Robert Powell (tennis)

Robert Branks Powell ( born April 2, 1881 in Victoria, British Columbia Province, † April 28, 1917 at Vimy, France) was a Canadian tennis player.

Life

Powell was 1900-1904 Private Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, Henri- Gustave Joly de Lotbinière. In 1904 he accepted a position with the Governor of Fiji, 1905 and 1906 he worked for the Western Pacific High Commission. In 1909 he graduated from law school.

Powell learned from his father the tennis game. Among other things, he won multiple championships of British Columbia and the Fischi Islands (1905, 1906) as well as in Europe, the Scottish Championships and the Championships of Sussex. At the 1908 Wimbledon Championships he reached the semifinals, but it lost to the eventual champion Arthur Gore with 8:10, 4:6 and 2:6. In doubles, he could also venture out on the side of Kenneth Powell semi-finals, but that went against Norwood Stanley Doust and Harry Alabaster Parker lost a year. In the years 1913 and 1914 he played in addition for Canada in Davis Cup.

Powell took on the grass tournament of the 1908 Olympic Games in London in part. In individual he reached the third round, in a double he had on the side of James Foulkes in the first game the British Walter Crawley and Kenneth Powell defeated.

After the outbreak of World War I was Lieutenant Powell in 48th Canadian Infantry Battalion. He fell on 28 April 1917 in northern France at the age of 36 years.

Sources and links

• Obituary, from The Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand), May 10, 1917 ( online)
• Robert Powell Branks. tennisarchives.com, accessed on 26 October 2012 ( English).
• Davis Cup stats by Robert Branks Powell ( English)
• ITF profile for Robert Branks Powell ( English)