player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameRobert Branks
LastnamePowell
GenderMale
CountryCanada
Date of birth1881-04-02
Place of birthVictoria, British Columbia, Canada
Date of death1917-04-28
Place of deathArras, Pas-de-Calais, France

About

Robert Branks Powell was born in April 1881 in Victoria, British Columbia. He was the son of Israel Wood Powell (1836-1915), British Columbia’s first superintendent of Indian Affairs and a businessman, politician and doctor, and Jane (‘Jennie’) Powell (née Branks; 1845-1928).

Robert Powell learned how to play lawn tennis on the courts at the family home. From 1900 to 1904, he served as private secretary to Sir Henri Joly de Lothbinière, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Powell then went to Fiji and entered the British Colonial Service. At the same time he was studying law and was eventually admitted to the Bar in 1910 during a visit to London.

In 1908, Powell had captained Canada’s team at the Summer Olympic Games in London. In the outdoor lawn tennis events, held at Wimbledon in July, he reached the third round of the men’s singles, while in the men’s doubles event he and Walter C. Crawley reached the quarter-finals. In 1910, Powell reached the all-comers’ final of the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon with his namesake, the English player Kenneth Powell. They were beaten in straight sets by Major Ritchie and Anthony Wilding, the eventual champions.

In 1913, Powell captained the first Canadian team to play in the Davis Cup competition. Canada defeated South Africa 4-1 and Belgium 5-0 to reach the all-comers’ final, which was played at Wimbledon in mid-July. The Canadians were beaten at that stage by the USA by 3 rubbers to 0 (two matches were not played).

On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of war, Powell was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 50th Regiment of the Gordon Highlanders of Canada. He was a lieutenant in the 16th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment) when he was killed in action in April 1917 during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department in north-west France.

After Powell’s death, one of his fellow soldiers, Lieutenant H. Ross Murphy, wrote the following letter to his widowed mother, Jane, on 15 May 1917: “I want to write to you and offer my heartfelt sympathy in the very great loss which you and your family have sustained.

“Your son Bobbie, as we all used to call him, was very dear to me. We had only been friends for about two months, as I only returned to the battalion about March 1, having been wounded on the Somme last September. In the short time that we were together I learned to love him as a brother. His sunny disposition and his many noble qualities endeared him to us all.

“He was acting second-in-command of No. 4 Company when we went into the attack on April 28. We arrived safely at the line of trenches which we had to occupy. I was walking along to see that the men were digging themselves in, and had just passed Bobbie. He smiled as I passed and said: ‘That’s the boy, Ross.’

“I had only gone about thirty yards when a shell exploded behind me. I did not know that Bobbie was hit by that shell at the time, but a little while after a runner came over and told me that Lieutenant Powell was instantly killed. It was a great blow to me and to all the officers of the battalion. He must have got out of the trench intending to come over and have a talk with me. It will be a consolation to you that he did not suffer at all.

“Bobbie was a fine soldier. His kindness to his men and thoughtfulness to them at all times made him beloved by them all.”

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