POLLEY, NORA (nee Nora Margaret Fischer)
India/Great Britian
Born 29 July 1894 in Bengal, India
Married Sydney Trepess Polley in 1915. He died 07 January 1970
[Active in 1924]
Competed in the 1924 Olympics representing India.
Mr. Ian Morrison (a researcher from
Sports-Reference.com - Sports Statistics and History) did some additional investigation on "N. Polley" - here is what he found:
"I think we can safely say that N Polley is Mrs N M Polley, i.e. Nora Margaret Polley.
She was born Norma Margaret Fischer at Bengal, India on 29 July 1894. In 1901 she lived in Scotland with her parents and sisters and in 1911 the Census shows that she and two of her sisters were educated and liuving in at the Hillcote Boarding School in Eastbourne.
She obviously got married pre-1921 because in September 1921 Mrs Nora Margaret Polley sailed to India via Gibraltar. Her address at the time was “Edgehill,” 6, Mill Road, Eastbourne. [The research by Olymous puts her marriage at 1915]
I don’t have access to the Indian marriage record but the screen shot of it shows the a Nora Margaret Fischer got married and the two relatives shown are: Lewis Gordon and Sydney Trepess ie her father (Lewis Gordon Fischer) and her husband-to-be … Sydney Trepess Polley.
Her husband, Sydney Trepess Polley, served in the Indian Army from 1902 and was promoted to a Major in 1918. Surprisingly there is very little on him and no death notice or obituary in The Times.
In April 1924 a Mrs Polley competed in the Juan-les-Pins tournament at Cannes prior to the Paris Olympics. She reached the semi-final of the ladies doubles with Mrs Musker but lost to Suzanne Lenglen and Mrs F J Gould, the eventual winners.
The Times Olympic report in 1924 refers to her as MISS Polley (India). In the mixed doubles results in which she and her partner Jacob (surname) lost to our old friend Edward McCrea who, according to the report played with Mrs Wallace (?Wallis)
Ten days after the Olympics Nora played in the Tunbridge Wells tournament and she is listed as: Mrs N M Polley – the first real sign that Nora Margaret Fischer is Norma Margaret Polley – or just one big coincidence. She played in the Hastings Tournament a month later, again as Mrs N M Polley and then in the South of England Championships and also Weymouth and Torbay tournaments. It was if she made the trip to France for the Olympics and had a swansong playing tournaments on the south coast of England near to her Eastbourne ‘roots’. There is no record of her playing tennis again after Octoiber 1924.
She died in 1988 at Leominster, Herefordshire."
[Thanks to Olympus for his research on this player, which has been confirmed by Ian Morrison. Thanks to LKK for bringing Ian Morrison's work to our attention]
