Walter Crawley

The son of a Church of England minister and grammar school headmaster, Yorkshire-born Walter Crawley was educated at Oxford. He won the lawn tennis championship of his native county in 1907, a year that saw him also win the Dieppe tournament, the West Sussex Challenge Cup at Chichester, and reach the final of the South of England championship where he lost to George Hillyard. The following year was equally memorable for Crawley as he won the Sussex championship and enjoyed his best year at Wimbledon, reaching the singles quarter-final, but lost to Josiah Ritchie. And it was Ritchie who beat him again in the final of the European Championship at Queen’s Club. At the 1908 Olympics Crawley and partner Kenneth Powell beat the Canadian pair Captain Foulkes and Bobby Powell before losing to fellow Britons George Hillyard and Reggie Doherty. In the singles, Walter reached the third round after receiving a bye in round two but was no match for Britain’s Josiah Ritchie, the eventual champion, who won in straight sets. Walter reached the semi-final of the men’s doubles at Wimbledon on two occasions – with Ireland’s Cecil Parke in 1910 and with Augustus Hendriks in 1913. He made his last appearance at Wimbledon in 1927 aged 47.

Walter’s older brother Alfred was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon in 1902 and 1906 and in the 1913 Queen’s Club tournament the two brothers met in the last eight, with Walter winning.