Ethel Larcombe was one of a select few in British tennis because, as Ethel Thomson, she won the ladies’ singles title at Wimbledon in 1912.   She, and her husband Dudley, moved into “Shene”, Swains Road, Budleigh Salterton around the beginning of the Second World War (1) and both died in the town. 

Ethel was born Ethel Warneford in June 1879 in South Hornsey, North London.  Her father Herbert was a general practitioner at Rothern House, Queen’s Road, Broadwood Park, North London (2).  Herbert’s wife Sophia (née Bond) was born in Axminster.  Ethel had an elder brother Hugh. 

Dr Herbert Thompson died unexpectedly in 1894 and at some stage Ethel and her mother moved to Budleigh Salterton to live with Sophia’s step mother, Sarah Bond.  They all appear in the 1901 census living in a house on West Hill called “Southbrook”.  Sarah Bond had been living in the house since at least 1893 (3). 

By 1901 Ethel was nearly 22 and already an accomplished sportswoman as she had won the All England Open Badminton Championship in 1900 and had been runner up in the doubles the previous year.  Mark Ryan has written a detailed account of Ethel’s career (4); she won the Open Badminton singles title a further four times and also the doubles and mixed doubles. 

Ethel is best known however as a tennis player and started playing at the age of seven coached by her mother.  She made her first appearance at Wimbledon in 1902.  As well as her Wimbledon triumph she won a large number of provincial titles, the Queen’s Club tournament several times, and the Dublin Championship.  She even returned to become runner up in the singles of the All England Badminton tournament in 1912 but then seems to have given up competitive badminton. 

She married Dudley Thomas Reynolds Larcombe in 1906.  It is interesting that in 1901 there were Larcombes living a few houses away from Ethel on West Hill and that James Larcombe the head of that household was a market gardener (see below).  I have been unable to make a connection between Dudley and James but it seems an odd coincidence.  Dudley and Ethel set up home in Guernsey in Rue Canchees, St. Martins, in a house called “Budleigh”.  Dudley at that time called himself a market gardener (5).   

He had been born in London (Hampton Hill, Middlesex) and in the 1891 census he was described as “an articled clerk” and his father Thomas was a clerk at the War Office.  Perhaps his father’s connection with the War Office, and his previous experience, got Dudley a job during WW1 in the Army Pay Department at the Regimental Pay Office in Hounslow.  He was later commissioned as a temporary captain and later, temporary major, in his job as a temporary Staff Paymaster (4).   

After demobilisation he retained the rank of major.  He became Secretary to the All England Club at Wimbledon in 1925.  The BBC decided shortly afterwards to make radio broadcasts during the Wimbledon Championship.  Frank Keating wrote in The Spectator in June 2007, 

“When the Corporation’s first head of programmes, Gerald Cock, first broached the possibility of radio coverage early in 1927, he received a frosty reply from the All England Club’s newish secretary, Maj. D.T.R. Larcombe: ‘Sir, I note your enquiry and my committee will advise you of their decision on the matter in due course.’  Live ‘trials’ were agreed upon, Wimbledon insisting the BBC’s commentator (Capt. Teddy Wakelam) be accompanied at the microphone by an All England member, Col. R.H. Brand, to ensure the new-fangled gimmick would not lower the tone.  By all accounts Brand’s commentary style seldom strayed from the drearily monotonous (“forehand..recovery..backhand..recovery..smash!..point scored” ), but the broadcast was deemed a triumph, and next summer the BBC budgeted £100 for the fortnight with two-hour transmissions each day” (6).  

The same year Dudley was captain of the British Wightman Cup team in New York which the British lost. He remained Secretary of the Club until the start of WW2 when he retired due to ill-health, and the couple moved to Budleigh Salterton.  He died at home in December 1944. 

Ethel had retired from competitive tennis in 1922 but then became a teaching professional.  She taught at what is now the Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club and in the 1950’s attracted players such as Angela Mortimer, Christine Truman, and Ann Haydon to the tennis tournaments that were held there very successfully until the early 1970’s. 

She died in Budleigh Salterton in August 1965. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2011

(1)Telephone Directories

(2)Medical Register 1891

(3)Kelly’s Directory

(4)http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=417529

(5)1911 census

(6)www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/life/32564/part.../radio-days.thtml

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