Arthur Sydney
Tabor
Male
England
1852-11-09
Cockfosters, London, England
1927-10-14
Earl’s Court, London, England
Arthur S. Tabor was the brother of fellow lawn tennis players George, Agneta and Helen Tabor. They were four of the eleven children – six sons and five daughters – of the Reverend Robert Stammers Tabor and Mary Tabor (née Dollman).
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From The Times, 17 October 1927:
Mr Arthur Sydney Tabor, who died in London on Friday, went to Eton in 1865, being in Mr Oscar Browning’s house. As Lord Wittenham recalls, he was there a, ‘shining light’, being in the Eton XI from 1869 to 1871, and playing in Oppidan Wall in 1869 and 1870 (when he was Keeper and also Keeper of Mixed Wall). He left in 1871, having obtained a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, and played in the University XI from 1872 to 1874, playing also for Mliddlesex in all three years.
In 1872, when Cambridge won by an innings and 166, the two Eton freshmen, Tabor and Longman, going in first, scored 50 and 80 respectively. Tabor was not so successful in 1873, when Oxford won by three wickets. But in 1874, a chronicler says: “The first innings of Cambridge was distinguished only by the exceptionally fine play of Tabor, who alone succeeded in overcoming the difficulties of the ground. His off-drive, the stroke which others dared not attempt, he brought off time after time with ease and precision.” He made 52 out of 109. but in the second innings his wicket was thrown amway in the first over, and Oxford won by an innings and 92.
After he had gone down Tabor appeared for Surrey in 1878. He became headmaster of Cheam in 1891. He married Anne Evelyn, daughter of the Reverend George S. Woodgate, of Pembury Hall, Tunbridge Wells.
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Mr Arthur S. Tabor, Memories of Cheam School
Lord Wittenham writes:- The announcement in The Times of Arthur Tabor’s death makes me revolve manv memories of faraway days, when Cheam stood ‘facile princeps’ among private preparatory schools, and the Rev. Robert S. Tabor, Arthur’s father, reigned as its first headmaster. It was in May, 1860, half-term, when as a trembling tiny boy I first arrived there.
My mother had just parted from me at the station, and with over-flowing eyes I walked across the fields to the school, and found myself alone in one of the classrooms. Suddenly a little boy, about my age and size, with fair hair, burst into the room and said, “Who are you?” It was Arthur Tabor, a son of the headmaster. “Faber,” I gaspingly replied. Perhaps he thought I said “Tabor” and was pulling his leg. Anyway, the next thing I knew was that I felt his kick in the usual part of my person; then in spite of my scarcely dried tears I retaliated and we fought it out.
I was supposed by those who witnessed our endeavours to have won, and the chief undermaster, E. H. Osborn, took me under his care, and gave me my first lesson in Greek, setting me to learn and conjugate the verb [illegible]. At the time I did not know why he selected that verb. Arthur and I went through schooltime there together and were both in the cricket XI.
In 1865 he went to Eton. In February, 1865, I went to Marborough. He was a shining light in the Eton XI; I ultimately became captain of the Marlborough XI; he went on to Cambridge, where he was for several years a distinguished member of the University XI in days when there were giants in it. I went to Oxford, and our ways did not meet again.
He became headmaster of Cheam after his father’s retirement, I do not know when. Arthur was the fourth of, I think, five sons – Montague, Frank, Alfred, and Ernest. Montague was for very many years in the Education Office; Frank was in the Navy and was, I think, drowned when H.M.S. Captain went down; Alfred played in the Harrow cricket and football XI.
Their father was an absolute autocrat as headmaster; he was a kindhearted man out of school, and he and Mrs Tabor showed overflowing hospitality to parents and relatives whenever they came down, and the annual Speech Day in July was a gala day. But his method of rule was a fearsome one, a common way then, and perhaps not a bad one; he certainly kept the tone of the school at a high level; an ‘interview’ with him alone in his study was a thing not to be forgotten; the boldest ones quailed under that ordeal.
Sometimes the ordeal took place in a classroom. How well I remember the late Lord Randolph Churchill, then a big boy, wriggling and ejaculating, “Oh, Sir!” under the punitive treatment that was being administered. As holidays drew near we small ones began to chant softly, “This time three weeks, where shall I be? Out of the clutches of R.S.T.” Yes, looking back over all the years, the Reverend Robert S. Tabor was very drastic but very efficient; small in stature, but a great headmaster; and his long reign was an unmixed success, for he turned out men; many a well-known man took his first ‘header’ at Cheam.
The school originated at East Barnet about 1855, where Mr Tabor started it with under a dozen boys, among whom were the late Lord Kinnaird; my brother, the late Lord Faber; the late Frank Bevan, of Trent Park, New Barnet; and the late Mowbray Morris. When I went there the numbers were 50; later the school, of course, grew much larger; it was a great ‘feeder’ for Eton and Harrow. I do not know what the numbers are now.
Alas! Among those now living who went there before me I can only remember Lord Arthur Butler, now Lord Ormonde; close on my heels were Lord Inverurie, afterwards Lord Kintore, and Sir Almeric FitzRoy, and there are doubtless a few others. I do not know when Arthur Tabor retired. I hope a Tabor is still headmaster, and that so the Tabor ‘saga’ continues. Eheu, fugaces.
1878 - 1880
0
5
2
Round 1
Arthur Sydney Tabor 1 *
Francis Benson
6-1
6-0
6-3
Round 2
H.C. Jenkins 1 *
Arthur Sydney Tabor
3-6
6-3
6-2
6-2
Round 1
Alfred John Mulholland 1 *
Arthur Sydney Tabor
5-6
6-2
6-3
6-0
Round 1
Arthur Sydney Tabor 1 *
Charles Thomas Wallis
6-0
6-0
6-0
Round 2
Patrick Francis (Frank) Hadow 1 *
Arthur Sydney Tabor
6-2
6-1
6-1