place of birthHammersmith, Middlesex, England
Date of death1930-04-19
Place of deathPlymouth, England

About

A Biographical Sketch of Ernest Wool Lewis

By Mark Ryan

Ernest Wool Lewis was born on 5 April 1867 in Hammersmith, London, England. He was the youngest of the three children – all sons – of John Henry Lewis (1834-1910) and Louisa Mary Lewis (née Leaver; 1841-1912). Both parents were also from London and were married on 25 October 1862 in Saint Mary’s Church in Acton. Ernest Lewis’s sibling were Herbert Arnold Henry (b. 1863) and Cecil Frank (1865-76). All three of the Lewis boys were baptised in Saint Peter’s Church in their native Hammersmith. Cecil, the middle son, did not survive childhood, dying in 1876 at the age of ten.

For at least the first 25 years of his life, Ernest Lewis lived in West King Street, in the heart of Hammersmith, a bustling area in west London. One of the main sporting influences on the young Ernest was his father, John, who himself took part in some lawn tennis tournaments, sometimes partnering the young Ernest in the men’s doubles event.

Ernest Lewis attended the Godolphin School in Hammersmith. It had been built in 1866, five years after his birth, as a boarding school for boys (in 1905, it became a day school for girls, and is now called the Godolphin and Latymer School). At the Godolphin School, Lewis played several sports, including bat-fives and rackets, gradually acquiring a great deal of proficiency at both sports. Both bat-fives and rackets are played indoors and both sports are similar to lawn tennis.

By the time Lewis entered the Godolphin School circa 1875, the annual fees totalled more than £10.00, a substantial sum at that time. The school uniform was a black coat and waistcoat and black striped trousers. All of the boys wore the school cap, which had a single dolphin above its peak. As well as more traditional subjects such as Latin, Ancient Greek and mathematics, it is likely that the school curriculum also included modern languages and natural science.

Natural science is usually divided into two main branches: life science, also known as biological science, and physical science, which includes chemistry and physics. Given the fact that he later chose to study medicine, Lewis must from an early age have been interested in, and shown an aptitude for, natural science, especially biology.

When still a child, Ernest Lewis was elected a member of the West Middlesex Lawn Tennis Club in Ealing, West London. One source states that the young Lewis was nicknamed ‘The Pocket Renshaw’ by the other members of the West Middlesex Lawn Tennis Club. This is a reference to William Renshaw who, with his twin brother Ernest, dominated lawn tennis for most of the 1880s and helped to transform it from just a popular pastime into a sport taken as seriously as other sports such as cricket and football.

In 1881, when the fourteen-year-old Lewis first began entering tournaments, lawn tennis was still in its infancy, the first Wimbledon tournament, consisting only of one open event, a men’s singles, having been held in July 1877. Like most young players, Lewis began by taking part in handicap events, where the less experienced player was given a scoring advantage over his or her opponent. Handicap events were very popular at British lawn tennis tournaments during the early decades of the sport.

One of Lewis’s first successes came in the handicap singles event at the Eastbourne lawn tennis tournament held at the end of the season, in Devonshire Park in that town on the south-east coast of England. (This particular tournament would for many years be called the South of England Championships.) In the final of the handicap event at Eastbourne in 1882, Lewis beat Donald Stewart, also a Londoner, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1

It is clear from the records that Lewis progressed rapidly, for in the following year, 1883, at the age of just sixteen years and two months, he reached the final of a non-handicap singles event for the first time. This was at the Leicester tournament, held in mid-June in the county of Leicestershire in the English Midlands. In the final Lewis lost to his more experienced compatriot Charles Grinstead, who was seven years his senior; the score was 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. At the same tournament Ernest Lewis and his father, John, were runners-up in the doubles event to Grinstead and Barrington Henry Barnes, who was also English.

By the end of the lawn tennis season in 1883, Ernest Lewis had won his first non-handicap singles event. He achieved this feat at the Bournemouth tournament, held at the beginning of September in that town in the southern English county of Hampshire. Lewis emerged the victor from amongst a field of twenty-five players, none of them among the best in the country. They included his father, John, whom he beat in the semi-final, 6-1, 6-4, and the rather obscure player José Ricardo Grylls d’Almeida, who was born in and would die in Singapore, but who appears to have had Portuguese ancestors. D’Almeida was Lewis’s opponent in the best-of-five-set final, which was not completed as D’Almeida retired with the score at 6-0, 6-0 in favour of Lewis.

Lewis’s game continued to improve in 1884 although it is noteworthy that he did not take part in many tournaments and, when he did so, mainly took part in the men’s doubles event. In this year he took part in the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships tournament, in Dublin, for the first time. At that point in time this tournament was the season-opening tournament in the British Isles. It took place in late May on six grass courts in Fitzwilliam Square, a Georgian garden square located close to the centre of the Irish capital.

First held in 1879, the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships began to attract the top Irish and English players from 1880 until circa 1902 and, for this reason, was considered to be almost on a par with the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships. In 1884, in his first attempt at the singles title in Dublin, Lewis lost easily in the first round to another Englishman Edward Williams, 6-0, 6-0, 6-2.

However, with the same player, Edward Williams, popularly known as ‘Teddy’, Lewis enjoyed some success in the men’s doubles event, not only in Dublin, but at other tournaments throughout the 1884 season. Their most notable achievement was reaching the final of the inaugural men’s doubles event at Wimbledon where they lost in the final to the all-conquering Renshaw twins, William and Ernest, 6-3, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. (Lewis did not take part in the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1884, leaving his debut in that particular event until the following year.)

The year 1885 can arguably be called Ernest Lewis’s breakthrough year in singles, for it was in this year that, while continuing to win the men’s singles title at some of the smaller tournaments, he also began to enjoy increasing success in the same event at some of the biggest tournaments by defeating a number of the top players. In this respect one of his most impressive feats was reaching the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event at the prestigious Northern Lawn Tennis Championships Lawn tournament, held in late June in alternate years, in either Liverpool or Manchester (the latter city hosted the tournament in 1885).

In Manchester, Lewis’s opponent in the all-comers’ final was the American James Dwight, one of the few players from outside the British Isles to take part in lawn tennis tournaments during the early years of the sport. In 1885, James Dwight, who was fifteen years older than Lewis, beat him, 8-6, 6-0, 6-4, in Manchester. (In the challenge round Dwight beat the holder, Donald Stewart, in straight sets.)

At Wimbledon in mid-July 1885, Lewis took part in the men’s singles event for the first time, but after receiving a ‘bye’ in the first round, lost in the second round to the Irishman Ernest Browne, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. In early September 1885, Lewis won the singles title at the Bournemouth tournament for the third year in a row. From a field of sixteen competitors, most of whom were not in his class as a player, Lewis emerged victorious after losing only nine games in nine sets, five of them in the best-of-five-set final, where he defeated his unheralded compatriot Aston Cooper-Key, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3.

In his last tournament of the 1885 season, the South of England Championships, held in Eastbourne in mid- September, Lewis underlined his status as one of the top lawn tennis players in the British Isles by winning the singles title for the first time. In a quality field, Lewis beat three fellow Englishmen in his last three matches: Henry Grove (popularly known as ‘Harry’), 1-6, 6-0, 6-0, 6-5; Charles Ross, 6-4, 1-6, 12-10, 2-6, 6-4; and William C. Taylor, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.

In his late teens Lewis joined the South Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, described in one source as a section of a citizen army made up of a part-time, rifle artillery and engineering corps, created in 1859 as a popular movement throughout the British Empire. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated within the British Army after 1881, before forming part of the Territorial Force in 1908. Lewis had already obtained a commission in the Royal Volunteer Force by his nineteenth birthday in April 1886, when his rank was that of lieutenant.

In 1886, Lewis would consolidate his successes of the previous year and further build on his reputation as one of the best lawn tennis players in the world by his consistent play at each of the tournaments in which he took part. It is noticeable that, despite his greatly improved game and his increasing confidence, he did not take part in a large number of tournaments in this year or subsequently. The main reason for this was more than likely due to his medical studies. Lewis turned nineteen in April of 1886 and by then was studying medicine at Saint George’s Hospital, then located close to Hyde Park Corner in London, while also attending classes at Thomas Cooke’s School of Anatomy and Physiology in Bloomsbury.

In 1886, Lewis made an impressive start to the lawn tennis season by winning the men’s singles event at the London Athletic Club tournament, held in mid-June at Stamford Bridge in Fulham, west London, very close to his native Hammersmith. In the semi-finals he beat his compatriot Ernest Meers, 8-6, 6-1; one round later, in the all-comers’ final, he defeated Harry Grove, 6-4, 10-8, 6-4; and in the challenge round he was victorious over Charles Ross, the holder, 7-5, 6-1, 6-3.

At Wimbledon in early July 1886, Lewis had the best results of his lawn tennis career so far when he reached the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event. In the four matches he won to reach that stage his most impressive victory by far came in the quarter-finals over Ernest Renshaw whom he beat after losing the first two sets, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0.
One round later, in the semi-finals, Lewis beat another Englishman, Herbert Wilberforce, again in five sets, 3-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. In the all-comers’ final, against the fearsome Herbert Lawford, a fellow Londoner, Lewis almost pulled off another remarkable five-set victory before eventually losing, 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4.

Later on in the lawn tennis season of 1886, Lewis retained the men’s singles title at both the Bournemouth tournament and the South of England Championships tournament in Eastbourne. In the former tournament he defeated the unidentified H.M. Nicholls in the challenge round, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2. At Eastbourne Lewis beat Herbert Wilberforce in the challenge round, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.

In 1887, establishing a pattern he would keep to in the coming years, Lewis began the lawn tennis season by taking part in the Covered Court Championships tournament, then usually held circa late April at the Hyde Park Lawn Tennis Club in London. Like his friend and sometime ‘rival’ Teddy Williams, Ernest Lewis excelled on the fast indoor wooden courts of the Hyde Park Club.

On his debut in the men’s singles event in the Covered Court Championships in 1887, Lewis won each of his four matches with great ease and in straight sets. Somewhat fittingly, his opponent in the challenge round was Teddy Williams, whom Lewis beat by the telling score of 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

In mid-June of 1887, in the run-up to Wimbledon, Lewis retained the men’s singles title at the London Athletic Club tournament in Stamford Bridge, where he beat Herbert Chipp in the challenge round, 6-1, 6-4, 6-0. In early July, at Wimbledon, Lewis won one singles match, against his compatriot Frederick Bowlby, before taking part in a quarter-final rematch with Ernest Renshaw, the player he had beaten at the same stage of the same tournament one year earlier. This time the outcome was very different, Ernest Renshaw winning in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.

In the second half of July 1887, Lewis won the singles title at the Middlesex Championships tournament for the first time. This popular tournament more often than not attracted a top-class entry. On his way to the singles title in 1887, Lewis notably beat fellow Londoner Harry Barlow in the semi-final, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 and, in the final match, Ernest Meers, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Later on in the same season, Lewis retained the men’s singles title at three other tournaments: Teignmouth in the southern English county of Devon; Bournemouth, where he had won his first singles title of note five years earlier and where, at the age of twenty, he was winning the same title for the fifth year in a row; and, on his last appearance in Eastbourne, at the South of England Championships, where he took the men’s singles title for the third consecutive year by beating Herbert Wilberforce in the challenge round, 8-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Ernest Lewis was at times also involved in the administrative side of lawn tennis. He was present on Thursday, 26 January 1888 when a significant number of delegates and secretaries of lawn tennis clubs and associations, and other interested parties, met to consider the forming of a Lawn Tennis Association.

“This historic meeting took place at the Freemason’s Tavern in Great Queen Street, close to Covent Garden in London. Others present included Harry Scrivener, Herbert Chipp, George Hillyard and John H. Lewis, Ernest’s father. (In the minutes of the meeting both of the Lewises were listed as members of Chiswick Park Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club in west London, close to their native Hammersmith.)

At the meeting, Arthur Copson-Peake, of the Yorkshire Association, moved the following: “That the delegates of clubs and associations here present form themselves into an association to be called the National Lawn Tennis Association, and that this be the first general meeting thereof.” Harry Scrivener seconded the resolution, which was adopted, albeit subject to confirmation at the next meeting.

A provisional committee, including Ernest Lewis, was also formed, “to frame the rules and set out the powers of the Association, and the rules, etc., so framed be printed and circulated fourteen days prior to a further general meeting, to be summoned as soon as practicable.” Herbert Chipp was elected provisional honorary secretary of the association.

On 25 April 1888, a second meeting was held at the Freemasons’ Tavern, when Daniel Jones of the All England Lawn Tennis Club was elected to the chair. The main business was the confirmation of the resolution passed at the aforementioned meeting on 26 January; consideration of the rules drawn up by the provisional committee; and the election of the council and officers of the new association. Ernest Lewis and his father, John, were again present; Ernest was listed as representing Saint George’s Hospital, while John Lewis was listed as a member of the Chiswick Park Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club.

At this second meeting the resolution passed in late January concerning the formation of a lawn tennis association was confirmed, meaning that the British Lawn Tennis Association had definitely come into existence. The rules of the new association were also adopted after slight changes had been made to some of them and they had been voted on individually. Rule 2, entitled ‘Objects’, stated:

“The objects of the association are to uphold the laws of the game as at present adopted by the Marylebone Cricket Club and the All England Lawn Tennis Club, with such alterations or additions as from time to time may be necessary; to decide all doubtful or disputed questions as to the laws, and all matters in connection with the game; to arrange and regulate international matches; and to advance the interests of lawn tennis generally throughout the United Kingdom.”

After the rules had been voted on, the council and officers of the new association were elected. William Renshaw was unanimously elected the first president of the association. Herbert Chipp was confirmed in his position of honorary secretary. Several vice-presidents representing all sections of the game were also elected. Daniel Jones then proposed that the provisional committee formed at the original meeting in late January 1888 be asked to serve on the council of the new association. Ernest Lewis was elected one of the new committee members.

In 1888, Lewis again began the lawn tennis season at the Hyde Park Lawn Tennis Club, where he retained the men’s singles title at the Covered Court Championships by easily defeating Ernest Meers in the challenge round, 6-3, 6-0, 6-1. In late May, Lewis was in Dublin to take part in the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships for the second time. In the singles event he won three matches with relative ease before meeting the Irishman Willoughby Hamilton in the semi-final. After a long five-set struggle the Irish player emerged victorious by the score of 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8, 6-2.

One month later, at the end of June, Lewis retained the singles title at the London Athletic Club tournament by beating Harry Barlow in the challenge round, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2. In later years Lewis and Barlow would play doubles together at several tournaments and enjoy a good deal of success as a pair, particularly at Wimbledon.

In 1888, the Wimbledon tournament began in the second week of July (the date of this most important of all tournaments was not yet fixed in the calendar). In the early rounds of the men’s singles event Lewis was in excellent form, dismissing each of his first four opponents in straight sets. These four victories took him to the all-comers’ final where, for the third year in succession at the same tournament, he met Ernest Renshaw. After a promising start in which he won a close first set, Lewis eventually lost by the score of 7-9, 6-1, 8-6, 6-4.

Later on in the lawn tennis season of 1888, Lewis retained the men’s singles title at the Middlesex Championships and Bournemouth tournaments. In early August he also won the singles title at one of the older tournaments in the lawn tennis calendar, namely Exmouth in Devon. After receiving two walkovers, one from Arnold Blake, from Somerset, in the quarter-finals and another from his compatriot George Hillyard one round later, Lewis defeated Herbert Chipp in a one-sided final, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.

In 1889, Lewis once again began the lawn tennis season by taking part in the Covered Court Championships tournament at the Hyde Park Lawn Tennis Club where he won the Challenge Cup for the third time in a row by beating fellow Londoner James Crispe in the challenge round, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Lewis thereby became holder of the cup in question in accordance with the tradition whereby any player who won a title three years running was entitled to take possession of the cup.

In late May, Lewis took part in the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships where he was beaten in the second round of the men’s singles event by William Renshaw, 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1. However, Lewis won the men’s doubles title in Dublin with George Hillyard. In the challenge round they defeated the holders, Willoughby Hamilton and his fellow Irishman Tom Campion, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

In mid-June of 1889, Lewis was in Penarth in Wales to take part in the Welsh Championships, which had first been held only three years earlier. In Penarth, Lewis easily won the all-comers’ event in the men’s singles, his opponents including his compatriot Charles Lacy Sweet, whom he beat in the semi-finals, 6-1, 6-0, 6-1, and James Baldwin, of Bath, whom he defeated one round later, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. In the challenge round Lewis met the holder, Willoughby Hamilton, who proved too good for the Englishman and retained the title by the score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

In early July of 1889, Lewis and Willoughby Hamilton met each other in singles again at Wimbledon, and once again the Irishman emerged the winner, taking their quarter-final match after a long battle, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. This was the third time in three encounters that Hamilton had beaten Lewis. Together with George Hillyard, Lewis reached the challenge round of the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon, where they almost pulled off a dramatic recovery against William and Ernest Renshaw. However, the twins eventually prevailed in a five-set match, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 0-6, 6-1.

Later on in the lawn tennis season of 1889, Lewis retained the men’s singles title at the Middlesex Championships and at the Exmouth and Bournemouth tournaments. His victory in Bournemouth marked the seventh consecutive year in which he had won the singles title there. He did not take part in this tournament again.

As was now his habit, in 1890 Lewis began the lawn tennis season by taking part in the Covered Court Championships in mid-March, where he won the men’s singles title for the fourth year in a row by defeating Ernest Meers in the challenge round, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. Due to a decrease in the number of spectators and participants, the Covered Court Championships tournament was in 1890 moved from its original venue of the Hyde Park Lawn Tennis Club to the Queen’s Club, which had been opened four years earlier in West Kensington, London.

In late May of 1890, Lewis was in Dublin to take part in the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships for the fourth time. In the Irish capital Lewis had little difficulty in winning his way through to the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event, beating four Irishmen in his first four matches, George Ball-Greene, Grainger Chaytor, Harold Mahony (a future Wimbledon singles champion) and Frank Stoker; all of these players fell to Lewis in straight sets.

In the all-comers’ final in Dublin Lewis’s opponent was another Irishman and future Wimbledon champion, Joshua Pim. They had a long five-set battle before the Englishman emerged the victor, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. In the challenge round, Lewis’s opponent was yet another Irishman, Willoughby Hamilton, who had taken his first major singles title at the same tournament one year earlier. In a long five-set match Hamilton built a two-set lead before Lewis gradually began to turn it around. He won the next three sets for a victory by 3-6, 3-6, 8-6, 6-4, 7-5.

In the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1890, Lewis lost at the semi-final stage to Harry Barlow, 7-5, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. In the men’s doubles event Lewis and George Hillyard were beaten in straight sets in the all-comers’ final by the Irish pair of Joshua Pim and Frank Stoker. The score was 6-0, 7-5, 6-4. (Because the Renshaw twins were not defending the men’s doubles title, this was in fact the championship match).

In mid-July of 1890, Lewis retained the men’s singles title at the Middlesex Championships by defeating Harold Mahony in the challenge round, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. In August Lewis also won the singles title at the tournament held in Torquay, Devon, for the third time in four years. In the challenge round he beat his compatriot Edward Avory, the holder, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
In April 1891, at the Queen’s Club, Lewis won the men’s singles title at the Covered Court Championships tournament for the fifth year in a row by beating Ernest Meers in straight sets in the challenge round, 6-4, 8-6, 6-3. This straight sets victory meant that Lewis also retained his record of not having lost a set in the singles event in the Covered Court Championships in five attempts.

At the end of May 1891, at the Irish Championships in Dublin, Lewis also retained the most important of the singles titles he had won in 1890, namely that of Champion of Ireland. In the challenge round Lewis faced Johsua Pim, whom the Englishman had beaten in five sets one round earlier at the same tournament in 1890. Throughout the match in 1891, Pim was hampered by a hand injury and Lewis retained the title by the score of 6-2, 6-3, 8-6.

In the challenge round of the men’s doubles event at the Irish Championships in 1891, Lewis and Joshua Pim faced each other across the net again. Pim was co-holder of this title with his partner Frank Stoker, while Lewis was competing with Grainger Chaytor, the middle and arguably the best of three Dublin-born lawn tennis-playing brothers. Despite an impressive performance by both Lewis and Chaytor, who at one stage led by two sets to one, Pim and Stoker eventually won a tough five-set match, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Lewis played virtually no more lawn tennis during the season of 1891. However, in early August he did take part in the Exmouth tournament, where he had won the singles title in 1888 and 1889. In 1891, he won the same title again, for the third and last time, by beating fellow Londoner Horace Chapman in the final, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5.

Increasing professional commitments meant that Ernest Lewis took part in very few tournaments during the latter years of his lawn tennis career, in other words, in the years 1892 to 1897. In early April, 1892, at the Covered Court Championships tournament at the Queen’s Club, Lewis lost his singles title when he was beaten in the challenge round by Ernest Meers, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. This was Lewis’s first ever defeat in the singles event at the Covered Court Championships tournament; indeed, as already indicated, in previous years he had never lost a set while winning the men’s singles championship.

At the end of May 1892, in Dublin, Lewis lost another important title when he was defeated in the challenge round of the men’s singles event at the Irish Championships by a resurgent Ernest Renshaw, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. However, there was some consolation for Lewis in Dublin when he and the Irishman Charles Martin beat the holders, Joshua Pim and Frank Stoker, in the challenge round of the men’s doubles event, 6-1, 8-6, 6-4.

One month later, at Wimbledon, Lewis was in excellent form as he reached the all-comers’ final in the men’s singles event for the third time, his last appearance at that stage having come in 1888. In 1892, despite a very promising start against Joshua Pim, Lewis lost a long five-set match 2-6, 5-7, 9-7, 6-3, 6-2. As in Dublin earlier in the season, there was a consolation of sorts at Wimbledon in 1892, when he and Harry Barlow won the men’s doubles title by beating the holders, the English twin brothers Wilfred and Herbert Baddeley, in the challenge round, 4-6, 6-2, 8-6, 6-4. This was to be Lewis’s only Wimbledon title.

Although he took part in only two tournaments in 1892 after Wimbledon, Lewis won the men’s singles title at both of them. In mid-July he defeated his Wimbledon conqueror Joshua Pim in the final of the London Championships, held on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club, in another five-set match, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1. The following week he won back the singles title at the Middlesex Championships by beating Ernest Meers, the holder, in the challenge round, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. This was the fifth and last time that Lewis won the men’s singles title at the Middlesex Championships.

In 1893, Lewis played almost no competitive lawn tennis although he did take part in the Wimbledon tournament in early July, not entering the men’s singles event, but attempting to defend the men’s doubles title he and Harry Barlow had won the previous year. In the challenge round they faced the Irishmen Joshua Pim and Frank Stoker. After a five-set match, the Irish pair emerged the winners by the score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 2-6, 6-0.

The following year, 1894, was also a quiet one for Lewis in terms of competitive lawn tennis. In 1894, he entered the Wimbledon tournament once again, this time taking part in the men’s singles event, where he showed very good form early on. In his first two matches Lewis defeated two future Wimbledon singles, his compatriot Arthur Gore and Harold Mahony, for the loss of only one set. This took him to the quarter-final stage, where he beat another Englishman, George Simond, in straight sets.

In the semi-final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in July 1894, Ernest took on the less talented of the Baddeley twins, Herbert, whose lawn tennis successes tended to be overshadowed by those of his brother Wilfred. Lewis and Herbert Baddeley fought out a long five-set match before the former emerged the victor by the score of 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.

In the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1894, Lewis faced the aforementioned Wilfred Baddeley, a player he had not met in singles since Baddeley had won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon for the first time in 1891. Three years on, Wilfred Baddeley showed a strangely ineffectual and very out-of-form Lewis no mercy, thrashing him for the loss of only one game, 6-0, 6-1, 6-0.

In August 1894, Lewis took part in the men’s singles event at the nascent East of England Championships tournament, held in the seaside town of Felixstowe in the county of Suffolk. Against modest opposition Lewis won three singles matches without the loss of a set to take the title of East of England champion. In the final he easily beat his compatriot Rupert Hamblin-Smith, 6-0, 6-2.

At the beginning of April 1895, Lewis took part in the Covered Court Championships tournament for the first time since 1892, when he had been defeated in the challenge round of the men’s singles event by Ernest Meers. Although the entry for the men’s singles event at the covered courts tournament of 1895 was small – a total of only eight players participated – the class of the players was very high. They included the great William Renshaw, now aged thirty-four and only an occasional participant in tournaments. He and Lewis met in the first-round at the Queen’s Club with Lewis emerging victorious after an impressive performance, 6-2, 10-8, 6-3.

In the next round, the semi-finals, Lewis easily defeated James Crispe, 6-4, 6-2 6-1. This took Lewis to a meeting with Wilbeforce Eaves in the all-comers’ final which that year was the title match as Harold Mahony, the holder, was not defending. The Australian-born Eaves was now based permanently in England; like Lewis, he was a doctor by profession. Lewis won the all-comers’ final against Eaves, 8-6, 7-5, 6-3, thereby increasing his record number of victories in the men’s singles event at the Covered Court Championships to six.

In July 1895, Lewis took part in the Wimbledon tournament where, in the first round of the men’s singles event, he retired in his match against his compatriot Hugh Nisbet when the latter was leading, 6-2, 6-3, 2-0. According to one contemporary report, Lewis was ‘off colour’ during this match. However, in the men’s doubles event, where he partnered Wilberforce Eaves, Lewis reached the final match for the sixth and last time. In the challenge round he and Eaves were beaten by the defending champions, Wilfred and Herbert Baddeley, 8-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Lewis would not take part in the Wimbledon tournament again.

Indeed, in 1896 and 1897, Lewis confined his appearances to the Covered Court Championships at the Queen’s Club. In 1896, he won the singles title for the seventh and last time by beating Wilberforce Eaves in the challenge round, 6-4, 6-1, 6-8, 4-6, 7-5. The following year, 1897, roles were reversed when Eaves beat Lewis in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. In nine appearances at the Covered Court Championships Lewis had won the men’s singles title seven times and been runner-up on the other two occasions. His record at this tournament would stand until 1935, when the Frenchman Jean Borotra won the eighth of his eleven singles titles at the Queen’s Club.

Medical Career

As already indicated, Ernest Lewis studied at the Medical School forming part of Saint George’s Hospital, then located opposite Hyde Park Corner in London. Although Saint George’s Hospital itself dates back to 1733, the Medical School was not established until 1868, one year after the birth of Ernest Lewis. The Medical School was thus still in its infancy when Lewis began attending it in the mid-1880s.

Existing records also show that Lewis took some courses at the London School of Anatomy and Physiology, founded circa 1875 by Thomas Cooke, who had been born in the United States in 1841, but spent his childhood in Paris. After receiving no formal education until his teenage years, he eventually obtained, amongst other qualifications, the Bachelier ès sciences (B. Sc.), or Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.).

In 1870, he graduated MD. Due to his poor financial situation, which became worse with the Siege of Paris late in 1870, Cooke moved to England in the autumn of that year. After passing several medical examinations, he was appointed Demonstrator at Westminster Hospital Medical School, London, and in August 1871, was elected Assistant Surgeon to the same hospital.

The medical school was later housed in a building (or buildings) in Brunswick Square, Bloomsbury, close to the buildings of University College, London, and Great Ormond Street Hospital. The following advertisement, from the British Journal of Dental Science of 15th September 1883, provides a good idea of the type of courses on offer at the medical school and the fees charged:

“Demonstrations and lectures by Mr. Thomas Cooke, F.R.C.S., senior assistant surgeon to the Westminster Hospital. This school of anatomy, physiology, and surgery meets the requirements of two distinct classes of students, i.e. – 1. Advanced students and qualified practitioners, who may wish either to extend their knowledge of the foregoing subjects, or to recall to mind what they once knew and have since forgotten;

“2. Beginners entering upon their medical duties by a short term of apprenticeship with a general practitioner. For the former, rapid advance classes, complete in three months, but still thoroughly practical, are provided; and for the latter, more elementary classes of six months’ duration, also thoroughly practical.

“The operations of surgery are all performed on the dead body by the students.
The dissecting room is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The demonstrators attend four hours daily. Fees. – Anatomy and physiology: For primary membership examination of royal college of surgeons, three months, £4 4s.; six months, £5 5s. For primary fellowship examination (with comparative anatomy), six months, £5 6s. Surgery: For second membership examination of royal college of surgeons, three months, £5 5s.; six months, £8 8s.; for second fellowship examination, six months, £8 8s.”

On 12 January 1889, The Times newspaper carried the following notice: “The following gentlemen have passed the Second Examination in Anatomy and Physiology at a meeting of the Board of Examiners [...] Ernest Wool Lewis, of Saint George’s [Hospital] and Mr Cooke’s School of Anatomy and Physiology.” On 11 October 1890, the same newspaper noted that, “[...] the following gentlemen have passed the Second Examination in Anatomy and Physiology at a meeting of the Board of Examiners: [...] Ernest Wool Lewis, of Saint George’s Hospital and Mr Cooke’s School of Physiology and Anatomy.”

On 31 July 1893, Lewis was registered as a medical doctor by the General Medical Council, the body that controls entry to the List of Registered Medical Practitioners in the United Kingdom. Having sat and successfully passed all of the relevant examinations he was also now entitled to use the letters M.R.C.S. (Eng) and L.R.C.P. (Lond) after his name, indicating that he had become both a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in England and a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Following his registration as a doctor, Lewis initially worked as house surgeon at the West London Hospital in Hammersmith. This particular hospital was then located on Hammersmith Road and would have been very easy for Lewis to reach as he was still living on King Street in Hammersmith with his parents. In the second half of 1894, Lewis was appointed Assistant Anaesthetist to the West London Hospital. In 1902, Lewis was elected an Ordinary Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of London, while in 1911 he became a member of the British Medical Association, or B.M.A., the professional association and trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom.

When the Census of England and Wales was taken in April 1911, Ernest Lewis was living in a house on Fulham Palace Road, close to Hammersmith, with his wife and children. In the second quarter of 1905, he had married Alice Ruth Townsend (1886-1951), who was from Kensington and the daughter of Meredith Townsend, a surgeon and apothecary, and Anne Clara Edith Townsend (née Milton), both of whom were also Londoners. Together, Ernest and Alice Lewis had two sons: Cyril Eric Wool Lewis (1906-75) and Evelyn Frank Wool Lewis (1909-57). In the census return he completed in April 1911, Ernest Lewis listed his profession as ‘Physician and surgeon’.

Having obtained a commission in the Royal Volunteer Force in his late teens, and after becoming a lieutenant in 1886, Lewis remained in the same force as it changed shape during the course of his life. In 1905, he was awarded the Volunteer Officers’ Decoration. Notification of this was published in the London Gazette, an official journal of record of the British government. The entry, published on 1st August 1905, stated that Major and Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Wool Lewis, as he then was, was a member of the London District, Rifle, 2nd (South) Middlesex Volunteer Rifle Corps.

By 1916, Lewis had been appointed Medical Officer for the county of Cornwall in south-west England. By that time he had also joined the second battalion of the Cornwall Volunteer Regiment. The London Gazette of 23 March 1917, announcing his promotion from lieutenant-colonel to temporary captain, also noted that he had been previously been a member of the 10th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. This promotion has occurred on 24 February 1917, six weeks before his fiftieth birthday.

On 16th September 1919, nearly one year after the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany, the London Gazette carried the following announcement: “Volunteer Force. In accordance with the provisions of Army Order 123 of 1919, the undermentioned are granted honorary rank equivalent to that held on the termination of their commissions. 2nd Volunteer Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, Ernest Wool Lewis (late Temporary Captain) to be Honorary Captain.”

During World War One, the Volunteer Force, or Volunteer Training Corps’ tasks had included guarding vulnerable points on the British mainland, digging anti-invasion defence lines, firefighting and providing transport for wounded soldiers. Although Great Britain was not invaded, the Volunteer Force did play a valuable role during the war years.

In the late 1920s, Cyril Lewis, Ernest’s younger son, attended Cambridge University, where he was a member of the winning team in the annual Cambridge vs Oxford boat race in 1929. He later became a distinguished diplomat and administrator. During World War Two, Evelyn Lewis, Ernest’s older son, served with the Royal Air Force (RAF). However, Ernest Lewis did not live to see this development. He died suddenly on 19 April 1930 in the coastal town of Plymouth in Devon. He had turned 63 only a fortnight earlier.

A report carried in the Western Morning News newspaper on 21 June 1930 noted the following: “Mr Ernest Wool Lewis, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., of Grand Parade House, West Hoe, Plymouth, formerly of Upper Richmond Road, Roehampton, Surrey […] left estate to the value of £3,112, with net personalty nil. Probate of his will has been granted to his widow, Mrs Alice Ruth Wool Lewis, of Park House, North Hayling, Hampshire.” Alice Wool Lewis survived her husband by 21 years. She died in Chichester in December 1951 at the age of
65.
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