player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameThomas (Tom)
LastnameChaytor
GenderMale
CountryIreland
Date of birth1870-11-13
Place of birthKilliney, County Dublin, Ireland
Date of death1951-01-30
Place of deathDublin, Ireland

About

Thomas Chaytor, popularly known as Tom, was born on 13 November 1870 in Killiney, County Dublin, Ireland. He was the sixth of the seven children – five sons and two daughters – born to Charles Henry Chaytor (1834-74), a wealthy landowner from Dublin, and Mary Ann Boyle Chaytor (née Grainger; 1835-92), who was a native of Carnmoney in County Antrim. Charles Chaytor and Mary Ann Grainger were married on 8 June 1861 in Whitehouse in Carnmoney.

The article The Development of Modern Killiney, available to read at https://killineyhistoryie.fandom.com/wiki/The_Development_of_Modern_Killiney, notes the following about Joshua Mason Chaytor (1790-1857), Tom’s paternal grandfather: “Before 1849, Joshua Chaytor came to reside at Marino. He had purchased a large property in Killiney of over 40 acres which he bequeathed to his son Charles H. Chaytor, who came to occupy Marino about the year 1857. He rebuilt the house and lived in it for many years. He also built San Severina as Summer Hill was first called, Campaville (Campanella) and other houses in the vicinity. His property included a large surrounding area and was known as Marino Park.”

Marino was the name of another of the houses located on the sea side of Killiney, an affluent suburb on the south coast of Dublin. Killiney grew rapidly in the 1800s, when it became a popular seaside resort. Today, its property prices are among the highest in Ireland. Tom Chaytor’s six siblings were: Joshua David (1862-1908), Belinda Grainger (1863-1942), William Alexander (1865-77), Charles Henry, jnr. (1866-1928), David Grainger, popularly known as Grainger (1868-1913) and Mary Grainger (1873-88).

Tom, Charles and Grainger Chaytor all attended Trinity College, Dublin, where they took part in the annual Dublin University Lawn Tennis Championships. This tournament was held early in the season on the hard courts at the university, and both Tom and Grainger won the men’s singles title there in the early 1890s. Charles Chaytor, jnr., and Grainger Chaytor later became solicitors. Grainger had been appointed King’s Counsel (K.C.) by the time of his early death in the summer of 1913 at the age of 45.

Tom Chaytor appears not to have pursued a profession in later life. When the Census of Ireland was taken in April 1911, he and his brother Charles, then aged 40 and 44 respectively, were living in a house in Hatch Street, near the centre of Dublin. According to the census return, Charles was a solicitor, while Tom was ‘[Living on] Income from Dividends’. Neither brother was married. Three female servants are also listed on the census form.

Tom Chaytor had shown great promise as a lawn tennis player and notably almost beat his great countryman Joshua Pim in the final match of the men’s singles event at the Irish Championships in 1894. At that time Pim was probably the best player in the world, while the annual Irish Championships tournament, held in Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, in late May, was almost on a par with the Wimbledon tournament because of the calibre of the players it attracted each year.

But Tom Chaytor did not fulfil his early potential at lawn tennis. Indeed, his name virtually disappears from the sport’s records after 1895, the year in which he turned 25. He outlived all his siblings, dying in Dublin in January 1951 at the age of 80.

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