Algernon Kingscote

Algernon Kingscote learned playing tennis on the courts of the Château-d'Œx Club in Switzerland,[3] where he won numerous championships.[5] In his early years he trained with American teenager player R. Norris Williams.[6] He was crowned Swiss champion in 1908[3] and champion of Bengal in 1913.[5] He held the Kent Championships title for four consecutive years between 1919–1922 and in total won the title six times.[7] At Wimbledon 1919, Kingscote beat William Laurentz, Max Decugis and Pat O'Hara Wood before losing in the all comers final to Gerald Patterson.[8] He won the singles title at the 1919 Australasian Championships, along with the first Anthony Wilding Memorial Medal, beating Eric Pockley of New South Wales in the final in straight sets.[2][9] In the 1920 Wimbledon Championships he reached the doubles final alongside James Cecil Parke but eventually lost to the team of Garland–Williams.[10] In 1921 Kingscote was a runner-up at the Monte-Carlo Championships losing to fellow countryman Gordon Lowe in four sets.[11] He represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup seven times between 1919 and 1924 compiling a 9–8 win-loss record. In the 1922 Wimbledon Championships first round against Leslie Godfree they established the routine of saluting the Royal Box by bowing in front of it, a tradition that was in effect to 2003.[12] He won the Queen's Club Championships in 1924 beating Gordon Lowe in four sets in the final.[13]

Algernon Kingscote was born on 3 December 1888 to Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Kingscote (b. 29 Apr 1845, d. 17 Mar 1917) and famous novelist Adeline Wolff known as Lucas Cleeve. He had two siblings, Henry Robert Fitzhardinge Kingscote (b. 1 Oct 1887) and Iris Adeline Harriett Augusta Kingscote (b. 5 Aug 1886, d. 8 Jun 1970).[3] Like his father he joined the army in 1910 serving for the Royal Garrison Artillery.[5] He was a Second Lieutenant when stationing at Plympton, Devon in 1911.[3] He was engaged in World War I where he fought at the First Battle of the Aisne[5] earning the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and the award of Military Cross.[3] After the war he went back competing in tennis tournaments and was appointed the captain of the Great Britain Davis Cup team, while still serving in the army as a colonel.[5] He married Marjorie Paton Hindley, daughter of Douglas C. P. Hindley, on 9 September 1919, and had two daughters Rachel and Marjorie and later a son David, who died on 5 September 1945 at age 20 at Burma, killed in action.[3] At the age of 52 at the outbreak of World War II he was sent back to action again.[3] He died on 21 December 1964 Woking, Surrey, Great Britain.[3]

• Bill Tilden (1921). The Art of Lawn Tennis (second ed.). London, United Kingdom: |Methuen & Co. ISBN 1421900106. Retrieved 11 June 2012.

• Algernon Kingscote at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Algernon Kingscote at the International Tennis Federation
• Algernon Kingscote at the Davis Cup