STANUELL, FLORENCE (Florence Margaret Stanuell)
Ireland
Born 1861 in Dublin, Ireland
Died 08 December 1936 at The Rectory, Chillenden, Kent
Did not marry.
Active from 1884-1895
Florence Stanuell was one of the most successful of the early Irish lawn tennis players. She won the singles title at the Irish Championships in 1893, having won the same title at the Northern Championships in 1891.
[Below is a condensed version of Mark Ryan's (Newmark's) thread on Florence-mainly omitting geneology. For the full version click on the link below]
A Biographical Sketch of the Irish Sportswoman Florence Stanuell
By Mark Ryan
Florence Margaret Stanuell was born in Dublin in 1861, when the Stanuell family was probably living on Morehampton Road. Coming from a well-to-do middle-class family, Florence would not normally have been expected to receive much of an education or to subsequently follow a profession. In those days most girls from her background received a minimum of education, often provided at home by a governess. In this respect, the finer points of charity work, sewing and household management were considered very important. After all, most such girls were destined to marry, have children and run their own household with a retinue of servants.
It is clear, however, that Florence Stanuell had a different fate from most girls and women form her privileged background, and not just because she went on to enjoy a good deal of success at sport. It is quite probable that she attended a private girls’ school in her early years, where sport was an important part of the curriculum and her natural talents in this arena were nurtured from an early age. Although the first Wimbledon tournament was not held until 1877, when Florence Stanuell was sixteen years of age, lawn tennis, originally considered as merely a pastime or hobby, quickly grew in popularity, especially among the middle class, and was soon being thought of as a real sport.
Growing up as she did on Morehampton Road, and subsequently on Clyde Road in Dublin, Florence Stanuell would have had many opportunities to play lawn tennis because courts were continually being laid down and clubs being opened as the sport grew in popularity. This was true not only for Dublin and the rest of Ireland, but also for the British Isles as a whole. It is even possible that the Stanuells might have had a court in the large back garden of one of their houses. After all, lawn tennis owes some of its original popularity to the fact that it was played on lawns throughout the British Isles when a match was often the occasion for a social gathering.
By the mid-1880s, when Florence Stanuell started taking part in lawn tennis tournaments, the popularity of the sport had spread far beyond the British Isles and other English-speaking countries. In the British Isles it was already possible to speak of ‘the lawn tennis season,’ which, being largely weather-dependent (virtually all tournaments were then held outdoors, on grass), began around mid-May and ended around mid-September. In this and other respects, it was light years away from the sport as it played nowadays.
Florence Stanuell’s first real success at tournament lawn tennis occurred in 1884, in the singles event at the nascent Derbyshire Championships tournament, held in mid-August in Buxton in that particular English county. From what was then an unusually large draw of 32 players, Florence came through to reach the final, where she faced the Englishwoman Agnes Watts (née Noon), who was part of a renowned family of lawn tennis players from Leicestershire. In the final Agnes Watts beat Florence very easily, 6-1, 6-2. The winner was clearly the more experienced tournament player, although it is likely that Florence Stanuell had at least been taking part in handicap events for a certain amount of time before entering level events, where competitors played on equal terms.
Over the course of the next dozen years or so, up until 1895, Florence Stanuell would take part in a varying, usually small, number of lawn tennis tournaments in England and Ireland. She would always take part in grass court tournaments and would enjoy success not just in the singles event, but also at doubles and mixed doubles.
During the lawn tennis season in 1885, Florence Stanuell won the singles title at the Darlington tournament, held in early August in Durham in that north-eastern English county. In the final of the singles event Florence beat her countrywoman Constance Butler, popularly known as ‘Connie’, 6-0, 7-5. In the final of the mixed doubles event at the same tournament Connie Butler had her revenge when she and the Englishman Patrick Bowes-Lyon beat Florence and another Englishman, Howard Pease, 6-4, 6-1.
A few weeks later, towards the end of the 1885 lawn tennis season, Florence Stanuell took part in the Derbyshire Championships tournament in Buxton again. She had been runner-up in the singles event one year earlier, but this time lost at the quarter-final stage to the redoubtable Englishwoman Blanche Bingley, 6-4, 6-4. The latter player would later become Wimbledon singles champion no less than six times.
In 1886, Florence Stanuell again limited her participation to the month of August and to just two tournaments, these once again being the Darlington tournament in Durham and the Derbyshire Championships in Buxton. In Durham, Florence swept the board, taking the singles, doubles and mixed doubles title. In the singles event she easily retained her title, defeating the Yorkshire player Beatrice Wood in the final, 6-2, 6-2. In the doubles event Florence teamed up with Connie Butler; in the final of this event they beat a Miss Langley and a Miss Surtees, 6-4, 6-3. In the mixed doubles event, where Florence’s partner was Patrick Bowes-Lyon, they beat Connie Butler and the Scotsman John Galbraith-Horn, 6-1, 7-5.
At Buxton a few weeks later, Florence was less successful. She gave Blanche Bingley a ‘walkover’ at the quarter-final of the singles event, but managed to reach the final of the doubles event with her sister-in-law, Louisa Martin, reference to whom has already been made. In this last match they lost to Lottie Dod and May Langrishe, 6-2, 7-5.
At this point in time the English player Lottie Dod, the first real lawn tennis prodigy of either sex, was still a month short of her fifteenth birthday. May Langrishe, a native of County Kilkenny, had won the singles title at the inaugural Irish Lawn Tennis Championships in 1879 at the age of 14 (she won the same title in 1883 and 1886), but was not a prodigy in the Lottie Dod sense of the word. Louisa Martin, Florence Stanuell’s partner in the doubles event at Buxton in 1886, was already Ireland’s best player. She defeated Blanche Bingley and May Langrishe on her way to the singles title at Buxton in 1886.
In 1887, Florence Stanuell took part in the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships for the first time. It is not clear why she had not taken part in this tournament in previous years. At this point in time the Irish Championships was, after Wimbledon, the second most prestigious tournament in the lawn tennis calendar, attracting, as it did, almost all of the top players from England and Ireland. Held in Fitzwilliam Square, a Georgian a small Georgian square located close to the city centre, and usually beginning in late May, it was also for several decades the season-opener in the calendar.
In 1887, Florence Stanuell lost her first match in the singles event at the Irish Championships to the English player Lilian Watson, but won the doubles title in partnership with Louisa Martin by defeating Lilian Watson and her sister Maud, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. This was an impressive feat, given that the Watson sisters were an excellent combination, while Maud had won the singles title at Wimbledon in both 1884 and 1885 (the former year had seen the introduction of a women’s singles event at Wimbledon, five years after such an event had first been held at the Irish Championships).
In the second week of June 1887, the Watson sisters had their revenge against Florence Stanuell and Louisa Martin when they beat them in the final of the doubles event at the Cheltenham tournament, held during the first half of June. In the doubles final the English sisters won easily 6-4, 6-1. Louisa Martin impressively won the singles title at this tournament for the second year running, beating the once invincible Maud Watson in the final. In the semi-finals, Louisa Martin had beaten Florence Stanuell, 6-4, 6-4.
The third and last tournament in which Florence Stanuell took part in in 1887 was the Northern Lawn Tennis Association Tournament, popularly known as the Northern Championships. This tournament was held in mid-June, alternating annually between a venue in Liverpool and one in Manchester. In 1887, the venue was the Old Trafford Ground in Manchester, where Florence Stanuell reached the semi-finals of the singles event before the Englishwoman Margaret Bracewell beat her, 6-1, 6-8, 6-3. In the doubles event Florence and Louisa Martin lost in the final to Lottie Dod and her older sister, Ann, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
In 1888, possibly due to professional commitments, Florence Stanuell restricted her participation solely to the Northern Championships, held that year on the grounds of the Liverpool Cricket Club in Aigburth. In the quarter-finals of the singles event in Liverpool Florence Stanuell lost easily to Blanche Hillyard, the former Miss Bingley, 6-1, 6-2. (It is worth noting that, in those days, the draws at many lawn tennis tournaments, including the most important ones, were very small. For example, the draw for the women’s singles event at the Northern Championships in 1888 was just nine, plus the holder, Lottie Dod who, as the defending champion, did not have to play through the event, but instead was able to ‘sit out’ and await the winner of what was then known as the All-Comers’ event.)
In 1889, as if to make up for her almost complete absence from the lawn tennis scene during the previous year, Florence Stanuell took part in four tournaments. Her first appearance came at the Irish Championships in Dublin, where she lost in the quarter-finals of the singles event to Louisa Martin, 6-2, 8-6. Together, both players won the doubles event for the second time by defeating Blanche Hillyard and Lena Rice in the final, 6-4, 6-2.
Helena ‘Lena’ Rice, from County Tipperary, would one year later create history by winning the singles title at Wimbledon. No other Irishwoman had done so before her and none has done so since, although it should be remembered that Lena needed to win only two matches to take the title. The draw of four players did not include the top players of the time, Blanche Hillyard, Lottie Dod and Lena’s countrywoman, Louisa Martin, who was a better player, but only played at Wimbledon four times. In 1889, at the Irish Championships Louisa Martin won the singles title at the Irish Championships for the first of a record nine times when she beat Blanche Hillyard in the final, 7-5, 6-0.
The second lawn tennis tournament in which Florence Stanuell took part in 1889 was the West of England Championships, which was held in the popular spa town of Bath during the final week of May. From a draw of eight players, Florence reached the singles final in Bath where she took the first set off Louisa Martin before losing, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Although Florence was capable of ‘pushing’ Louisa Martin in a singles match, she would never beat her in this event at any tournament. However, there was a consolation of sorts for Florence in Bath when she and Louisa Martin won the doubles event together, beating the rather obscure N. Everett and N. Pope, both of whom appear to have been English, in the final, 6-0, 6-3.
One week later, at the Cheltenham tournament, Florence Stanuell again reached the singles final before again falling to the all-conquering Louisa Martin. This time the score was 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. In the mixed doubles event in Cheltenham, Florence Stanuell teamed up with the Irishman Arthur Wilson (full name Arthur John de Courcy Wilson). They won the title together, defeating Louisa Martin and the Englishman Wilfred Milne in the final, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.
After taking part in the Cheltenham tournament in early June of 1889, Florence Stanuell did not reappear in tournament play until mid-August, when she entered the Derbyshire Championships in Buxton. She had last entered this tournament in 1886. In 1889, Florence lost her first match in the singles event at Buxton to Connie Butler, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Florence was also runner-up in the doubles event with Louisa Martin. In the final they were beaten by the English sisters Bertha and Mary Steedman, 6-4, 6-1. However, as they had done in Cheltenham in June, Florence and Arthur Wilson again won the mixed doubles event, this time by defeating Louisa Martin and the English player Patrick Brown in the final, 8-10, 6-1, 6-3.
In 1890, Florence Stanuell again began the lawn tennis season by taking part in the Irish Championships in Dublin in late May. She lost her first match in the singles event to Louisa Martin, 6-0, 6-4, but with the same player won the doubles event for the third time by defeating Blanche Hillyard and D. Meldon, the latter a rather obscure Irish player, in the final, 6-4, 6-2.
After her success in Dublin, Florence travelled across the Irish Sea to Bath to take part in the West of England Championships, held during the first week in June. In the singles event Florence lost once again to Louisa Martin, 6-3, 8-6, and in the doubles event Florence and Louisa Martin once again won the title. In the final they beat the English player Constance Bryan and the elusive N. Pope, 6-3, 6-3.
Sticking to her routine of taking part in very few lawn tennis tournaments, Florence Stanuell did not appear again until mid-August 1890, when she participated in the Derbyshire Championships in Buxton. Florence appears to have had a special liking for this particular tournament, which she entered almost every year. The Stanuell family might well have had connections in the county of Derbyshire before 1890. This was certainlly the case from 1890 onwards, when Florence’s eldest brother, Charles, married Ida Turner, a native of Buxton, there in April 1890.
In the Derbyshire Championships tournament itself, Florence lost her first match in the singles event, to Mary Steedman, 6-0, 6-4. She had better success in both doubles events, although she was unable to win the title in the either event. In the doubles event Mary Steedman and her sister Bertha defeated Florence and Louisa Martin in a close three-set final, 8-6, 6-8, 6-3. In the final of the mixed doubles event Louisa Martin and her partner, the Englishman Henry Nadin, beat Florence and her partner and countryman Harold Mahony, 6-2, 8-10, 6-0.(1890 had been another triumphant year for Louisa Martin who, with the exception of the doubles title in Bath, had won the singles, doubles and mixed titles at the Irish Championships, the West of England Championships and the Derbyshire Championships.)
Although she only took part in two lawn tennis tournaments during the 1891 season, Florence Stanuell had arguably her most successful season to date in this particular year. In late May, at the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships in Dublin, Florence reached the singles final for the first time before losing to Louisa Martin 6-2, 5-7, 6-0. In the doubles event in Dublin Florence and Louisa Martin won the doubles title together for the third year in a row and the fourth time in all when they beat N. Pope and Helen Jackson, the latter a native of Hexham in the English county of Northumberland, in the final, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. For good measure Louisa Martin won the ‘triple crown’ again, taking the mixed doubles title with the Dubliner (David) Grainger Chaytor.
In the middle of June in 1891, Florence Stanuell took part in the Northern Championships lawn tennis tournament, which that year was held in Manchester. The best players of the time, Louisa Martin, Lottie Dod and Blanche Hillyard, were absent that year and from a modest field of ten players Florence made her way to the All-Comers’ Final of the singles event. In this match, which was also the championship match (Mary Steedman, the holder, was not defending, so there was no Challenge Round), Florence met and defeated the Yorkshire-born player Beatrice Wood, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
Despite the modest make-up of the singles draw at the Northern Championships in 1891, Florence Stanuell’s victory was nevertheless an impressive one in what was another excellent year for Irish lawn tennis. Just one week after Florence’s victory in Manchester another Irishwoman, Mabel Cahill from County Kilkenny, won the singles title at the United States Championships at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Pennsylvania. In the Challenge Round Mabel defeated the holder, the American Ellen Roosevelt, 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. Mabel Cahill also won the doubles title at the United Championships in 1891. (One year later, she would win the ‘triple crown’ of singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the same tournament.)
In 1892, Florence Stanuell limited her participation to just one tournament, the Irish Championships in late May. Here, she lost in quarter-finals to another Irishwoman, a Miss G. Crofton, 6-3, 10-8. At the same tournament Louisa Martin won the singles title for the fourth year in a row by defeating Miss G. Crofton in the final. However, her most impressive victory had come in the quarter-finals when she beat the virtually invincible Lottie Dod, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
The lawn tennis season of 1893 marked one of the last occasions on which Florence Stanuell took part in tournament play. She restricted therself to taking part in only one tournament, the Irish Championships, where, rather fittingly, she enjoyed the biggest success of her career in singles. From a modest field of ten, which did not include the very best players in the British Isles, Florence came through to the final where she faced the elusive Miss N. Pope. After a one-sided contest Florence emerged victorious, 6-2, 6-3, thus becoming singles champion of Ireland, a noteworthy achievement despite the modest nature of the entry in this particular event.
In the doubles event, which Florence Stanuell had won on four previous occasions with Louisa Martin, Florence was not quite so successful in 1893 as she been in previous years. Together with Miss G. Crofton, she reached the final round, but they were unable to take to the court so gave the other finalists, Jane Corder and a Miss Shaw, two of the top Scottish players of the time, a walkover.
As already indicated, Florence Stanuell took part in virtually no more lawn tennis tournaments after 1893. One exception to this came in 1895, when she and Louisa Martin teamed up for the doubles event at the Irish Championships in late May. However, they were unable to add to their tally of four titles in this event, losing in the semi-finals. Louisa Martin would continue to take part in lawn tennis tournaments on into the early twentieth century, eventually winning a record nine singles titles at the Irish Championships.
Source:
A Biographical Sketch of the Irish Sportswoman Florence Stanuell by Mark Ryan.
A Biographical Sketch of the Irish Sportswoman Florence Stanuell - TennisForum.com
[Thanks to Newmark for this biography]