WAVERTREE, Lady SOPHIE (nee Sophie Florence Lothrop Sheridan)
Great Britain
Born 19 September 1873 in Long Bredy, Dorset
Died 27 November 1952 in Ngongotaha, near Rotorua, Auckland
Married (1) William Hall Walker on 29 September 1896 in Frampton, Dorset; his death in 1933
Married (2) Francis Marion Bates Fisher on 9 August 1947 in Saint Stephen’s Church, Sydney
[Active in the 1920s, mainly in doubles]
Sophie Sheridan was the second of the seven children of Algernon Thomas Brinsley Sheridan and Maria Sheridan (née Maria Lothrop Morley). Sophie had an older sister and five younger brothers. Her paternal great-great-grandfather was the renowned Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), whose works include The School for Scandal and The Rivals. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, had been godfather to Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788), Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s father and a native of County Cavan, Ireland.
Sophie Sheridan’s first husband, William Hall Walker (b. 1856), was a member of the Conservative Party and held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for South-West Lancashire, Widnes Division, between 1900 and 1919. He was also managing director of Peter Walker & Company, a large brewing business established by his father; a renowned breeder of thoroughbred race horses; and founder of the National Stud.
During World War One, Lady Sophie Wavertree converted Sussex Lodge, her mansion in Regent’s Park, London, into a hospital for wounded soldiers and started a trust fund for the Wallingford Home for Invalided Children. After World War One she hosted lavish parties and sponsored charitable lawn tennis matches at Sussex Lodge, especially around Wimbledon time, when many of the top players of the time were her guests. She occasionally took part in lawn tennis tournaments herself, usually in women’s doubles or mixed doubles events.
William Walker was created 1st Baron Wavertree of Delamere, in the county of Chester, England, on 27 October 1919. On his death in 1933, Lord Wavertree left effects to the value of almost £840,000, an enormous sum in those days. Because he and Lady Sophie had had no children, the barony became extinct on his death, but Lady Sophie retained her name and title until her own death.
Lady Sophie Wavertree probably met Francis Fisher (b. 1877) through lawn tennis. He was oneof the best of the early male lawn tennis players from New Zealand and had a long career that saw him still taking part in tournaments into the 1920s. He was also a Member of Parliament (M.P.) in New Zealand from 1905 to 1914. During this period, he switched political allegiance so often that he was given the nickname ‘Rainbow Fisher’.
Francis Fisher lived in Europe for several years after World War One. He was a managing director of the Dunlop sports company during this period, a position which conflicted with his status as an amateur player and the friend of many of the top players of the time, and also had repercussions for Lady Sophie. They probably started a relationship around 1920. In his autobiographical work Sixty Years in Tennis (1991), the fashion designer Ted Tinling, himself a lawn tennis player, wrote of Lady Sophie and Francis Fisher as follows:
“Yet for ambitious hostesses, Suzanne Lenglen was the ultimate catch in any European capital. There is no doubt that she and Sophie Wavertree had a far deeper mutual affection than this implies, but it was also true that Sophie’s constant companion, ‘F.M.B.’, as he was always called [Francis Fisher], was the managing director of one of Europe’s most progressive sporting goods manufacturers. With all the goodwill in the world, Lady Wavertree’s close friendship with Suzanne, as with many other top tennis stars, could never therefore be entirely divorced from the commercial interests of ‘F.M.B.’.
“Both Lady Wavertree and Lady Domini Crosfield had sumptuous London properties where tennis stars could enjoy the capital’s hospitality at its most glamorous. Lady Wavertree also had a beautiful home by the lake in Aix-les-Bains, a favourite French summer resort at that time. In earlier days King Edward VII had been a regular visitor to Lady Wavertree’s London mansion.”
In later life Lady Sophie and Francis Fisher moved to the Antipodes together. When they married each other in Sydney, Australia, in November 1947, she was 73 and he was 69. This was also a second marriage for Francis Fisher. He had married Esther Alice Davie in 1899 in New Zealand. This marriage must have ended in divorce because Esther was still alive when Francis Fisher married Lady Sophie. His first marriage produced several children; Lady Sophie did not have any children of her own.
Lady Sophie Wavertree died at her home in Rotorua, near Auckland, New Zealand, in November 1952, at the age of 79. (Francis Fisher outlived her by nearly eight years, dying in Rotorua in July 1960 at the age of 82.) In her will Lady Sophie left effects to the value of just over £8,322.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker,_1st_Baron_Wavertree
[Thanks to Newmark for this information]
