Having just watched the men’s tennis final I’m going to add a post about our slightly tenuous family connection to Wimbledon.
Algernon Robert Fitzhardinge Kingscote was born on the 3 Dec 1888 at Bangalore in India. The son of Howard and Adeline Kingscote. Adeline was the famous author, Lucas Cleeve.
He joined the army, 107th Company Royal Garrison Artillery and during World War I he fought at the First Battle of the Aisne earning the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and the award of the Military Cross.
On 9 Sep 1919 (9/9/1919) he married Marjorie Paton Hindley in London. Marjorie was the daughter of Douglas and Rachael Hindley. Douglas was the brother of Walter Paton Hindley who married Alice Mary Lanyon.
Alice Mary Lanyon was the daughter of John Charles Lanyon and Jane Stacey Bennett. She was Marjorie Paton Hindley’s aunt and also my husband’s great grand aunt. (I said it was tenuous!)
So having established a tenuous connection to Algernon Kingscote what is his connection to Wimbledon?
Algernon Kingscote learned playing tennis in Switzerland, where he won numerous championships. He was crowned Swiss champion in 1908 and champion of Bengal in 1913. At Wimbledon in 1919, he lost in the all comers final. He won the singles title at the Australasian Championship in 1919. He reached the men’s doubles final at Wimbledon in 1920. In 1921 Kingscote was a runner-up at the Monte Carlo Championships. He represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup seven times between 1919 and 1924.
At the 1922 Wimbledon Championship he established the routine of bowing to the Royal Box, a tradition which lasted until 2003.
He also competed at the Summer Olympics in Paris in 1924.
At the outset of the Second World War he was sent back into action again at the age of 52. He died on 21 Dec 1964 at Woking in Surrey.
The Lanyons 