Ecclesall LTC during WWI

2015 is the Centenary of the Ecclesall club. Verbal testimony from older members suggest the club sprang from another in the area of the old Ecclesall tram terminus, only some 400yds away, and this piece did appear in the Sheffield Evening Telegraph in August 1914 (thanks to Andy Lusis). There was no Ecclesall Hall but there had been a Manor since 1640 immediately behind the terminus at the junction of Ecclesall Rd and Knowle Lane. The fact that Woodholm Rd was originally Ecclesall Hall Rd, and a Company called Ecclesall Hall Estates was formed in 1899 to trade in land in the area, doesn’t clarify matters. In the 1911 census Ramsay is a builder and Mona Ville an eight bedroomed house in Ecclesall so it’s just possible the courts were in his grounds, but I tend to the Manor House connection. Those areas in yellow on this 1905 map have been formalised since earlier maps and are likely to have included lawns for croquet, bowls or tennis, the latter increasingly taking over from the previous two.

The minutes of committee meetings, thorough and often long, from these early meetings still exist but what follows are merely interesting snippets from the period covering WWI, with a Timeline for some perspective. Maybe a unique view of a club’s beginning whilst surviving a war. Much of it mundane, none of it mournful.

11th Jan 1915. The first meeting of the General Committee of Ecclesall LTC took place at 49 Ecclesall Hall (Woodholm) Rd. chaired by the Rev Warner. Canon Houghton, vicar (1899 to 1927) of the Parish church had ‘consented to be President of the club’ and thirteen men including one doctor and one Reverend seemed to have appointed themselves as the first committee. Prior to that first meeting five grass courts had already been laid, by the landlords, adjacent to the ‘Prince of Wales Hotel Bowling Green’ and water laid on from Dunkeld Rd so planning must have been under way when war was declared on Aug 4th

the previous year. The courts were to be leased for one year from 1st April 1915 at £35/year. Tenders were to be sought for the nets, posts, and boundary netting; a shelter would wait until the committee had visited the site. A groundsman would be sought. The five courts occupied the area now taken up by the apartment block off Bartin Close and the club car park, the 2015 courts still being a field and not converted to courts until the 1920’s. This 1950 photo shows all the courts in use. That tree and its shadow must have been there from the start.

Printed ‘forms of application’ - see attachment - numbered 1 to 90, the agreed limit, were handed out by the Secretary for those present to get their friends to join. Subscriptions were due 1st March. WWI is never mentioned at this stage and it has to be remembered the British Public had expected it to all be over by Christmas 1914.

19th Jan first Zeppelin raids on London.

2nd February 1915. Advert to be placed in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph for a Pavilion. New members admitted – 7.

9th February 1915. ‘Equipment’: Boundary netting to be wire of 2” mesh, supporting posts 3” x 2” of wood and creosoted, ‘especially stout posts to be used at the corners’. Tennis posts to be Messrs Ayres “Square Championship” tennis posts with ‘non-portable feet’. ‘Mr Proctor’s offer to lend his roller for the first rolling necessary was accepted’.Three Committee and one ordinary member agreed to lend £5 @5% to pay for the equipment and pavilion. Account opened with the London City and Midland Bank in High St. ‘Groundsman’: tender to be sought from Mr Brooke Bray (the landlord) for looking after the courts. (The groundsman issue continues throughout these minutes.) New members: 3.

2nd March 1915. Order to be placed for the ‘equipment’ and the supplier would be asked which would be more suitable, ‘2”x 3” deal, tarred and creosoted, or larch posts’. Club Captain (male) elected. ‘Groundsman’: Rolling, cutting and marking of the courts to be pursued with Mr Brooke Bray. (Some urgency creeping in). New members: 30 including 10 married couples.

13th April 1915. Equipment: larch posts agreed upon, equipment to be ordered to include a concrete roller from the corporation. ‘Groundsman’: Mr Brooke Bray had refused to undertake the upkeep of the courts but a Mr Thompson from Dobbin Hill had been engaged at 7d an hour until further notice. An ‘urn, crockery etc.’ were to be purchased and a woman (notice, not ‘a lady’) hired to make ’tea etc.’ on Saturday afternoons. Would Mrs Thompson do the work required? New members: 3.

4th May 1915. The pavilion seems to have arrived without comment at any meeting, a notice displaying the first club rules being displayed there vis a vis white attire, closing gates and collecting balls when a set is finished. Sundry purchases approved to include crockery, spoons (no mention of knives or forks), a large kettle, stove and ‘wash-tin’, urn, coat hooks, screws, cupboard, trestle table, and office wash-stands, the latter two items at auctions. The pavilion and contents to be insured against fire – that solid fuel stove must have been a concern. Groundsman: ‘Mr Thompson should be offered 12/6d a week for the season for three days work a week if weather permitted and Mrs Thompson 2/- for helping with Saturday teas. Committee members were asked to employ Mr T. ‘for gardening duties where possible’.New members: 7, including the Rev and Mrs Warner at a much reduced subscription (poorly paid parson?)

Lusitania sunk and Italy declares war on Austria and Germany.

Wednesday 2nd June 1915. Complicated visitors fees introduced and, all lenders to the club being present, a hose pipe and sprinkler ordered. The Belgians: (Shades of 2015). A quarter of a million Belgian refugees came to the UK after the German invasion of August 1914 and Sheffield took some 3000 civilians and servicemen. Shirle Hill in Nether Edge was the receiving centre and some were based in the Ecclesall Union, the old workhouse which became Nether Edge Hospital. A request that the Belgians be allowed to use the courts was rejected on the grounds that ‘the club could not afford to pay for the extra wear of the courts’, all still grass of course. The war was beginning to impinge on the club. New members: 9

17th June 1915. Balls; three dozen more be ordered and the groundsman paid 1/- per week for cleaning them. Visitor’s fees: rules agreed at last meeting were repealed and replaced by something simpler.Ladies Committee: On the motion of two male committee members the ‘following ladies be asked to form the Ladies Committee, ‘Mesdames (!) Davies, Ede……..’ going on to name thirteen women, equalling the numbers on the all-male General Committee.

15th July 1915. In distinctly shorter minutes and lower attendance the war seems to be catching up, the following item being one of only three discussed that evening.

‘Soldiers’ Treat. It was resolved that providing the support of the members was obtained a number of wounded soldiers from the local hospital should be entertained to tea on the club grounds on 29 th inst, each member being asked to contribute 2/6d to the cost.’ This photo is of the actual event.

Conscription introduced. Germans capture Warsaw. Gallipoli evacuated. Verdun.

There is then no further entry until the First AGM on 16th March 1916, an eight month gap, Rev Warner once again in the chair. No record of attendance. Two items suggest conscription, either directly or indirectly, was now having an effect: having summarily passed the accounts for 1915 the first proposal dealt with was to ‘run the club for 1916 mainly as a ladies’ club owing to the War’, the first use of that word in any Minutes, and if forty members at one guinea could not be obtained by April 15th bowling members should be admitted at 10/- each, one or two courts being given up for this as required.Women were elected to the Committee.Soldiers were to be admitted to play at 6d any time if introduced by a member.‘Owing to the war ‘no unnecessary expenditure’ is to be undertaken during the coming season’. No new members and no mention of discontinued memberships.

23rd March 1916. Attested men, that is, those between 18 and 40 years old who had signed an obligation to sign up if required, were to be allowed to join monthly. Children of members to be allowed at (not ‘on’) the courts on Thursdays as on other afternoons. Kenwood High School to be allowed limited use of the courts.Groundsman: Mr Thompson to be asked to be groundsman under the same conditions as before.

19th April 1916. A Grounds Committee and Tea Committee were formed, the wife of the Rev Warner being nominated chairman of the latter and to choose her own committee. New members: 9 inc. 8 women.

2nd May 1916. Wives of attested men should also be admitted ‘as the same conditions affected them as the men.’ A small mower to be purchased for no more than £1; had they been using shears until now? ‘Gentlemen’s Attire: Resolved that the Secretary should put up a notice about this’. (What had they been up to?) Groundsman: Mr Lomas replaced Mr Thomas who had found work elsewhere.New members: 17 inc. 14 women.

19th May 1916. Mr Nicholson’s ‘unfortunate accident’ allowed him to pay a reduced fee for the few occasions on which he played. Groundsman: The work having become ‘too heavy’ for one groundsman Mr Ollerenshaw would join Lomas at 7/6 per week each. New members: 6 inc. 4 women.

Battle of Jutland.

17th June 1916. A tournament to be organised with Mr Kemp as Captain. Entry fee 6d. New members: 15 inc. 11 women.

Start of the Somme offensive 1st July. First use of tanks.

20th October 1916. Season to close after the munitions workers holiday.

9th November 1916, 2nd AGM. Accounts passed. Election of Officers inc. Ladies and Gents Captains, Vice-presidents, General Committee, Ground Committee, Selection Committee, Tea Committee. Ladies to be allowed to wear dark skirts in the months of May and September.

End of the Somme offensive. Over 400,000 British dead. Lloyd George becomes PM.

4th April 1917. Children: It was agreed that ‘the rule concerning children should be suspended for this season and that they should be allowed at any time provided they were kept off the courts.’ Groundsman: Ollerenshaw to be offered position of under-groundsman.New members: 35 inc. 26 women.

USA declares war on Germany

9th July 1917.

Passed that ‘… Monday and Wednesday nights gentlemen should be at liberty to play gent’s doubles if they so desire’. Selection Committee were asked to draw up a list of players in order of merit and arrange for challenges to be played. (Men only?) Groundsman: the committee expressed dissatisfaction with the work of Lomas and asked the secretary to approach the Boys’ Working Home to ascertain whether two boys could be employed in his place.Rules for booking of courts accepted.

26th July 1917. Only one item, ‘Groundsman’: The under-groundsman was complaining that all the work was being left to the times when he was there and Lomas didn’t do his share of the work. The committee endorsed his view and Lomas was to be called before the committee and told to improve or be dismissed. The application to the Boys’ Working Home had been unsuccessful.

Passchendaele

22nd August 1917. One item, ‘Groundsman’: Lomas dismissed. Ollerenshaw to ‘carry on’ at 12/6 a week with occasional help from members if necessary

Sept 8th 1917. Groundsman: To be kept on for a few weeks after end of season to clear away leaves and properly store equipment (a sop to Ollerenshaw?) Courts to be returfed during the winter, no more than £10 to be spent on this!

7th October 1917. A ‘small shed to hold tools and apparatus should be purchased if possible’

Russian Revolution

26th March 1918. 3rd AGM. Accounts passed, usual election of Officers for General, Ground and Selection Committees, Finance, Club Captains. Ladies attire: proposed and seconded by two misses that ‘ladies be allowed to wear dark skirts and white blouses in the evenings, exclusive of Saturdays and Bank Holidays’. Presumably this was passed. Groundsman: Ollerenshaw to be asked again.

4th April 1918. Groundsman: ‘The last year’s groundsman being unable to take on the work again it was decided to carry on the club without one……. & as a Ladies club (!). The gentlemen committee members therefore resigned…….’ (Is this just coincidence? What a tough start for the Ladies. But, they were up for it as the next meeting showed.)

The Red Baron, Von Richtofen, shot down.

(?) April 1918. At this first all-female meeting (minutes by Miss C.Parkin, written in a very different hand from the previous ‘flourishing’ style) the ladies, probably recognising the immediate urgent priorities and therefore dispensing with maybe time-consuming formalities such as previous minutes or finances

decided on an opening date of May 4th, agreed to order 5 doz. balls, resolved the three year recurring groundsman problem, resulting in my favourite entry of all the minutes:

If the jobs were allocated according to ability then Mrs Simpson was probably not to be tangled with! (In March 1920 the committee agreed the ‘…….roller be converted by Walkers….into one which can be drawn by a pony and that the groundsman be told to hire the necessary pony….’! The Parkins are almost certainly the two sisters Constance and Gwendoline, aged 23 and 26 respectively in 1918, who lived at 131 Hunter House Rd in 1911. Miss C. Parkin not only wrote the minutes of these Ladies meetings but chaired at least two, was Ladies Captain for a while, organised teas, and featured in the Secretary’s report of March 1923 AGM regarding the club’s principal tennis achievement of 1922 when she got to the final of the S&D Tournament Ladies Singles)

15th July 1918, the day the Germans began their last offensive, the Battle of the Marne, shortest meeting of the whole period and some three months after the last, the ladies probably too exhausted with their physical efforts. The Treasurer, the suitably named Miss Goshawk, (the gardener) read the accounts to date and showed what money was available, and it was agreed to advertise for a tool shed. End of meeting.

Eight months later, the Armistice having been signed on 11th November 1918…

10th March 1919. The war over the Ladies Committee met for the last time (unknowingly?) and discussed the Groundsman, repairs to nets and varnishing the pavilion.

27th March 1919. Fourth AGM, chaired by Mr Simpson, voted in an all-male committee excepting Ladies Captain, Miss C. Parkin. It was not uncommon in tennis clubs for women to serve but in this case they seemed content to propose and second men. Accounts passed, officers elected, subscriptions raised, groundsman’s pay increased, space for the tool shed to be measured.The Misses Goshawk & G.Parkin proposed and seconded that ladies wear white the whole season, a return to proper standards after the wartime concessions? Miss C.Parkin ‘undertook the responsibility of tea for the first Saturday, and the matter to be decided later by the ladies’. There is no recorded recognition of the ladies’ efforts in 1918 other than a vote of thanks to Miss Goshawk for ‘her work last year’, presumably as Treasurer, not the gardener, but there was a vote of thanks for Mr. Simpson’s simply chairing of the meeting.Only three months before, December 1918, some of the ladies would have been among the first women to vote in the UK in the previous December’s General Election but they seemed happy to let the men carry on for the time being at least with the onerous task of running a tennis club!The most astonishing aspect of these wartime minutes is that nowhere is there any mention of deaths due to the war or otherwise. It is estimated that military deaths from WW1 amounted to about 2% of the UK population including children and maybe that percentage doubled for adults only. Is it inconceivable that in a club now numbering over one hundred members no member was affected by the death in battle of some son, husband or father? Perhaps it was club policy not to allow the realities of the outside world to penetrate one area of their enjoyment but there is evidence of such recognition in other clubs.No reference found in subsequent years either but committee meetings came thick and fast in 1919 and 1920 as the club grew rapidly. Ash courts, extending the lease for five years from 1st Jan 1920, joining the SDLTA in Oct 1919 but not winning a league title until 1935, big improvements to the pavilion, leasing the field below, (now the 2015 courts), limiting the membership, and many other items show how prosperous the club was becoming especially with the surge of interest in the sport after four long years of war. The club nearly floundered in the 1990’s but some imaginative thinking by a group including the current Secretary and majordomo, Martin Gilmour, resulted in the thriving enterprise we see today. John Andrews 2015