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General First nameCharles Hoadley Ashe
LastnameRoss
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1852-07-22
Place of birthBath, Somerset, England
Date of death1911-02-05
Place of deathHove, Sussex, England


About

Charles Hoadley Ashe Ross was born on 22 July 1852 in Bath, Somerset, the son of Henry James Ross and Mary Philippa Ross (née Bradburne). Mary Ross (1814-1901) was a native of Carlisle in Cumberland. Henry Ross was a pioneer of tenant farming systems in Grenada, and is described as follows in the article Henry James Ross of Grenada: A Pioneer of Tenant Farming Systems, by Woodville Marshall, a link to which is also provided below:

https://global.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/grenada/conference/papers/marshallwk.html

“He [Henry Ross] was described by the Grenada Lieutenant-Governor in February 1841 as ‘a native, a West Indian’, but all evidence suggests that he was a white Creole who, like most members of his class, was more ‘sojourner’ than native. He was the only son of Andrew Ross of Saint Vincent, the co-proprietor of Peruvian Vale and Henry’s Vale estate, who was probably one of that group of British entrepreneurs which came to the Ceded Islands in the late 1760s and early 1770s to exploit the possibilities for extensive sugar plantation ownership.

“Andrew Ross became very prominent in Vincentian society, holding the positions of member of the Legislative Council and Colonel in the militia until he was summarily removed in 1806 by the Governor because of his stubborn opposition to the British Government’s decision to grant 6,000 acres of former Carib lands to Colonel Thomas A. Browne, the American Loyalist.

“Henry James Ross was probably born in St. Vincent around 1794, but he spent some twenty-five years, from 1813 to 1838, living in Britain. He was admitted to Middle Temple in April 1813 and, after being called to the Bar in November 1820, he practised law in and around London mainly as an equity draughtsman for the Court of Chancery.

“He returned to the West Indies in July 1838 for what was intended as a visit of a ‘few months’ to oversee the transition to wage labour on Plaisance, a coffee and cocoa estate that he owned in the Saint John parish of Grenada. According to Ross, the estate had failed to make a profit ‘for twenty or thirty years’, and it was therefore likely to be severely embarrassed by the final ending of the forced labour regime.

“In the event, the successful attempt to turn around the estate’s fortunes meant that Ross’s visit would be extended to three years – until June 1841. That experience presumably persuaded Ross to relocate in the West Indies in 1842, and he only returned to Britain in 1866-7 to live out his retirement. He probably died in 1868. […]

“Henry James Ross therefore came to Grenada as an absentee owner but he soon converted himself into a resident proprietor and active professional. Between 1841 and 1857 he played the type of public role normally associated with a man of property, of sound education, professional standing and metropolitan connections. He briefly served as a member of the Legislative Council in 1841; represented the united parishes of Saint George and Saint John in the House of Assembly from July 1843 until May 1846; held the office of Speaker of the Assembly for four months in 1844; and served as a member of the Legislative Council from June 1846 until 1857.

“His professional avocation, however, probably mattered more to him. He practised at the Grenada Bar from 1840 and also held a number of judicial positions over the following sixteen years. He served temporarily as Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court in 1841; acted on several occasions as Attorney General; and was eventually appointed to that post in October 1856. He achieved his professional ambition in March 1857 when he was appointed Chief Justice of both Saint Kitts and of Nevis where he served until ill health forced his retirement in 1867.”
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Charles Ross took part in lawn tennis tournaments in the years 1884-91. In April 1884, he won the men’s singles event at the inaugural Ceylon Championships tournament in Nuwara Eliya. It is possible that he had some connections with tea planting in Ceylon, but he never took part in the Ceylon Championships tournament again after his victory in 1884. One of his most impressive wins came at the London Athletic Club tournament in June 1885, where he defeated Herbert Chipp, Harry Grove and Ernest Lewis on the way to the men’s singles title. However, Charles Ross did not build on those performances.

After 1886, he lived in the West Indies for several years, and did not take part in many lawn tennis tournaments in subsequent years. He was also a talented cricketer and played several matches for Middlesex County Cricket Club. He died unmarried in Hove, Sussex, in February 1911 at the age of 58. In his book Lawn Tennis Recollections, first published in 1898, fellow lawn tennis player Herbert Chipp wrote the following about Charles Ross:

“Charles Ross […] became prominent towards the end of the year 1884. He won the London Championship at the London Athletic Club in 1885 – the year of its institution – wearing down Ernest Lewis in a somewhat tedious five-set match in the final round. His appearances subsequent to 1886 were somewhat intermittent. Indeed, his career as a lawn tennis player was limited to two or three seasons at most. Living in one of the West Indian islands his visits to this country were necessarily few and far between.

“Although his game was marked by a considerable amount of finesse and subtlety, it can scarcely be said that his style was an attractive one. The returns looked slow when compared with those of most of the players of his class. But there was about them what Shakespeare calls “damnable iteration”. His lasting powers were on a par with his patience and imperturbability.

“He played quite a unique game, yet no particular stroke of his can be singled out. But he was evidently a firm believer in the dictum of a certain great player of those days who was wont to assert that where was a vacant foot in the court – always existent in his opinion – there was a way to it. And the discovery in proper season of that foot and of the way thereto was one of Ross’s strong points.

“Probably no player of similarly soft returns ever met with such success. His accurate placing and good length had naturally much to do with this. But the main reason was that as a rule his adversary was compelled to play Ross’s own soft game. To men with a stroke or of an ardent imaginative disposition this was often disastrous, a fact of which Ross was not unaware. Another of his peculiarities was an underhand twisted serve, which he delivered alternately with an overhead one. Neither had any great pace, but the length was excellent. And length in lawn tennis is like charity among the virtuous – it covers a multitude of sins.

“Ross also played a good mixed double. Among his other accomplishments his admirable handling of a billiard cue may be mentioned. On the board of green cloth he was – and probably still is – one of the strongest of amateurs.”
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Media


Archive statistics Career1884 - 1891
Tournament wins7
Matches99
Match wins66


Tournament wins 1888 - Cambridgeshire Lawn Tennis Tournament (Amateur)
1888 - Leamington (Amateur)
1886 - Leicester (Amateur)
1886 - East Grinstead (Amateur)
1885 - London Athletic Club (Amateur)
1885 - Sussex County Lawn Tennis Tournament (Amateur)
1884 - Ceylon Championships (Amateur)


Tournaments Colchester Championship - 1891 Wimbledon - 1890 Sussex Championships - 1890 Leamington - 1890 Wimbledon - 1888 Kent Championships - 1888 West of England Championships - 1888 Essex Championships - 1888 Leicester - 1888 South of England Championships - 1888 Exmouth - 1888 Middlesex Championships - 1888 London Athletic Club - 1888 Leamington - 1888 Edgbaston - 1888 St. Leonards-On-Sea - 1888 Cambridgeshire Lawn Tennis Tournament - 1888 Wimbledon - 1886 Leicester - 1886 East of England Championships - 1886 Middlesex Championships - 1886 Redhill - 1886 London Athletic Club - 1886 East Grinstead - 1886 Leamington - 1886 Wimbledon - 1885 Cheltenham - 1885 West of England Championships - 1885 South of England Championships - 1885 British Covered Court Championships - 1885 Bournemouth - 1885 Teignmouth and Shaldon - 1885 Middlesex Championships - 1885 Sussex County Lawn Tennis Tournament - 1885 London Athletic Club - 1885 St. Leonards-On-Sea - 1885 Brighton Lawn Tennis Club Tournament - 1885 Brookfield - 1885 Acton Vale - 1885 Ceylon Championships - 1884 Sussex County Lawn Tennis Tournament - 1884