Bertrand Clark

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Bertrand Clark
civil servant Edit this on Wikidata

Bertrand Milbourne Clark (29 April 1894 – 30 March 1958) was an

Wimbledon
, in 1924.

Family

Clark was born on 29 April 1894.[1] He was descended from Thomas Milbourne Clark, his great grandfather, and Eleanor Fitzgerald, who married in 1824.[2] Thomas was later described as "a free person of colour".[2] Bertrand was the second son of Clementina Louise, née Sanguinetti, and Enos Edgar Clark, a dentist in Kingston.[2][3]

He was educated at Kingston High School and then Jamaica College.[3][4]

Sporting career

Clark was a sporting polymath, and competed as an amateur.[2] He represented his school at high jump at the first Inter-Secondary Schools Championship Sports at Sabina Park in 1910, where he came first.[2][3] He subsequently became known in Jamaica as a top golfer.[2]

He played for Melbourne Cricket Club alongside his brother Ronald[a].[4][2] He also played soccer.[5]

He served as Secretary of the Jamaica Golf Association from 1941 to 1951.[3]

Tennis

In seven consecutive years he was the All Jamaica tennis champion.[2] In all, he won seven singles, seven doubles and five mixed titles at the championships.[4][5] His male doubles partners were Charlie Brandon, H. V. Alexander, H. A. Lake and O. V. A. Lindo; and in mixed doubles[b] Mrs William Wilson, Mrs C. C. Calder (later Mrs. Cy Elkins), Edna DaCosta and Olive Wilson.[4]

He beat the American Tally Holmes to take the American Tennis Association title, for African American players, in 1920.[2]

At Wimbledon in 1924, where he was the first black player to complete,[2][6] he was defeated in the first round by Vincent Burr. In his only other recorded appearance there, in 1930, he was beaten in the first round by Herman David.

During a royal tour of the British Empire in 1927, Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI) partnered Clark in a game of doubles; this was unusual at the time and was seen as a display of equality between races.[3][7]

Writing

With his brother, he wrote several books on cricket.[2] He also wrote about golf and tennis.[5]

Personal life

From 1911, Clark worked as a civil servant,[2] retiring as medical secretary of the Island Medical Office.[4][5] He was twice married but had no children.[2]

He was listed in the Jamaican Who's Who for 1946.[2]

He died on 30 March 1958.

Sunday Gleaner, which said that Clark was "perhaps the greatest all-round Jamaican sportsman of our time".[2][4]

Notes

  1. ^ Clark's brother is named as "Ronald" in the Gleaner obituary, but as "Robert" by Bauckham
  2. ^ Wilson and Calder as named in the Gleaner obituary; their own given names were not stated

References

  1. ^ "B.M. Clark". Black Tennis History. 6 April 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  2. ^
    Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
    . Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Bertrand Clark's GS Performance Timeline & Stats". DB4 Tennis. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  4. ^
    Sunday Gleaner
    . p. 3.
  5. ^ a b c d Briggs, Simon (8 November 2019). "Meet Bertrand Milbourne Clark: The sporting polymath who became Wimbledon's first black participant in 1924". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019.
  6. ^ "[unknown]". Leeds Mercury. 25 June 1924. {{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  7. ISBN 978-1-4050-4859-0
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bertrand_Clark&oldid=1200616888"