Esna Boyd

Esna Flora Boyd was born on 21 September 1899 in Melbourne, Victoria, the youngest of the two daughters of the Right Honourable James Arthur Boyd (1867-1941), a businessman and politician, and Emma Flora Boyd (née McCormack; 1867-1932). Although James Boyd was born on the island of Portsea, just off the south coast of Hampshire, both of his parents were natives of Ayrshire in Scotland, and his family moved back there when James was a child. Emma McCormack was born in the town of Clunes in Victoria, Australia.

James Boyd emigrated to Australia in 1885 and married Emma McCormack in 1894. Their first daughter, Alva Janet Boyd, was born in 1897. By the second decade of the twentieth century James Boyd had risen high enough in society to be able to send both of his daughters to the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, a private school for girls located in the suburb of Burwood in Melbourne. (In her time the girls’ mother, Emma, had been a pupil at the same school.). It was there that Esna Boyd first began to play tennis. She was the school’s singles champion in 1917 and 1918.

As the following report shows, in the autumn of 1918, when she was 19, Esna was also runner-up in the girls’ singles event at what was known as Public Schools’ Girls’ and Boys’ Asphalt Championship. The report in question was published in The Geelong Advertiser on 8 October 1918:

“At the Public Schools’ Girls’ and Boys’ Asphalt Championship, played on South Yarra Courts, Ethel Wilcox, of the Geelong Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (G.C.E.G.G.S.), beat Helen Outhwaite, the present holder of the Schoolgirls’ Lawn Tennis Championship, but was put out in the semi-finals by Esna Boyd, of the Presbyterian Ladies’ College. The final was played between Jean Nicholas, G.C.E.G.G.S., and Esna Boyd. Jean Nicholas won two sets straight, 6-2, 6-2. Jack Hawkes won the boys’ championship; thus both honours came to Geelong.”

After leaving the Presbyterian Ladies’ College Alva Boyd went to university. She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science in 1925, and later specialised in dermatology. Esna did not attend university; instead she focussed on her burgeoning tennis career. By the end of 1919, she was good enough to represent Victoria in the interstate matches against South Australia, held at the same time as the Victoria Championships tournament in late November.

In 1922, at the White City Tennis Club in Sydney, Esna reached the women’s singles event for the first time at what was then known as the Australasian Championships (it became the Australian Championships in 1927). It was the first year in which the tournament featured events for women, and in the singles final Esna was beaten by the Queenslander Maud Molesworth (née Mutch), popularly known as ‘Maud’. However, Esna won the women’s doubles event with Marjorie Mountain and the mixed doubles event with John Bailey Hawkes, popularly known as Jack. Both of her doubles partners were also from Victoria.

Esna would reach the women’s singles event at the Australasian Championships/Australian Championships seven times in a row from 1922, but would be successful only once, in 1927, when the tournament was held in Kooyong in her native Victoria. In the final she defeated the Sydney native Sylvia Harper (née Lance), 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. In 1927, Esna also won the mixed doubles at the same tournament for the third and last time, when she and Jack Hawkes were the defending champions.

In the women’s doubles event Esna was also successful in 1923 (with Sylvia Lance), 1926 (with fellow Victorian Meryl O’Hara Wood, née Waxman) and 1928 (with Daphne Akhurst, who was from Sydney). For much of the 1920s, Esna and Daphne Akhurst were the two best female tennis players in Australia. Both of them were part of the first two Australian women’s tennis teams to be sent abroad on an international tour, in 1925 and 1928.

While abroad in 1925, Esna notably reached the quarter-finals of the women’s singles event on her Wimbledon début before losing easily to Kathleen McKane, the defending champion. At the Irish Championships in Dublin in mid-July, Esna beat Daphne Akhurst in the women’s singles final, 9-7, 6-4. The women’s doubles final featured all four members of the travelling Australian team, with Esna and Floris Saint-George, of Sydney, beating Daphne and Sylvia Harper, 8-6, 6-4.

Esna had quite a good record in singles against Daphne Akhurst, but lost to her the three times they met in the women’s singles final at the Australasian Championships/Australian Championships: in 1925, 1926 and 1928. At the annual state tournaments, Esna notably won the women’s singles title at the Victorian Championships five times: in 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927 and 1931; at the New South Wales Championships three times: in 1923, 1926 and 1927; and at the South Australian Championships four times: in 1922, 1923, 1925 and 1927.

During the Australian women’s team’s first trip abroad, Esna met Angus Robertson, a Scotsman. Three years later they were engaged. The following report on their engagement is taken from The Sporting Globe (Melbourne), of 27 October 1928:

“Miss Esna Boyd’s Engagement. Tennis Player Will Stay in Scotland.

“Miss Esna Boyd, the Victorian tennis player, and captain of the Australian Women’s Team which played recently overseas, will settle in Scotland. Her engagement to Mr Angus Robertson, son of the late Sir William Robertson, of Dunfermline, is announced from London. Miss Boyd will be missed in Australian, and particularly Victorian, tennis, since she is ranked among the ten best women players in the world, and has been one of the best in Australia for some years.

“Mr James A. Boyd, Miss Boyd’s father, said today that he had never met Mr Robertson who had not been to Australia. He said that after their marriage the couple would settle at Dunfermline. Scotland, where Mr Robertson owns the linen manufacturing business of Hay and Robertson.

“Mr Robertson, who is 36 years old, is a brother of the wife of Dr Charles W.B. Littlejohn, of Ivanhoe, son of the principal of Scotch College. He and Miss Boyd first met when she visited England with the Australian women’s team in 1925. He was awarded the Military Cross in the war, and is now a colonel in the Territorials.”

Esna Boyd and Angus Robertson were married on 11 March 1929 in Saint Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh. The following report on Esna’s wedding day appeared in The Dundee Courier on 12 March 1929:

“Tennis Star’s Wedding. Australian Bride for Dunfermline Bridegroom. Dominion Guests Attend Edinburgh Ceremony.

“Guests from Australia, from the West Indies, and from various parts of Scotland and England travelled to Edinburgh yesterday in order to attend the wedding of Miss Esna Boyd, the Australian international tennis player, younger daughter of the Honourable James A. Boyd and Mrs Emma Boyd, Melbourne, and Mr Angus Robertson, second son of the late Sir William Robertson and of Lady Elizabeth Robertson, Benachie, Dunfermline.

“Brilliant sunshine streamed into Saint Cuthbert’s Church while the wedding vows were being taken. The chancel was lined with daffodils, arranged in clusters between dwarf and tall palms, and here and there high branching clumps of mimosa-like wattle were placed. Reverend Kenneth D. McLaren, Errol, and Reverend Dr John Safely officiated.

“The bride was given away by her father, who, with Mrs Boyd and their other daughter, Miss Alva Boyd, travelled from Australia for the wedding. Miss Boyd wore a graceful gown of satin, tinted deep cream, and embroidered delicately all over in tiny motifs of gold and silver. Fashioned with long sleeves and long-fitting bodice, the gown was swathed at the ceinture with a handsome sash of gold lame, from which fell in soft full folds the skirt, whose dipping hemline reached the ground at the back.

“A full court train of gold tissue, mounted on cream chiffon, was attached to the shoulder by a gold cord and tassels. The veil of cream silk net was secured in novel manner by choux of net, centred with orange blossom, linked by myrtle leaves across the forehead, and finished by long streamers of net. Golden yellow roses composed the bridal bouquet.

“Two children, Miss Christine and Master Arthur Robertson, the niece and nephew of the bridegroom, carried the train. The latter wore a white blouse above a kilt, and the former a tiny replica of the grown-up bridesmaid’s frock.

“Miss Alva Boyd, who was her sister’s only bridesmaid, chose a smartly bouffant frock of lettuce leaf green, the short crossover casque, dipping in front, being of taffetas, and skirt of layers of net falling in handkerchief points. The long sleeves were of net, and a broad panel of taffetas hanging pendant from the waist gave a distinctive note to the front of the skirt. Encircling her hair was a coronal of gold leaves, and she carried sheaf of daffodils and wattle, tied with golden yellow ribbon. Mr Robert F. Martin was groomsman. The ushers were Mr James Dandio, Dr J. Barclay Reekie, and Mr O. A. Cunningham.

“After the ceremony the guests walked across to the Caledonian Hotel, where, numbering about 100, they were received by Mrs Boyd. Her gown was gracefully composed of navy blue georgette, embroidered to reveal a lining of carnation pink georgette. Of navy straw, her hat was brimmed in navy lace, mounted on pink, and she wore a skunk-trimmed coat of sealskin. Her bouquet was of pink carnations.

“With her was Miss [Youtha] Anthony, Melbourne, who chose a frock of Bordeaux red georgette. Her small hat of felt to match surmounted a beaver coat. Mr and Mrs Thomas Boyd, Trinidad, uncle and aunt of the bride, journeyed to Scotland specially for the wedding. Mrs Boyd’s gown was of crevette satin, enhanced at the throat with mushroom-tinted georgette, and her seal coat was topped by a black hat showing gold stitchery on the crown.

“Lady Robertson chose a gown of exquisite black lace under a smart coat of black satin zibeline. A broad ermine stole and becoming chapeau of baku distinguished by folded wings of straw completed the ensemble. She carried red carnations. Her daughter, Miss Mary Robertson, was wearing a fashionable frock of crêpe do chine, its black background patterned in blue and cream. Her picture hat was of black balibuntal. Miss Edith B. Robertson, another daughter, came in a striking frock of geranium georgette, the skirt composed of draped tiers. Her brimless hat was of black chiffon velvet, and had as ornament a cluster of geranium velvet blooms.

“Mrs Edith Robertson, sister-in-law of the bridegroom, over a charming patterned gown in maize crepe de chine, had a smart black redingote trimmed with beige fur. Her hat was of black baku straw. Mrs J.W. Robertson (aunt), with a navy tailored coat, collared in skunk, wore a hat to tone. Miss Robertson (cousin) surmounted a seal coat with a becoming hat swathed multi-colour. Miss Berry, another aunt, had graceful black marocain gown, with a skunk wrap and hat of black satin, relieved with a diamond ornament.

“With Mr Robert H. Robertson came Mrs Robertson, dressed in a georgette and lace gown of wine red. Her hat match was of straw, with appliqués in taffetas and panne. Mr and Mrs Robert H. Robertson, jun., also attended, the latter in a beige-trimmed black coat over a primrose ninon gown, and hat of Naples blue felt.

“Mrs Usher, Garstine, was wearing a gown flowered in green and yellow, under a coat of Persian lamb. Her picture hat was of baku straw. Dr John Currie, D.S.O., Darlington, cousin of the bride, brought Mrs Currie, whose coat beige cloth, with narrow insets of satin to accord, revealed gown of duck egg blue. Her hat of straw matched her coat.

“The Dunfermline guests included Mrs Beveridge, who, with a frock of black ring velvet, wore picture hat of black velvet and sable scarf; Mr and Mrs MacBeth, the latter in a black satin coat and gown relieved at the casque with frills of pink georgette; Mrs R.K. Smith, in coat of navy silk rep mole-trimmed, and navy osprey-mounted hat; and Mrs Stewart, beige with poppy red hat.

“Also present were Mrs Safely, Mrs Elder, Miss Elder, Mrs Myles, Mrs Drysdale, Mrs Marshall, Miss Marshall, Mrs John Marshall, Mrs Arthur, Mrs Grieve, Miss Fleming, Mrs Black. Mr and Mrs William Dick Mr and Mrs Gorrie; Mr Gunn, Dunfermline; Mrs Douglas Miller, Bridge of Allan; Mrs Fletcher; Mrs Halley; Miss Miller; and Miss Penman, Kirkcaldy.

“When she left for the honeymoon, Mrs Robertson travelled in a coat of Lido blue kasha over frock of wool lace in a paler shade. Her hat to match was of wool lace and felt. Mr and Mrs Robertson are to take up residence in Dunfermline.”

Angus Robertson was born on 1 July 1892 in the city of Dunfermline in Fifeshire, the fourth of the six children – three sons and three daughters – of Sir William Robertson (1856-1923), a linen manufacturer also from Dunfermline, and Lady Elizabeth Mary Robertson (née Berry; 1855-1933), who was from the town of Inverurie in Aberdeenshire.

The following entry from Who’s Who in Business (1914) describes Hay & Robertson, Ltd., the company part-owned by Angus Robertson in 1929, as it was twelve years earlier. (The William Robertson who jointly founded the company in 1862 was the paternal grandfather of Angus Robertson):

“Hay & Robertson, Ltd., Linen and Cotton Damask Manufacturers and Embroiderers, Saint Margaret’s Works, Foundry Street, Dunfermline, Fife. Hours of Business: 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Established in 1862, by Robert Hay and William Robertson. Succeeded by Robert Robertson, Robert Robertson (jun.), Sir William Robertson, Robert Hay Robertson, and John Whyte Robertson. Incorporated as a private Limited Company in 1910. Directors: Sir William Robertson (Managing Director and Chairman), Robert Hay Robertson, John Whyte Robertson, W. B. Robertson.

“Premises: Seven acres. Staff 1300. Branches: Caledonia Works. Dunfermline. Agencies in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast, New York, Toronto, Adelaide and South Africa. Specialities: Damask Manufacture, Hem Stitching and Fancy Sewing and Embroidering. Connection: United Kingdom, Foreign, Colonial. Telephones: Nos. 261 and 262 Private Exchange, Dunfermline. Telegraphic Address: ‘Hay, Dunfermline.’ Codes: Western Union, A B C, and Lieber's. Bankers: Royal Bank of Scotland, Ltd. Sir William Robertson is Honorary Sheriff and a Justice of the Peace, Vice-Chairman of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust.”

A son, called William James Boyd Robertson, was born to Esna and Angus at their home in Dunfermline on 13 March 1930. After recuperating, Esna continued to take part in tennis tournaments, including several in her adopted homeland of Scotland. At the Scottish (Grass Court) Championships, held in July in the town of Peebles on the Scottish Borders, she won the singles title in 1932, defeating Olga Webb in the final, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Esna was runner-up in the same event at the same tournament five times: in 1930, 1931, 1933, 1937 and 1939.

Esna excelled at the Scottish Hard Court Championships tournament, held [in August] on clay in the town of Saint Andrews, further up the east coast from the Robertson home in Dunfermline. She won the singles title there six times: in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1935 and 1936. She also continued to enjoy success in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles events at the tournaments in which she took part.

In October 1931, Esna and Angus travelled with their young son with them on a trip to Australia. They arrived in Melbourne in early November 1931 and stayed with Esna’s parents in their home on Kilda Street, Brighton. During her stay, Esna took part in the Victorian Championships tournament, which was held at Kooyong in early December. In a superb all-round performance she won five matches in straight sets to take the women’s singles event for the fifth and last time. In the final she beat the South Australian Kathleen Le Messurier, 6-2, 6-4.

Esna had planned to take part in the Australian Championships tournament held in early February 1932 in Adelaide. However, her mother, Emma, who had been ailing, died on 5 February 1932 at the age of 65. The funeral was held the following day. In early March, Esna did take part in the Melbourne Cricket Club’s Autumn Championships tennis tournament, held at the Albert Ground. Once again she was in excellent form and won the women’s singles title, beating fellow Victorian Gladys Toyne in the final, 8-6, 7-5. Soon afterwards, Esna and Angus returned to Scotland with their son.

A second child, Mary Boyd Robertson, was born to Esna and Angus on 13 August 1933. After recuperating from the birth, Esna returned to tennis competition and continued to take part in tournaments until Great Britain and France declared war on Germany in early September 1939. The previous year, Esna had been part of a team of Scottish female players who met a visiting team of Australian players for a series of matches held in Pollokshields, Glasgow, in late July 1938.

Esna herself had, of course, represented Australia when women’s tennis teams had been sent abroad in both 1925 and 1928. In Glasgow in 1938, Australia was represented by Nancye Wynne (Victoria), Thelma Long (New South Wales), Nell Hopman, née Hall (New South Wales) and Dorothy Stevenson (Victoria). In addition to Esna, Scotland was represented by Nancy MacPherson Grant (née Dickin), Lesley Fulton (née Hunter) and Mollie Welsh.

Rain interfered with the programme, which was originally made up of four singles and four doubles matches. However, the outcome was clear cut, with Australia winning all six matches that were played (four singles and two doubles; two doubles matches were unfinished). In the singles Thelma Coyne beat Esna, 6-1, 6-2, while in the doubles Thelma and Nancye Wynne beat Esna and Nancy MacPherson Grant, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.

In September 1940, Esna travelled back to Australia with her two children. As the following report shows, she had been carrying out war work before leaving Scotland:

From The Bulletin (Australia), 11 September 1940

“Mrs Angus Robertson, who used to be tennis champion Esna Boyd, has arrived in Melbourne from her home in Scotland, plus two children and much Scottish war work experience. Two years ago she joined the Civil Nursing Reserve, and completed the long and thorough course which embraces practical work in hospital wards. She also belonged to the Women’s Voluntary Service (W.V.S.), which meant that mending day came three days a week. Before being returned to the Troops their laundry passed through the hands of the W.V.S., which sewed on buttons, mended semmits (i.e., singlets) of the Scottish laddies, darned their socks or replaced worn ones with new pairs.

“Mrs Robertson (her husband is chief of the Observer Corps for the district around Dunfermline) was also interested in the land girls, being one of the supervisors and liaison officers who interviewed girls and their employers. As well as providing the girls with uniforms the Government also gives them a month’s free tuition at an agricultural college.

“Scottish people mourn the passing of the kilt, which is being replaced throughout the country by khaki battle dress, but in Scotland, as in England, the spirit of the people is amazing. Even young children help, running messages after school and collecting waste products in their push-carts.

“Mrs Robertson has not played tennis since war broke out, but until the war is over she is likely to hold both the hard and grass courts doubles championships of Scotland, for she was successful in 1938, the last year the tournaments were held. At present she and her children are at the Windsor with her father, James A. Boyd, and sister, Dr Alva Boyd.”

Esna and her two children spent the remainder of the war in Australia. She took part in one or two special tennis competitions during her stay. However, most sporting events were cancelled for the duration of the war.

From The Herald (Melbourne), 18 February 1941:

“Old Collegians’ Tennis

“Mrs Esna Robertson, formerly Esna Boyd, playing for Presbyterian Ladies’ College, was a new entrant in the Sun Cup for members of the Old Collegians’ Association at Kooyong today. The holders of the Cup, Fintona, with Misses G. Stevenson, Dorothy Mauger and Gwen and Kath Thomas, appear likely winners again this year. They are a strong quartette.”

As the following report from The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne) of 25 June 1946 shows, Esna and her two children returned to Scotland in late June 1946.

“Farewell Dinner Party

“Mrs Angus Robertson, better known to Australians as Esna Boyd, the tennis champion, was farewelled by some of her friends at a dinner at the Hotel Australia last night. Mrs Robertson has been in Australia with her two children, Bill and Mary, for the past six years and hopes to return on Friday by plane to her home in Bonnyton, Dunfermline, Scotland.

“Those who farewelled her last night were Mrs Graham Waddell, Mrs, J. Colbrooke, Miss R. Rees. Miss M. Paxton. Miss E. Wood. Mrs. John Waddell. Mrs O. Driscoll, Miss L. Canny and Miss M. Hannan. All are members of the Victorian Lawn Tennis Association Children’s Hospital Auxiliary. Mrs Robertson gave the auxiliary a parting gift.”

In later years Esna returned to Australia again for several prolonged stays. The following report, published in The Herald (Melbourne) on 8 October 1952, indicates that in later life she favoured playing golf over tennis.

“Former tennis star on visit from Scotland.

“Although she visits Wimbledon each year to see the championships, former Australian woman tennis champion Mrs Angus Robertson now plays more golf than tennis. Mrs Robertson, as Miss Esna Boyd, held the Australian women’s singles title in 1927. She now lives in Scotland and is here with her husband for a visit of several months. Mrs Robertson says the Scottish climate is more suited to golf and rugby than tennis or cricket. However, her son, Bill, 22, and daughter, Mary, 19, are keen tennis players and Bill is in the Christ’s College team at Cambridge.

“Mary would have liked to have come to Australia with her parents, but she is completing a domestic science course in Edinburgh. She is at Atholl Crescent, at which the girls learn first aid and varied handcrafts as well as cooking, dressmaking and domestic management. Many of the students are in residence.

“Mrs Robertson’s home is three miles from Dumfermline. She says that domestic help is almost as hard to get in Scotland as it is here. Nobody seems to want to do
domestic work in the country.

“One of this former Melbourne woman’s chief interests, apart from her home and family, is the Red Cross. She is vice-president of the Red Cross for the Landward area of Fife. Social work for incapacitated ex-servicemen includes a lending library service to the home as well as hospitals, and special Christmas food parcels for the old people.

“Speaking of the Wimbledon Championships this year, Mrs Robertson thought that Australian Thelma Long put up one of the best performances against Maureen Connolly. She played a better singles match than Mrs Robertson can ever remember having seen her play.

“She is enjoying being back in Australia and is greatly impressed by the wealth of flowers here. ‘At home the cinerarias and arum lilies have to be grown in pots.’ Mrs Robertson leaves Melbourne today to spend three weeks with her sister at Yarragundry, Wagga, but will be in Australia till April.”

Esna Boyd Robertson died in Dunfermline, Fife, on 13 November 1966 at the age of 67.
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I will read that tomorrow. I lived with Celeste Liddle as a house mate. That is some to read...when you are tight. Are you good?

 

Appendix I

Esna’s parents: James Arthur Boyd and Emma Flora Boyd (née McCormack)

From The Australian Dictionary of Biography

Biography - James Arthur Boyd - Australian Dictionary of Biography

By Kay Rollison

James Arthur Boyd (1867-1941), businessman and politician, was born on 7 July 1867 at Portsea, Hampshire, England, son of John Boyd, draper, and his wife Janet Moffatt, née McTurk. About 1869 the family moved to Ayrshire, Scotland. James was educated at St John's Academy, Glasgow, but left school early to become a farm-labourer. He was then apprenticed as a ship’s painter on the Loch line.

He arrived in Melbourne in 1885 and became first a painter of buildings and later a storeman. He attended night classes at the Working Men’s College, dabbling with Henry George's single-tax theories. In 1887-88 he took charge of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.’s models at the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition.

In the mid-1890s Boyd prospected for gold in Western Australia. He returned to Melbourne and became proprietor of the Fidelity Free Storage Co., where he had previously been employed. For a time he was in partnership with W. J. Bradshaw, but by 1910 traded as Fidelity Storage Co. From small beginnings he expanded his commercial interests. In the 1920s and 1930s he was a director of Mutual Store Ltd, Rolfe & Co. Ltd, and Jumbunna Wool Co., which also had coal interests in Gippsland.

From the early 1900s Boyd had been active in the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce and was president in 1920-22 and 1930-32. He was president in 1922-23 of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Australia which he represented at a congress in London in 1934. By 1941 he was chairman of directors of Melbourne Hotels Ltd, Southern Union Insurance Co. of Australia Ltd and Union Investment Co. Ltd, and was a director of Australian Provincial Assurance Association Ltd, Australian Gypsum Products Pty Ltd, Victor Electric Plaster Mills Ltd and Windsor Hotel Ltd.

Boyd was a member of the Port Melbourne Town Council in 1898-1904, serving as mayor in 1903. In 1897, as a free trader, he had contested the seat of Port Melbourne in the Legislative Assembly. In 1900 he stood for Melbourne, and in March 1901 for the Federal seat of Corio. In July he won Melbourne in a bitterly fought assembly by-election. He continued to defend free trade; on the political issues of the nature and extent of government expenditure and the proper direction of rural development, he remained conservative, but as forceful and independent as his self-made background presaged.

He was one of the first to throw off (Sir) William Irvine’s attempts in 1902-03 to impose rigid party discipline and was outspokenly critical of the Bent government’s policy and tactics in 1904-06. In February 1907 Bent appointed him minister without office. However, when Boyd returned in 1908 from London, where he had been Victorian representative at the Franco-British Exhibition, he found the ministry reconstructed in his absence and he resigned in late October in protest against concessions to the country faction.

In the ensuing election he stood as a Liberal but lost the seat to his Labour rival. He was a member of the royal commission on the University of Melbourne (1902-04), and of the board of inquiry into cancer remedy claims (1906-11). He was also on the committee of the Queen Victoria Hospital.

In 1913 Boyd won Henty in the House of Representatives as a Liberal. He renewed his long-standing dispute with Labour, especially on mining issues; in 1917, as a strong conscriptionist, he accepted W. M. Hughes’s leadership of the National Party. In December 1919 he stood as a Liberal Nationalist but lost on preferences. Without party endorsement, he was defeated once more in 1922, and did not stand again.

‘Admiral’ Boyd retained his interest in the sea, with yachting as his chief hobby. In 1909-19 he chaired a committee set up to train delinquent boys for maritime life, and was responsible for the purchase of an old Loch line sailing-ship for training purposes. He was a commissioner of the Melbourne Harbour Trust in 1913-41, representing exporting interests.

A Presbyterian, Boyd had married Emma Flora McCormack on 5 January 1894 at Flemington. Of their two daughters, Alva became a medical practitioner, and Esna was an Australian tennis champion. Predeceased by his wife, Boyd lived at the Hotel Windsor until his death of coronary vascular disease on 12 April 1941. He left an estate valued for probate at £14,755.

James Arthur Boyd, Esna’s father.
--

Esna’s mother, Emma Flora Boyd (née McCormack), died on 5 February 1932 in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne. She was 64.

From The Record, Emerald Hill (Victoria), 13 February 1932:

“Mrs J.A. Boyd

“On Friday morning, February 5, the death occurred of Emma Flora Boyd, wife of the Honourable James A. Boyd, an ex-mayor of Port Melbourne, and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. The Town Hall flag was flown at half-mast. Deceased, who had been ill for some time, passed away at her residence, Saint Kilda Street, Brighton.

“She originally came from Clunes. was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, and settled for some years in Port Melbourne. As Mayoress, 1902-3, she was very popular, and endeared herself to all who had the pleasure of meeting her. She has left two daughters – Dr Alva Boyd and Mrs Angus Robertson (the famous tennis player).

“Her remains were conveyed un Saturday afternoon to the Springvale Necropolis for interment, and the funeral was largely attended.”
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Appendix II: Dr Alva Boyd

Alva Janet Boyd, Esna’s sister, was born in Melbourne in 1897. Like Esna, Alva attended the Presbyterian Ladies’ College in their native city. Alva then went on to university and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science in 1925. She later specialised in dermatology.

In 1942, Alva married John Robert Macrae (1891-1963), the owner of a sheep station, from the town of Terang in Victoria. She was 45 and he was 51 at the time of their wedding. Dr Alva Boyd died on 14 October 1964.
--

The following two newspaper articles provide an insight into Dr Alva Boyd’s life and career:

From The Daily News, Perth (W.A.), 30 May 1934:

“Woman Skin Specialist

“After eighteen months abroad Dr Alva Boyd is returning in the Otranto, which passed through Freemantle yesterday, to her home in Melbourne where she hopes to put up her plate in Collins Street as a skin specialist.

“‘There are few women skin specialists, and furthermore I have always been interested in dermatology,’ said Dr Boyd. She worked for twelve months in the Skin Hospital, London, and was impressed with the work done there.

“Dr Boyd is a sister of Esna Boyd, now Mrs Angus Robertson, the tennis player, who is the mother of two children, and lives in Dunfermline, Scotland. ‘My sister hopes to play at Wimbledon again this year,’ said Dr Boyd, who spent some time with the Robertson family in Scotland”
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From The Sun News Pictorial (Melbourne), 19 March 1946:

“Eighteen years at Richmond Clinic. Dr Alva Boyd retires this month.

“By Esme Johnston
“After 18 years as Medical Officer at Richmond Dispensary and Outpatients’ Clinic, Dr Alva Boyd will retire in March. In private life Mrs Ian [sic] Macrae, she will join her husband at their sheep station at Yarragundry, Wagga, New South Wales. Dr Boyd is the sister of the former Australian tennis champion, Esna Boyd (now Mrs Angus Robertson), and daughter of that well-known parliamentarian, the late Honourable James A. Boyd.

“Dr Boyd cannot help speaking with some nostalgia of her patients at Richmond Clinic… indomitable mothers struggling against overwhelming odds… stiff-lipped fathers playing both parents in one… children unflinchingly accepting the responsibilities of adults, ‘doing the right thing by Dad and Mum’…. good people and bad… weaklings… people of whom the stuff of heroes is made.

“Dr Boyd has had a wealth of experience in her 18 years at Richmond Clinic. She has seen the human reaction to depression, to malnutrition, present-day housing, or lack of it. A graduate of Melbourne University, she went straight to the Clinic, which she has left three times in 18 years to do refresher courses abroad. Specialising in skin diseases, she attended skin disease clinics in London and Vienna.

“Many skin diseases are a direct result of malnutrition, close and insanitary housing, so she has had no scarcity of patients. Their numbers depend on current economic conditions. During the war the Clinic has treated up to 500 patients a month. During the depression up to 1000. The majority are good types. Many are illiterate; some have ‘done time’; but there are no drunks. Chief reason for the last is the Clinic is open only in the mornings; hours are 9 to 12.

“The patients at the Clinic must be residents of Richmond. If they can afford it, they pay a nominal sum; if not, their treatment is free. And the Clinic, subsidised by the Charities Board, is run by subscription and the help of Richmond Council. It works in conjunction with the local Baby Health Centre, Crèche and Kindergartens.

“But the Clinic and Dispensary, housed in a building 70 years old, needs modernising. It needs an X-ray plant and a pathological laboratory. At present patients in need of X-ray examination are sent on to public hospitals; pathological specimens must be taken to the University for testing by Dr Boyd herself.
“Doctor’s Diary

“If Dr Boyd had kept a doctor’s diary, her experiences would have filled a score of volumes. There is the story of the woman, well-educated, weary, with a wistful charm of manner, who visited her husband in gaol every fortnight for five long years, during which period she worked in a factory and reared a baby girl. In this story they all lived happily ever after, for her husband came back to his workaday life a sadder and a wiser man, to a gentle and courageous wife who excused his lapse because he had ‘fallen into bad company’.

“Dr Boyd has patients from 9 months to over 90 years of age. She has many bridal couples married in their sixties. Last week she treated a bride of 75. The week before a bride of 15 who, with her youthful husband of 18, had contracted German measles.

“Life is full of contrasts at Richmond Clinic. There was even the young gentleman of seven who brought along his pup Lefty. Lefty, with a budding sense of proprietorship, had chased a black cat off the back lawn. And got the worst of the deal. Black cats were bad medicine for Lefty, a badly-battered pup, in consequence. ‘Could Missus Doctor do anyfing about it, please?’ Dr Boyd could
and did. To the ultimate joy of both parties. They are nothing if not human at Richmond Clinic.

“Bad Housing

“Dr Boyd blames bad housing conditions for contagious skin conditions and general debility among children. Added to this is the lack of fruit and vegetables in the lower-wage and unemployable groups. Among her worst cases of housing is a family of 16 who live in a 4-roomed house in Richmond. This family comprises husband and wife, 2 daughters and 4 sons with their families. All are good types of people; the sons-ln-law are returned soldiers; the family can afford reasonable living conditions, but they cannot get them. In consequence they are forced to live in 4 rooms, supplemented by tents in a tiny backyard.

“Another Richmond family – husband and wife and 7 children – are forced to live in one room. The results may be imagined if one of them contracted a contagious disease. To date, by some minor miracle, this family of 9 has remained healthy.

“Among her present-day patients are young men and women who were babies when Dr Boyd first joined the Clinic. There is something about the friendly atmosphere of the place, something about its Medical Officer’s genial and kindly personality that makes them prefer it to any hospital.
“Richmond Clinic is a landmark, a milestone in the progress of Richmond’s least wealthy citizens. It means to grow with the times. And with the help and ideas of Mr W. Bell, energetic honorary secretary to the committee, it will.”
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Dr Alva Boyd, Esna’s sister.
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Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club, Dublin, July 1925. Left to right: Daphne Akhurst, Phoebe Blair-White, Esna Boyd, Hilda Wallis.
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The Australian women’s team pictured in early October 1925 in San Francisco, the last stop on their international tour, where they took on a team of players from California, including Helen Wills. Standing, left to right: Sylvia Harper, Helen Wills, Esna Boyd, Floris Saint George, Daphne Akhurst. Seated front: Jean Borotra.
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[&c]
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Sylvia Lance

Sylvia Lance was born on 1 October 1895 in Sydney, the third of the three children – two sons and one daughter – of Charles Carey Lance (1859-1934), a businessman and native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, and Louisa Christie Lance (née Fuller; 1865-1933), a distinguished contralto, who was born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, while her English-born father was working there. The Fuller family moved to Australia in 1868 and settled in Melbourne. (For more on the Lance and Fuller families, see the Appendices below.)

Sylvia’s siblings were Arnold Llewellyn Lance (1892-1964) and Francis Darwin Lance (1893-1983). Both of her brothers were born in the town of Euroa in north-east Victoria, but the family had moved to Sydney by the time of Sylvia’s birth. As a girl, she attended Newcastle Girls’ Grammar School in that city in New South Wales. Tennis was a popular pastime at the school. Sylvia finished second in sixth form in late 1912, when she was 17.

Sylvia came to the fore in the sport for the first time by reaching the final match in the women’s singles at the New South Wales Championships tournament in June 1917 and May 1918, respectively. On both occasions she lost to Annie Ford (née Kellett Baker), who was also from New South Wales.

Sylvia began to fulfil her potential in the early 1920s, and in 1924 won the women’s singles title at the Australasian Championships (later the Australian Championships) by beating Esna Boyd, of Victoria, in the final, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6. That year the tournament was held in late January at the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in Melbourne. Together with Daphne Akhurst, who was also from New South Wales, Sylvia won the women’s doubles title at the same tournament in 1924.

In 1923, Sylvia had won the women’s doubles title at the Australasian Championships with Esna Boyd, and in 1925 would win the title at the same tournament for the third and last time, again with Daphne Akhurst. In 1923, at the same tournament, Sylvia won the mixed doubles title together with 50-year-old Horace Rice who was also from New South Wales.

However, the year 1924 was Sylvia’s annus mirabilis. In addition to winning the women’s singles title at the Australasian Championships, she also won the same title at the New South Wales Championships and the South Australian Championships tournaments, amongst others.

Her successes in 1924 led to Sylvia being chosen as one of the four women to take part in the first international tour undertaken by a team of female Australian tennis players. This tour would see the Australian women take part in several tournaments as well as a series of matches against the top female players of countries such as England, Ireland, France and the United States. Sylvia was the team captain.

By the time the international tour began in April 1925, Sylvia had married. Her wedding took place in Saint Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Sydney, on 28 May 1924. The bridegroom, Robert Rainy Harper, a soldier and businessman, was born in Toorak, a suburb of Melbourne, on 13 February 1894. (For more on him and his family, see the appendices below.) The following report on Sylvia’s wedding day appeared in The Evening News (Sydney), 29 May 1924:

“Miss Sylvia Lance married – Melbourne Home

“The marriage of Miss Sylvia Lance, tennis player, with Mr Robert Rainy Harper, which took place in Saint Stephen’s Presbyterian Church last night, aroused much interest. The bride is the only daughter of Mr Charles and Mrs Christie Lance of ‘Avon,’ Vaucluse, and the bridegroom the second son of Professor Andrew and Mrs Barbara Harper, late of Saint Andrew’s College, Sydney. Reverend John Ferguson performed the ceremony.

“The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a charming gown of ivory hand-embroidered georgette, made simply with the draperies caught with a large pearl and diamanté cabochon, with a fringe falling to the hem of the skirt. A tulle veil, fastened with a veil and a brilliant bandeau with clusters of orange blossom over each ear formed the train, and a fan-shaped bouquet of white sweet peas and roses gave a dainty finish.

“The bridesmaids, Miss Florence Tuckey and Miss Vida Russell, wore pretty frocks of powder-blue georgette charmante, with a large spider-wired bow of silver lace. Their headbands of silver lace had quaint ear-pieces and they carried fan-shaped posies of pale pink, shading to darker pink sweet peas. Dr McCallum was best man and Dr Finlay was groomsman.

“A reception was held at the Tennis Club, Rushcutter’s Bay. The wedding cake was mounted with a miniature silver championship cup, which was filled with flowers and ornamented with other tennis emblems. The presents included a silver salver from the Tennis Association of New South Wales.

“The bride’s mother wore a gown of grey charmante, beaded in steel, and a black hat ringed with ostrich feathers. Her posy was of violets. The bride changed her gown for an evening frock of black velvet, with side panels of chenille georgette caught with a brilliant buckle, with which she wore a diamanté bandeau in her hair. After a honeymoon in Bowral the bride and bridegroom will leave for Melbourne, their future home.”

During the international tour of 1925, Sylvia and her compatriots took part in the Wimbledon tournament in late June/early July. This was not Sylvia’s first participation in the most prestigious of tournaments as she had also taken part in it in 1920, when she lost in the second round of the women’s singles event, the first round of the women’s doubles event (with her countrywoman Edith Collings) and the first round of the mixed doubles event (with the Englishman Herbert Roper Barrett).

At Wimbledon in 1925, Sylvia won two matches in the women’s singles event before being beaten in the third round by the English player Mary McIlquham (née Hart) in a marathon match, 6-4, 1-6, 13-11. In the women’s doubles event Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst reached the third round where they were beaten by 46-year-old Dorothea Lambert Chambers (née Douglass) and another Englishwoman, Ermyntrude Harvey, 6-4, 6-1. In the mixed doubles event, Sylvia and the Englishman Ernest Lamb reached the third round, where they were defeated by the Belgian Jean Washer and the English player Phyllis Satterthwaite (née Carr), 6-2, 6-2.

In the week before the Wimbledon tournament began, the Australian women had played a team of English players in a series of eight matches at Roehampton in southwest London, which the English players won narrowly, by 5 matches to 0. Gwen Utz (née Chiplin), who was in England at the time, also took part in this series of matches although she was not an official member of the Australian team.
Sylvia made an important contribution by beating Joan Fry, 6-3, 6-2 in the singles while, together with Daphne Akhurst, she beat Fry and Joan Lycett (née Austin), 11-9, 1-6, 6-1.

In early July, after the Wimbledon tournament, the Australians beat a team of Welsh players in Llanelli by 12 matches to 0. Sylvia beat Olwen Sheere, 6-0, 6-1 in the singles. In the doubles, she and Daphne Akhurst beat a Miss James and a Mrs Russell, 6-1, 6-1, and Gladys Seel and Sheere, 6-0 6-0. By this stage a fourth player, Floris Saint-George, from New South Wales, had joined the other three members of the Australian team.

At the Irish Championships, held at the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in mid-July, Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst were runners-up in the women’s doubles event, where Esna Boyd and Floris Saint-George beat them, 8-6, 6-4. Together with the Irish player Vincent Allman-Smith, Sylvia was also runner-up in the mixed doubles event, to Daphne Akhurst and the South African player Gerarld Sherwell, who won, 3-6 6-4 7-5.

In a series of matches held during the Irish Championships, the Australian players beat an Irish team by 6 matches to 2. Although Margaret Haughton beat Sylvia, 7-5, 6-3, in the singles, in the doubles Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst won their two matches, beating Haughton and Hilda Wallis, 6-1, 6-3, and Phoebe Blair-White and Norma Stoker, 6-4, 6-1.

At the end of July, in Edinburgh, the Australian women took on a team of Scottish women and beat them by 11 matches to 1. In the singles, Sylvia beat Winifred Heriot (née Ferguson), 6-2, 6-4, and a C. Duncan, 6-2, 6-0. In the doubles, Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst beat Heriot and her sister Alice Hudleston (née Ferguson), 6-3, 8-6, and Marjorie Langmuir and Jean Rankine, 6-0 6-2.

At the Carmarthenshire Championships, held in Llanelli, Wales, in early August, Sylvia won the women’s singles event, defeating Daphne Seel in the final, 7-5, 6-2. Together with the Welsh player William Curtis-Morgan, she also won the mixed doubles event. In the final they beat the English husband-and-wife team of Mary McIlquham and Clinton McIlquham, 6-2, 8-6.

In mid-August, the Australian team was in the city of Hilversum in the Netherlands to take on a Dutch team in a series of matches. The visitors overwhelmed their hosts by 10 matches to 2. In the singles, the top Dutch player Kea Bouman beat Sylvia 6-4, 6-2, but Sylvia overwhelmed Julie Cords-Stroink in her second singles match, 6-0, 6-1. In the doubles, Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst beat Bouman and Cords-Stroink, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4, and Margaretha Canters and Léonie L’hoëst, 6-1, 6-2.

From Hilversum, the Australian women travelled to the town of Westende in Flanders to face a team of Belgian players. The tie resulted in another overwhelming win for the visitors who beat their hosts by 11 matches to 0. In the singles, Sylvia beat Miriam de Borman, 6-2, 6-0, and Josane Sigart, 6-2 6-3. In the doubles, Sylvia and Dpahne Akhurst defeated de Borman and a Mme Levy, 6-1, 6-0, and de Borman and Sigart, 6-3, 6-3.

At the end of August, the Australian team was in Deauville in northwest France, where the annual tournament was being held at the Sporting Club de Deauville. Although Sylvia did not enter the tournament, she did take part in a series of matches with her compatriots against a team of French players, including Suzanne Lenglen.

In the singles matches, Lenglen beat Sylvia, 6-0, 6-4. The four games she won were a noteworthy achievement by the Australian player despite her defeat. Sylvia was also beaten by Diddie Vlasto, the French number two, who won 6-1, 6-4. However, in the doubles, Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst beat Yvonne Bourgeois and Nicole Desclercs, 6-1, 6-2. The French team won the tie by 7 matches to 4, but they owed three of their wins to the invincible Suzanne Lenglen.

The Australian team finished their international tour in the United States. On 25 and 26 September, they took on a team of American women at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia. The Americans won the tie only by 4 matches to 3. In the singles the veteran Molla Maudory (née Bjurstedt) beat Sylvia, 7-5, 8-6 on the first day. On the second day, Sylvia beat Marion Jessup (née Zinderstein), 9-7, 6-1. In the doubles, Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst lost narrowly to Eleanor Goss and Zinderstein, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The Australians then travelled across the country to San Francisco. During their journey, Sylvia celebrated her thirtieth birthday on 1 October 1925. In San Francisco on 3 and 4 October 1925, the Australians took on a team of women from California. The latter team included Helen Wills, who a few weeks earlier had won the women’s single title at the U.S. Championships for the third year in a row. In the singles, Helen Wills beat Sylvia, 6-0, 6-0, on the first day. On the second day Sylvia beat Charlotte Hosmer, 6-3, 6-3. In the doubles, Hosmer and Wills defeated Sylvia and Daphne Akhurst, 6-2, 6-4, as the Americans won the tie by 6 matches to 1.

The Australian team arrived home in early November. On their arrival in the port of Melbourne on board the R.M.S. Tahiti, Sylvia told the journalists gathered to meet them the following:

“I think the women’s team succeeded in keeping Australia’s name on the map of the tennis world […] We had a wonderful time in Great Britain, in Europe, end in the United States, but we are glad to get back to Australia. Although we did not win everything, I think we kept Australian women, as tennis players, well to the front wherever we went. We tried to induce the various women’s tennis associations to send a team to Australia, but the main trouble appeared to be the distance to be travelled and the time such a tour would take. We hope to see an English women’s team here in 1927.”

From the mid-1920s until the end of 1931, Sylvia continued to regularly take part in tennis tournaments, but did not play abroad again. She enjoyed a good deal of success at the Melbourne Cricket Club Autumn Championships tournament, where she won the women’s singles event in three consecutive years, from 1927 to 1929, and again in 1931. She had won the same title at the same tournament in 1924 and 1925. She also continued to enjoy success in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles events.

Sylvia also became involved in the administrative side of the sport and in 1930 was appointed honorary coach to the Victorian Lawn Tennis Association. This meant that she was able to help the up-and-coming female players in Victoria. She was also a member of the committee that selected the female players to represent Victoria in the interstate competitions.

On 4 January 1932, Sylvia gave birth to a son, Ian Rainy Lance Harper, in Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. After the birth she took some time off to convalesce before returning to competition. Sylvia was widowed in early May 1941 when Robert Harper died of meningitis at the age of 46.

As the following report from The Argus (Melbourne) of 5 June 1946 shows, Sylvia contributed to the war effort in the years 1940-45 by acting as hostess and arranging tennis matches for service personnel at White City, Rushcutter’s Bay in her native Sydney:

“No doubt many famous tennis matches were called to mind last week when Mrs Sylvia Harper, who has been holidaying with Mrs George Pitt, renewed her friendship with tennis friends. Among those who entertained her were Mrs Angus Robertson (better known in tennis circles as Esna Boyd), Dr and Mrs Charles Littlejohn, Mr Pat and Mrs Meryl O’Hara Wood, Mr and Mrs Jim Noall, Mr Bob
Schlesinger, and Mr and Mrs Middleton.

“Mrs Harper is well known for her work at White City, Rushcutter’s Bay, Sydney, where she has been hostess and has arranged tennis matches for service personnel for the last six years. Mrs Harper will be back in Melbourne again for the Davis Cup.”

After her husband’s death, Sylvia moved with her son to Darling Point, a harbour-side suburb of Sydney. After the war, Sylvia continued to follow tennis closely. Her son, Ian, competed in some junior tennis competitions in the early 1950s, but did not pursue a career in the sport.

On her return to Australia from a visit to England in 1953, Sylvia spoke to journalists about her visit to Wimbledon and how it would be beneficial for a team of Australian women players to travel abroad on an international tour like the one she had been part of in 1925. (By the early 1950s, it was still unusual for a team of Australian women players to be sent abroad on an international tour.) The following related report is from The Sun News Pictorial (Victoria) of 15 October 1953:
“Youth scoring abroad

“Travellers who returned on the Orion yesterday brought news of young Australians successful in music and sport. Former Australian women’s tennis champion, Mrs Sylvia Harper, of Darling Point, Sydney, saw tennis champions Ken Rosewall and Lewis Hoad play at Wimbledon.

“Mrs Harper won the Australian tennis championship in 1924 as Sylvia Lance. In 1925 she captained the first women’s team to go abroad. She hopes to see more women’s teams sent abroad. ‘We have some fine young women players here,’ she said. ‘A trip abroad would be an incentive for them. The Davis Cup team should be urged to practice tennis with our champion women. I don t know why they don’t nowadays. When I was younger they did. Rosewall and Hoad looked very tired when they played at Wimbledon,’ she said.”

Sylvia (Lance) Harper died in Sydney on 21 October 1982 at the age of 87.
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Appendix I: Sylvia's parents, Charles Carey Lance and Louisa Lance (née Fuller)

Sylvia’s father, Charles Carey Lance, was born on 21 November 1859 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. He died on 3 October 1934 in Burwood, Sydney.

From Strathfield Heritage: Charles Carey Lance – Strathfield Heritage

Charles Carey Lance

Charles Carey Lance (1859-1934) was a prominent businessman and long-term resident of Strathfield. He was born in England and trained as a mechanical engineer. In 1879, he went to Cape Colony, South Africa, and remained there for twelve years, working in engineering and setting up a food business in Burghersdorp. In 1889, he came to Australia and commenced flour milling at Euroa (Victoria), and afterwards pioneered dairy manufacture in Victoria.

Lance came to Sydney in 1894 as the general manager of N.S.W. Creamery Butter Co and subsequently general manager of the Fresh Food & Ice Co. In 1902, he was appointed commission agent for NSW in London, where he served until 1906. He served as a director of the Hotel Metropole until his appointment in 1907 as one of the three Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners and then President from 1913 to 1924. Lance lived in Strathfield until his death in 1934.

In 1890, Lance married Louisa Christie Fuller (d. 1933), a singer and artist. Fuller’s sister Alice was married to Frederick Parsons, auctioneer and land agent. Parsons also served as Mayor of Strathfield. Her other sister, Florence Ada Fuller, was a renowned artist, who among her works, painted a portrait of Louisa’s daughter Sylvia Lance.

Lance’s daughter Sylvia was the Australian Women’s Open Champion, winning many national titles in the 1920s and 1930s. She was later known as Sylvia Lance Harper after her marriage.
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Charles Carey Lance, Sylvia’s father
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Sylvia Lance’s mother, Louisa Christie Fuller, popularly known as Christie Fuller, was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1865, and died in Burwood, Sydney, on 16 August 1933.

From The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 August 1933:

“The Late Mrs C.C. Lance – An Appreciation

“By Edith A. Fry

“The news that Mrs C.C. Lance has suddenly passed from among us recalls to many the time when, as Christie Fuller, they first heard her sing. The occasion was momentous whenever, and wherever, it happened, for her voice was of so moving a quality, her singing so artistic, so full of deep, yet delicate, sympathy.

“She had sung from the time when, as a tiny mite of two years, she had been stood
on the table to sing, sing anything, for words had not yet come; and always from then onwards her singing was a joy to herself and others.

“Musical education was begun in Melbourne under Mme Christian, and continued under Mr H.C. Deacon, of London, and when she returned she took her place among the leading singers of Melbourne. After a second visit to London, where concerts were given, a tour of South Africa was undertaken, with marked success. In Sydney and Melbourne she sang frequently in oratorio and other works with the Philharmonic Societies. Her rendering of ‘Oh! Rest in the Lord’ or ‘He Shall Feed His Flock,’ will not soon be forgotten.

“When Charles Santley gave concerts in Australia she toured with his company, and in South Australia particularly was very warmly appreciated. Such was her busy life before marriage. Her interest in other musicians was unfailing, both here and in England, and many young singers had reason to thank her for her kindly and effective sympathy.

“Mrs Lance’s name will always be associated with that of her husband, in connection with the ‘Lance Playground’ at Miller’s Point, which afterwards became the ‘Lance Free Kindergarten’. That work was very near her heart, and long after she was unable to take active part in social service, she worked for the cause and interested others Her generous help was always forthcoming, and her work was for the work’s sake.

“The many friends of this gracious lady, including members of the Women's Club, of which she was a member for many years, will ever remember her sweetness and serenity, graciousness of manner, responsiveness and invariable kindness.

“‘Sweet memories are grief's only consolation.’”
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Appendix II: Sylvia's maternal aunts Florence Fuller and Amy Fuller

Florence Ada Fuller, Sylvia Lances’s maternal aunt, was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1867, and died in Sydney on 17 July 1946.

For much more on the artist Florence Fuller, see the two links below:

Florence Fuller - Wikipedia

Florence Ada Fuller – my daily art display
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Florence Fuller.
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Sydney Harbour (View Across Double Bay from Darling Point), circa 1920, by Florence Fuller.
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Amy Fuller, another of Sylvia Lance’s maternal aunts, was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1869, and died in Dandenong, Melbourne on 18 August 1944.

From: Fuller, Amy Vardy - biography

Amy Fuller was the youngest among four daughters and second-youngest child of John Hobson Fuller who had migrated from England, first to South Africa and subsequently to Geelong in Victoria where he practised as an accountant.

The girls had unusual artistic ability. Florence, who never married, was a talented oil-painter, and her work was exhibited both at the London Academy and Paris. Salon. Another sister, Christie Fuller (later Mrs C.C. Lance) was a singer, and the third sister became Mrs F.W. Parsons and was an art teacher.

Amy received her education at the Presbyterian Ladies College, Melbourne and was a keen sportswoman. Music was Amy’s chosen career, and her début as a vocalist came at the age of 20 in Melbourne during 1889; subsequently she appeared also as soloist with the Melbourne Liedertafel. By 1894 she had sung on concert platforms in Perth and South Africa. Thereafter she taught singing both in Melbourne and Western Australia, where she was resident for a number of years.

But it is for her water-colours of the flora that Miss Amy Fuller enjoys a lasting reputation. She said: “It was only my love of flowers that prompted me to find a way to preserve the memory of the thousands of native flowers that came under my notice whilst I was living in Cape Town with my relatives.”

That was in 1893 or 1894, during her first 18-months sojourn in Africa, which she was to revisit in 1898 en route to England; two further periods were spent amid the wonders of the Cape flora, the last in 1913-14, and Miss Fuller reported having painted, “about 325 South African specimens, which the late Professor MacOwan named for me, also 165 West Australian flowers which were named by the late Dr Morrison” (a total of 490). She then commenced the portrayal of Victorian and New South Wales kinds.

She stated that, during her London visit of 1914, the authorities at the Royal Botanic Gardens expressed a desire to purchase part of the floral paintings for Kew Herbarium, “choosing the flowers that were most uncommon, and of which they had no representations other than pressed specimens”.

Thus, wrote Amy: “It was with a heavy heart that I parted with the 102 sheets which they selected, as my flowers have always been very dear to me”. She died suddenly in Melbourne from a heart seizure on August 18, 1944, and her remains were cremated at Springvale three days later.

Amy Fuller.
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The young Amy Fuller as painted by her sister Florence.
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Appendix III: Robert Rainy Harper

Robert Rainy Harper, Sylvia Lance’s husband, was born on 13 February 1894 in Melbourne; he died on 2 May 1941. Their son, Ian Rainy Lance Harper, was born in Melbourne on 4 January 1932; he died on 27 November 2022.

From: Robert-Rainy-HARPER_formatted.pdf

By Principal Wayne Erickson

Robert Rainy HARPER (Fr 1913)

The first lesson, from Ecclesiasticus, exhorts us to sing the praises of famous people, our ancestors in their generations. Today we focus on the contribution of an Androvian who gave much in service to a nation in war, and who was a member of a family whose generations have given, and continue to give, so generously to Saint Andrew’s and the broader community.

Robert Rainy Harper was born in Melbourne in 1894, the son of Reverend Professor Andrew Harper, and his second wife Barbara Harriet (nee Rainy). When his father became Principal of Saint Andrew’s College in 1902, Robert moved with his parents and siblings to take up residence in the new Principal’s Lodge (now known as Harper House), and to attend Sydney Grammar School. Upon completion of his schooling, he entered the University of Sydney as an Arts student in 1913, transferring to Medicine the following year. He lived in College as a resident student, rather than in the Lodge with his family.

A tall, well-built man, Harper impressed in College sport, as a rugby forward and in the number 4 seat in the rowing eights in 1913. He was awarded a University blue in Rugby in the same year. In 1914, he was elected to the Students’ Club football committee and gained a University blue in rowing, having joined three of his fellow Androvians in the Sydney University boat for the university championships in Adelaide.

Like his father, Robert was patriotic. At Sydney Grammar he had served as a Second Lieutenant in the school Cadet Corps, and while at University he was a Sergeant in the University Scouts, attaining the rank of Second Lieutenant in the 26th Infantry before postponing his medical studies to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

Harper sailed from Sydney in June 1915. He fought at Gallipoli and in Egypt as a 1st lieutenant with the 20 battalion of the 1st AIF, and went on to serve with distinction in France in 1916. Promoted to captain in July 1916, he was wounded in action on seven separate occasions between May and August 1916. He led one of four parties in an attack aimed at capturing the Old German lines south of Pozières and, although the other parties were checked, he and his men took their objective and held it for an hour under heavy fire.

Harper was wounded in the head and leg, first by gunshot and then by a bomb, but continued to direct his troops until they ran out of grenades; his party then retreated across no man’s land with Harper refusing to be removed until he had seen all his men to safety. This gallantry during a long hour in the enemy trenches at Pozières was mentioned in despatches, and recognised with the award of the Distinguished Service Order, a decoration rarely awarded to a lieutenant, while the President of France awarded him the Croix de Guerre [War Cross].

With gun and bayonet wounds to the head and to the leg, Captain Harper was sent back to Australia in November 1916, and his service with the AIF ended in May 1917. When his health had recovered sufficiently, he became Commanding Officer of the recruiting Depot at Liverpool until 1919. He then re-enrolled in medicine and became a resident student in College again in 1921 and 1922.

He was no doubt inspired by his much older step-sister, Margaret, who graduated in Medicine at Sydney in 1906 and was a very prominent paediatrician. He was also aware that his maternal great-grandfather, Harry Rainy, had been Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Glasgow. By the time of Robert’s return to College, his father was no longer Principal, having retired in September 1920. He did remain, however, as Hunter Baillie Professor of Hebrew in the Theological Hall for three more years.

Robert may have attended the formal dinner in 1923 when Principal Anderson and the student body invited Dr Harper ‘to sit for one last time in his old place at dinner’. He undoubtedly would have approved of what he heard his father say, that: ‘It ought to be the object of the University, and of the Colleges above all, to turn out men fitted and willing to be devoted soldiers of humanity… You are those chosen to be at least the subaltern officers in the great army of humanity, on whom, together with the undistinguished throng of private soldiers, as in all wars, the result of the war of good against evil must, under God, depend.’

Robert Harper, however, dropped out of Medicine in 1922 and moved to Melbourne, where he joined the Holden car manufacturing business, rising in 1928 to Manager of the company where car bodies were built in conjunction with General Motors. He did not live to see the 1948 genesis of Holden’s own Australian model, for he died in 1941 from the long-term effects of the head wounds he had suffered in 1916.

In 1924, soon after he started work with Holden’s in Melbourne, Harper married Sylvia Lance at Saint Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in Phillip Street, Sydney. A prominent tennis player, Sylvia won the Australian Women’s Championship in 1924, in which year she was ranked in the top 10 in the world, and continued to play at the highest level until 1930. Robert and Sylvia had one child, a son Ian Rainy Lance Harper, born in Melbourne in January 1932.

After Robert’s death in 1941, Sylvia moved back to Sydney, living in a flat in Darling Point. Ian was educated initially at Scotch College, Melbourne and later at The Scots College in Sydney, before entering Saint Andrew’s College in 1950, studying Arts. Principal Cumming Thom wrote to the widowed Sylvia in March 1950, saying that: ‘We shall be happy to see the grandson of the former Principal and the son of a distinguished soldier with us in College, and every effort will be made to smooth his path.’

Ian Harper resided at St Andrew’s for four years, entering the law as a solicitor and becoming a partner in Allen, Allen and Hemsley in 1960, a director of companies and a member of the Reserve Bank Board. He published his book on Christian Theology and Market Economics in 2008. He served as a Councillor for Saint Andrew’s for 26 years, from 1972 until 1997, and twice occupied the Chairmanship of Council, from 1979-1981 and again from 1991 until 1994.

The strong Harper family connection with College continued with Ian’s sons, Angus Graham Rainy Harper (Fr 1976); and Robert (Rob) Rainy Ian Harper (Fr 1979 who was Chairman of Council for nine years from 2006-2014); and daughter Kate, a Councillor since 2019; and into a fifth generation, via Angus’ son Alex (Fr 2007), and Rob’s daughters Rebecca (Fr 2007), Jessica (Fr 2013) and Lily (Fr 2016).

The message from the second reading from Saint John is of the power of love, embodied in Christ’s exhortation to love one another as he loves us. In his letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul taught that Christ’s resurrection, and his triumph over death, sorrow and sin can lead us out of present distress into a purer, nobler, more just world, where war and hatred and weakness will be subdued and the Kingdom of God will be established supreme.

We mourn the tragedy of life lost, yet commemorate the contribution in war, and in the building of our nation, of brave men like Robert Harper. This is a difficult balance, and is the reason why ANZAC Day is kept as a solemn memorial and not as a source for jubilation. In the vestibule downstairs, written in Latin and in Greek, is an inscription, a passage from the Old Book commemorating duty and sacrifice: ‘Whatever we loved in them, whatever we admire, remains and will continue in the hearts of mankind, and the fame of their deeds will be eternal.’

Lest we forget.

25 April 2022
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Robert Rainy Harper.
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In the early 1950s, while a student at Saint Andrew’s College (part of the University of Sydney), Ian Harper was a member of the football team. In the above photograph, from 1952, he is seated third from the left in the second row.
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Berkeley Lawn Tennis Club, Berkeley, San Francisco, 1925. Left to right: Esna Boyd, Sylvia Lance Harper, Floris Saint George, Daphne Akhurst.
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Floris Saint George

Floris Eva Sterne Saint George was born in 1887 in Sydney, the daughter of Dr Hugh Stewart Saint George (1864-1925), a medical doctor and native of Enniskillen in County Tyrone, Ireland, and Edith Elsie Saint George (née Clynch; 1867-1926), who was born in Campbelltown, Sydney, and also had Irish ancestors.

In 1906, Floris Saint George entered the University of Sydney, where she was an undergraduate in the Faculty of Arts; she graduated in 1910. As a tennis player, she enjoyed most of her success in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles events in which she began to take part before World War One. She was also notably runner-up in the women’s singles event at the Queensland Championships in 1914, on the eve of the war.

In addition to being a tennis player, Floris Saint George was also an actress in silent films, at least for a short time. One of the films in which she starred was The Hordern Mystery (1920), directed by Harry Southwell, in which she played the role of Laura Yellaboyce. According to one source, the plot if the film is as follows: “Money-hungry Gilbert Hordern is married to an adoring wife and has a child. He pretends to be his own evil twin brother so he can marry a millionaire's daughter. He succeeds but is wracked with guilt and confesses. He wakes up and realises it was all a dream.”

On 16 April 1927, in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Floris Saint George married Roland Conway, a well-known actor who also took part in some tennis tournaments. He was born James Edward Wayland on 12 July 1882 in Maitland, New South Wales, the fourth of the twelve children – seven sons and five daughters – of James Edward Wayland, snr., (1846-1907), and Lydia Brooker Wayland (née Styman; 1860-1910). James Edward Wayland, jnr., later changed his name to Roland Conway. In addition to films, he also acted on the stage.

From The Sun (Sydney), 14 February 1915:

“New leading man – Roland Conway at Adelphi

“Sydney was introduced to a new dramatic leading juvenile yesterday in Mr Roland Conway. He is appearing in the principal male role, the Reverend Manuel Errington, in C. Watson Mill’s four-act play, The Night Side of London, at the Adelphi Theatre.

“Mr Conway is another of the young Australian dramatic actors who have made good. A native of New South Wales, he is still on the sunny side of 30. Tennis is his athletic recreation. Towards the close of last year, when playing well in the Barellan Club tournament, Enmore, Mr Conway, then understudying a principal in an Adelphi production, was prevented from seeing the tourney right through by responding to an urgent call to join a company in Melbourne.

“In the opinion of many of his clubmates first honours in that Enmore tournament would have fallen to him had he been able to play right through. In Wisden’s, the authoritative cricket record annual, has been related the incident of a cricket ball striking and killing a swallow during the course of a cricket match.

“Mr Conway tells of a happening somewhat similar. When practising tennis in Melbourne recently he volleyed a ball hard back to his opponent. It went too high to be reached, and careering on over the courtyard wall, crashed into a canary cage and killed the occupant, a champion Yorkshire songster. The owner of the canary claimed ten guineas compensation, the bird being a prize-winner, and Mr Conway had to pay up and look pleasant.”

In 1925, Floris Saint George was a member of the first Australian women’s tennis team to undertake an international tour, which took in Great Britain, Ireland, Continental Europe and the United States. After this tour, she more or less retired from tennis competition and instead devoted herself to the administrative side of the sport. As shown by the following report from The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 23 January 1934, she was one of the first women to take on such a role in tennis in Australia:

“By Pat Hansen

“Seniors and juniors alike love her, this charming, competent woman, Mrs Floris Conway, one of the three women councillors on the New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association. She knows them all, their weaknesses and their strength, and to her they bring their troubles, sure of a sympathetic hearing and a helping hand.

“Mrs Conway is justly proud of the advance of women’s tennis in Australia, for she has done much from an administrative point of view to bring the game to its present high standard, especially among the juniors. In 1925, upon her return from England with the Australian team, Mrs Conway decided that she had had her share of the prizes of the game, and concentrated upon organising the many women tennis players, who at that time were not represented on the Lawn Tennis Council.

“‘I must say,’ stated Mrs Conway yesterday, ‘that the officials of the State association were most helpful and encouraging. They quickly recovered from the shock of the election of Miss Nell Lloyd and myself from the White City Club to the association, and readily drew up a constitution that made the election of three
women a permanent affair.

“‘That was in 1928. Next year, Miss Lloyd, Mrs Agnes Warburton, and myself were elected councillors. We have held our positions ever since, and to us has been delegated the control of the women’s grade matches. Each quarter, delegates from the many women’s clubs meet. We discuss all manner of things. Matters for consideration by the State association are then referred to the Lawn Tennis Council through Mrs Warburton, Miss Lloyd and myself.

“‘It is an arrangement that works remarkably well, and one that I would like to see adopted by the other States. At the present time, New South Wales is the only tennis association in the world that allows women councillors.’

“Mrs Conway has had practical experience of international play. ‘It was through my trip abroad in 1925,’ she said, ‘that I first realised the latent talent in Australia. I saw how far advanced the English women were, and I wanted to make Australians wake up. Only by international contest can we progress.

“‘Mr Marsh has done wonders with the juniors of New South Wales. We women have merely developed his ideas and helped in the organisation of the Australian Junior Championships. We have encouraged women of other States, too, to look after their juniors. Mrs Sylvia Harper, ex-Australian champion, now residing in Victoria, gives up two afternoons each week to coach the Victorian juniors.’

“Of course, such a versatile woman is not content with the organisation of Australian Junior Championships to further the game in Australia. She is working hard to bring about the visit of an international team of women during the centenary celebrations in Victoria. ‘It wouldn’t really matter who was invited,’ she said, ‘though I would like to see the English champions, Miss Dorothy Round and Miss Peggy Scriven, or that remarkable woman, Mrs Helen Wills Moody, in action on Australian courts.’”

An article that appeared in The Sun (Sydney) on 30 November 1939 described the type of activities Floris Conway undertook during World War Two:

“Mrs Floris Conway is proud of the fact that, with Miss Hazel Grassick and Miss Dorothy Dingle, she is a woman councillor of the New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association, the only tennis organisation in the world to have women on the governing body.

“She has held the position of senior woman councillor for about eleven years. Mrs Conway is president of the New South Wales Women Delegates’ War-time Activities Committee doing war work, and which includes representatives from practically all the metropolitan turf tennis clubs and branch associations and numbers over 40 members. Her fellow councillors, Miss Grassick and Miss Dingle, are secretary and treasurer respectively.

“The tennis women’s stall will be in Martin Place tomorrow for Patriotic Day. And their button-selling area will be in Elizabeth Street, near David Jones’s. Mrs Conway is a pianist and a great lover of music and the theatre, and is looking forward to the return of the ballet.”

During the war, Floris Conway continued to organise charitable and other events, including special tennis matches, in order to help raise funds for the war effort. (Tennis tournaments as such came to an end for most of the war.)

Floris Conway died on 8 February 1968. Roland Conway had died on 16 June 1960. Today, girls from high schools in New South Wales compete annually for the Floris Conway Cup. The following piece on this pioneer was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 January 1969:

“Tribute to Mrs Conway

“A high tribute to a pioneer of women’s tennis in Australia will be paid posthumously at a ceremony next week. The New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association (NSWLTA) has decided to name the large southern stand at White City in, memory of the late Mrs Roland Conway. It will be known as the Floris Conway Memorial Stand.

“This was announced yesterday by executive member and State selector Mrs Dorn Fogarty, who described it as ‘a great achievement for women’s tennis’. The decision was a tribute not only to Mrs Conway but to all women in tennis. The naming ceremony will take place during the NSWLTA’s first Open tournament at White City next week. It will be conducted by the association’s president, Mrs George Sample. […]

“Mrs Conway, who died last February, aged 83, had her early successes as Floris Saint George. In later years, she became the acknowledged leader of women's tennis in Australia. She was the only woman to be made a life member of the NSWLTA, on whose council she served for more than 40 years.

“The Federation Cup tournament, the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup, is a result of Mrs Conway’s constant striving for more international competition in women’s tennis. She had always urged that Australian women’s teams should go abroad. She was a member of the first to do so, in 1925, and she played, at Wimbledon and in European and U.S. tournaments. This followed a string of Australian successes, which began about 1919.

“She won various doubles championships in Victoria and Queensland, and represented New South Wales in interstate matches from 1919 to 1930. Miss Dorothy Dingle, of Hornsby, a fellow Lawn Tennis Association councillor for 29 years, described her yesterday as ‘undoubtedly a natural leader’.”
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Deauville Lawn Tennis Club, Deauville, France, August 1925. Left to right: Diddie Vlasto, Suzanne Lenglen, Esna Boyd, Floris Saint George.
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Floris Conway at White City, Sydney, in 1931.
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At a reception for the visiting British men’s tennis team, White City, Sydney, 25 November 1933. Standing on the front step, left to right: Raymond Tuckey (GB), Pat Hughes (GB), Marjorie Crawford, unidentified, Jack Crawford. The four players in the second row are, left to right: Fred Perry (GB), Floris Saint George, Vivian McGrath and Henry ‘Bunny’ Austin (GB).
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Roland Conway, actor and husband.
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Louie Bickerton

Louie Mildred Bickerton was born on 11 August 1902 in Melbourne, the eldest of the three children – all daughters – of Henry Lincoln Bickerton (1865-1951), an officer in the Salvation Army, and Margaret Bickerton (née Lamb; 1878-1956). Both of Louie’s parents were from families that had emigrated from England to Australia. Her father’s family were from London, while her mother’s family came from Sunderland in County Durham.

Louie attended the Methodist Ladies’ College in the suburb of Kew in Melbourne and started playing tennis while at the school. She later attended Sydney University, where she won a ‘blue’ in both tennis and hockey; she also represented the university in ‘varsity tennis competitions. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1923.

Louie Bickerton was one of Australia’s top female tennis players for more than a decade. She notably won the women’s singles title at the Metropolitan Championships of Sydney in 1926, 1931 and 1933; the New South Wales Championships in 1930; the City of Sydney Championships in 1933 and 1934; the New Zealand Championships in 1934. She was also runner-up in the women’s singles event at the Australian Championships in 1929.

Louie Bickerton also excelled at doubles, notably winning the women’s doubles title at the Australian Championships three times: in 1927 with Meryl O’Hara Wood (née Waxman), and in 1929 and 1931 with her good friend Daphne Akhurst. On 25 May 1935, in Hornsby Anglican Church, Sydney, Louie married Daphne’s widower, Royston Cozens, a tobacco manufacturer. Daphne had died in January 1933 at the age of 29 as the result of an ectopic pregnancy. She and Royston Cozens had had one child together, a son called Donald.
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From The Sun (Sydney), 25 May 2025

“Married. Tennis Champion. Love Match. Quiet Ceremony.

“Miss Louie Bickerton, the well-known tennis player, was quietly married to Mr Roy Cozens at the Hornsby Anglican Church this morning by Reverend E. Cameron. Mr Cozens’s first wife was Miss Daphne Akhurst, whose death caused such a gloom in the tennis world. She and Miss Bickerton were great friends.

“Tennis players will wish the popular couple long life and happiness. It is understood that the honeymoon will be spent in Melbourne. Even close friends of Miss Bickerton and Mr Cozens did not know that they were being married this morning.”
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Louie Cozens retired from tournament tennis after marrying Roy Cozens. During the early decades of their marriage, they lived in a house on Newton Road in the suburb of Strathfield in Sydney. They had one child together, a daughter, who was born on 27 January 1937. Louie Bickerton died on 6 June 1998 at the age of 95. Roy Cozens died five months later, on 19 November 1998, at the age of 96.
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The Adelaide University vs Sydney University Intervarsity tennis teams, 1923

Back row, left to right (Adelaide): Madeleine Hardy, Gwen Ure (captain), Joan Taplin, Lyndall Morris. Front row, left to right (Sydney): Gwen Jones, Louie Bickerton, Ella Hunt, P. Miller.
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Louie Bickerton (left) and Daphne Akhurst holding bouquets, probably after winning the women’s doubles event at the Australian Championships in January 1929, when the tournament was held on the Memorial Drive courts in Adelaide.
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Meryl Waxman

Meryl Aitken Waxman was born 5 June 1894 in Saint Kilda, Melbourne, the eldest of the two daughters of Louis Alphonse William Waxman (1866-1917), a solicitor, and Mabel Blanche Waxman (née Aitken; 1870-1926). Both of Meryl’s parents were also natives of Melbourne.

Meryl’s younger sister, Darthea Rhoda Aitken Waxman, was born on 13 April 1898 in Melbourne. In 1923, Darthea married Donald Bartlett Faires, with whom she subsequently emigrated to the United States, where Darthea worked as a nurse. She died on 11 May 1981 in San Mateo, California, at the age of 83.

Meryl’s father, Louis Waxman, came from a Jewish family and was one of twelve children. Both of his parents, Aaron Waxman (1838-87) and Eliza Waxman (née Josephson; 1839-98) were born in the city of Plotsz (aka Plock) in what was then Russian Poland. They later emigrated to Australia, settling in Melbourne, where they were married in 1859. Aaron Waxman subsequently became a pawnbroker before branching out into other areas of business. (For more on Meryl Waxman’s ancestors, see the appendices below.)

Meryl attended Toorak College, a private college in Melbourne, where she excelled at tennis. During her time there, she won the girls’ singles title held as part of the Ladies’ Schools’ Championship of Victoria four times in a row, from 1908 to 1911.

After leaving Toorak College Meryl quickly established herself as one of the best tennis players in Victoria. She won the women’s singles title at the South Australian Championships in Adelaide in March 1913, defeating her fellow Victorian Alice Watson in the final, 6-1, 8-6. Meryl also won the women’s singles event at the Victorian Championships in November 1913. In the final she beat another Victorian player, Lorna Gyton, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The outbreak of war slowed Meryl’s progress as a tennis player. However, she did win the women’s singles title at the South Australian Championships for a second time, in March 1915, beating the local player Ethelwynne Sharp in the final, 6-3 6-2.

During the war, Meryl married Dr Charles Roy Lister, a medical doctor, on 18 December 1918 in Holy Trinity Church, Melbourne. Charles Lister was born on 3 October 1890 in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, and attended Hawthorn College before going on to study medicine at the University of Melbourne. He served as a medical officer with the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps (RAAMC), reaching the rank of captain.

Charles Lister spent some time at home during the war and he and Meryl welcomed a son, John Mervyn Lister, on 7 February 1918. Charles Lister died of influenza on 21 November 1918 while on service in the commune of Wimille in the Pas-de-Calais department, close to coast in northwest France. He was 27. He was buried in Terlinchtun British Cemetry in Wimille.

After the war, Meryl began once again to take part in a full schedule of tournaments. In subsequent years she developed a reputation as a top doubles player, but continued to enjoy success in singles events too. She formed a notable mixed doubles partnership with fellow Melbournian Hector O’Hara Wood, popularly known as Pat, one of Australia’s top male tennis players. Their tennis partnership brought them increasingly close and on 3 August 1923, they were married. The following report on their wedding is taken from The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne) of 4 August 1923:

“Instead of the net – Pat O’Hara Wood and Mrs Meryl Lister face the altar – Wedding in All Saints’ Church

“All Saints’ Church, Saint Kilda, was the church in which Mr Pat O’Hara Wood and Mrs Meryl Lister were married just as evening’s mantle enveloped Melbourne yesterday. A friendship which has been cemented during the past 12 months by the common interest and comradeship of championship tennis competitions, is the foundation of this marriage. All who know the bride and bridegroom hope that their success in tennis doubles will continue with the marriage tie.

“The wedding was a very quiet one, only near relatives being present. The ceremony was performed by Reverend J. Jones, the bridegroom was supported by his brother-in-law, Mr William V. Bagnall, and the bride was given away by her mother, Mrs Mabel Waxman.

“A charming frock of Alice-blue taffetas chiffon, shot with silver, and embellished at the hem line with handmade blue roses, was worn by the bride. Her picture hat of black lace had black velvet trimming, and she wore the bridegroom’s gift, a string of pearls, and carried an 1830 posy in pastel-coloured blooms. Mrs Waxman’s graceful gown of grey and gold shot brocade had a veiling of grey georgette; her black velvet hat had a cluster of ospreys.

“After the ceremony the wedding party went to Menzies’ Hotel, where dinner was served. Today Mr and Mrs Pat O’Hara Wood leave for Sydney, and will later go to Brisbane. In each capital the bridegroom will play tennis, but as his wife is not yet strong enough to play (owing to the severe operation she had last April), he will be partnered by Miss Esna Boyd, who also leaves today for the northern States.”

Hector (Pat) O’Hara Wood was born on 30 April 1891, the son of John James O’Hard Wood (1863-1920), a native of Brisbane, and Catherine Compton O’Hara Wood (née Holroyd; 1863-1954), who was from Melbourne. Pat O’Hara Wood had two siblings: Arthur Holroyd O’Hara Wood (1890-1918), who later became a medical doctor and joined the Royal Flying Corps; he was killed in action in October 1918 when another aircraft flew into his. Pat’s other sibling was Kathleen O’Hara Wood (1895-1980). Both Arthur and Kathleen O’Hara Wood also became tennis player.

Like his older brother, Pat O’Hara Wood attended Melbourne Grammar School before going on to the University of Melbourne, where he was studying law when war broke out. After serving during the war, he became a full-time tennis player and won eight major titles (two in singles, five in men’s doubles and one in mixed doubles). In later life he became a professional tennis coach and owned a sports goods store. (For more on Pat O’Hara Wood and his family, see the appendices below.)

In August 1925, Meryl O’Hara Wood won the women’s singles title at the Queensland Championships in Brisbane; in the final she beat the local player Beryl Turner (née Spowers), 6-3, 6-1. In January 1926, in Adelaide, Meryl won the women’s doubles event at what was then called the Australasian Championships. In the final she and her fellow Victorian beat Daphne Akhurst and Marjorie Cox, both of New South Wales, 6-3, 6-8, 8-6.

The following year the tournament was renamed the Australian Championships and was held in Melbourne in late January. Playing with another Victorian, Meryl won the women’s doubles title for the second year in a row by beating Esna Boyd and Sydney-born Sylvia Harper (née Lance), in the final, 6-3, 6-3.

In 1928, Meryl was chosen as one of four players to be part of the second Australian women’s tennis team to be sent on an international tour. The first women’s team had been sent abroad in 1925 and was made up of Daphne Akhurst, Esna Boyd, Sylvia Harper and Floris Saint George. In 1928, in addition to Meryl, the team once again consisted of Daphne Akhurst and Esna Boyd, with Louie Bickerton also a member.

The team sailed from Perth, Western Australia, in mid-March and arrived in Durban on 29 March ahead of a tour of South Africa. They sailed for Europe on 24 April and arrived in England on 14 May. Three days later they crossed the English Channel to France in order to take part in the French International Championships tournament which began on 21 May.

In the women’s singles event at the French International Championships in 1928, Meryl won two matches to reach the third round, where she was beaten by the English player Cristobel Hardie, 8-6, 6-4. At Wimbledon a few weeks later, Meryl also reached the third round of the women’s singles event, but was well beaten by the Englishwoman Phoebe Holcroft-Watson, who won 6-0, 6-1.

In the women’s doubles event at Wimbledon, Meryl and Louie Bickerton reached the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by the American Elizabeth Ryan and the English player Joan Lycett (née Austin), who won a close match, 7-5, 9-7. In the mixed doubles event Meryl and her compatriot Gar Moon reached the semi-finals, where they were defeated by fellow Australians Daphne Akhurst and Jack Crawford, 6-3, 7-5.

One feature of the Australian women’s international tour was the series of matches they played against women’s tennis teams from each of the countries they visited. The countries in question were South Africa, England, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Ireland. Indeed, in South Africa in April, the Australians had played several series of matches, against different teams in different parts of the country, and did not lose any of the ties.

Nor did they lose any of the other ties. In fact, they beat the other five women’s teams, notably including England, whom they played over two days, 13 and 14 July, at the West Hampshire Lawn Tennis Club in Bournemouth. The tie consisted of five singles and two doubles matches. The English team included Eileen Bennett and Phoebe Holcroft-Watson, two of the top players in the world. However, Daphne Akhurst beat both of them in the singles matches, while Esna Boyd also beat Bennett in another of the singles, but lost narrowly to Holfcroft-Watson.

In the fifth singles match Ermyntrude Harvey beat Louie Bickerton in straight sets, while Daphne Akhurst and Esna Boyd were narrowly beaten in the doubles by Eileen Bennett and Phoebe Holcroft-Watson. As it turned out, the other doubles match was crucial to the Australian victory in the tie. It pitted Louie Bickerton and Meryl O’Hara Wood against Elsie Goldsack and Ermyntrude Harvey, and the Australian pair won it easily, 6-2, 6-3, to give their country a win in the tie by 4 matches to 3.

Towards the end of the Australian women’s international tour, in September of 1928, Meryl O’Hara Wood was in Italy where she won the women’s singles, women’s doubles (with a Miss Gray) and mixed doubles (with the Greek player Max Ballis) at the tournament in the commune of Cernobbio located by Lake Como in Italy.

The Australian team arrived back home in late November 1928. By the end of the year, Meryl had begun to take part in tournaments in Australia again. At the South Yarra Championships, held at the Royal South Yarra Tennis Club in her native Melbourne, she won the women’s singles event, defeating fellow Victorian Frances Hoddley-Wrigley in the final, 6-1, 6-0. She also won the women’s doubles event (with Kathleen Murdoch) and the mixed doubles event (with her husband Pat).

Meryl continued to take part in tennis tournaments on into the early 1930s. After her retirement from top competition she continued to play at club level and represented Toorak College in what was known as the Old Girl Collegians’ Association team competition, an annual event. In 1947, she was appointed a selector of girls’ interstate teams in Victoria. She also coached girls aged 18 and under in a voluntary capacity served on club committees and both Victorian and national level.

Meryl O’Hara Wood died on 6 May 1958 in Melbourne at the age of 63. She was survived by her husband, Pat, who died on 3 December 1961 in Melbourne at the age of 70, and by her son, Dr John Mervyn Lister, a medical practitioner, who died in Melbourne on 11 July 1977 at the age of 59.
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Appendix: Louis Waxman, Meryl's father

From The Jewish Herald (Victoria), 9 February 1917:

Mr Louis Waxman

Great regret is very generally felt at the untimely death of Mr Louis Waxman, the well-known Melbourne solicitor, which took place on the 27th ult. at Mount Saint Evins private hospital, where he had undergone a severe operation a few weeks before.

The deceased gentleman belonged to a family long and honourably connected with the Melbourne Jewish community, his father, the late Mr Aaron Waxman, having been a president of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, and his elder brother, Councillor Joseph Waxman, being one of our most prominent and active communal workers.

By his assiduity and intellectual qualities Louis Waxman won for himself a high place in the legal profession. He was retained in a number of important cases, involving large issues, and the marked ability with which he conducted them brought his name well to the front.

Outside his profession the late Mr Waxman acquired considerable renown in the domain of recreative sport as a champion bowler. He was recognised as the authority on the game of bowls, and his journalistic articles on the subject were highly valued.

He was well-read, and his contributions to various periodicals revealed the possession of considerable literary and poetic ability. He had, moreover, natural musical gifts of no mean order, and would certainly have gained distinction in that art had he been able to devote himself to it.

The late Mr Waxman was a faithful adherent to Judaism, and in particular took great and constant interest in the affairs of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, of the executive of which he was at one time a member. He was of a liberal disposition, and gave freely to all charitable and communal objects, and his social geniality made him a favourite with a large circle of friends, who sincerely mourn his loss.

He left a widow and two daughters. At the funeral, which was largely attended, the Reverend Jacob Lenzer officiated, and delivered an impressive obituary address.
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From The Argus, 29 January 1917:

Mr Louis Waxman, who died early on Saturday morning, was a well-known Melbourne solicitor. He was the son of the late Mr Aaron Waxman, and was educated at Scotch College. His elder brother is Mr Joseph Waxman, formerly mayor of Brunswick, and the younger is a well-known member of the vaudeville stage in England under the name of Albert Whelan.

Mr Waxman, who had been ill for some months, had established a sound legal practice. He was a notoriously hard worker and it was his devotion and attention to his work which undermined his health. He was the solicitor to the Vacuum Oil Company, and will be remembered as having taken a prominent part in the exposure of the negotiations which subsequently formed the subject of a Royal commission in New South Wales in connection with the petrol monopoly.

Mr Waxman was one of the best-known exponents of the game of bowls in Australia. He represented Victoria as a skipper in interstate matches on numerous occasions, and was a prominent member of the Armadale club, with which he had played since 1894, and of which he was several times champion. He was the most successful captain of the club in its long run of premiership victories.

He was runner-up for the single-handed championship of Australia in Sydney in 1901, and won the Australian Championship in Brisbane in 1914. On that occasion he also led the rink which won the championship. Mr Waxman was regarded as an authority on the ethics of bowls, and represented Western Australia on the Australian Bowling Council at the conference in Brisbane in 1914. He was also a well-known writer on the game, with more than ordinary descriptive powers.

He had also some gift of poetry, and some verses written by him at the outbreak of the war were the means of collecting a large sum of money for the patriotic funds. He leaves a widow and two daughters, the elder being one of the best-known and most successful tennis players in Australia. The funeral yesterday at the Melbourne General Cemetery was largely attended.

Louis Waxman.
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Dr Charles Lister, Meryl's first husband.
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