Élie, Comte de Lastours

Élie, Count de Lastours was a French tennis player, fencer, landowner, and politician. He was a quarter-finalist at the 1901 European Tennis Championships, and lost in the second round at Wimbledon in 1908. He competed at the 1900 Olympics in both fencing, where he lost in an early round of the individual épée, and tennis, where he lost in the quarter-finals of men’s doubles, partnered by Guy, Baron Lejeune. Count de Lastours studied at the Gerson School in Paris, and then in Toulouse. He studied for a military career, but instead elected to turn to a diplomatic one, eventually earning a law degree. He later became French Ambassador to England, based in London, and then was an MP for Tarn in France, where he served on committees related to foreign affairs, colonial affairs, and Algeria.