George Hillyard

George Whiteside Hillyard (6 February 1864 – 24 March 1943) was a male tennis player from the United Kingdom. Under his supervision as secretary of the All England Club from 1907 to 1925, the Wimbledon Championships moved to its current site at Church Road. Hillyard also excelled at cricket and golf.

George Whiteside Hillyard was born in Hanwell, Middlesex on 6 February 1864, the only child of George Wright Hillyard (1817–1896) and his second wife Mary Mansfield (1827–?). His father had been a police officer at Welwyn, Hertfordshire by 1840 and later worked in the Nottingham County Jail before becoming superintendent at the Central London District School in West London in 1861. After his first wife Lucy had died in early 1862, he married Mary Mansfield in December the same year.

In 1877, at 13 years old, Hillyard was sent to the Britannia Royal Naval College as a cadet. In 1879, he was promoted to midshipman and was assigned to HMS Bacchante which toured the colonies of the British Empire around the world from 1880 to 1882. Among his fellow midshipmen were Prince Albert and Prince George (later King George V).

Hillyard resigned from the Navy with the rank of sub-lieutenant on 2 October 1885. His last posting was aboard HMS Minotaur.

Hillyard had been already introduced to tennis at the age of ten by his uncle, who had set up a Sphairistike court in 1875. However, he didn't like what he called "pat-ball" at first, and preferred cricket. After his Navy service, however, the rules of the game had undergone significant changes and Hillyard became attracted to it. From 1887, he began to play tournaments.

Hillyard married Blanche Bingley (1863–1946) in Greenford on 13 July 1887, one week after the Wimbledon final. Blanche was the daughter of a wealthy tailoring business proprietor from London, and a successful tennis player. She had won the Wimbledon Championships in the previous year, and would win another five singles titles at Wimbledon alone until 1900. Blanche brought a considerable fortune into the marriage. Only five days after the wedding, the newly married couple competed at the Middlesex Championships at Chiswick Park, and won the mixed doubles title.

In 1889, Hillyard played the Wimbledon singles for the first time. He lost his quarter-final match against Harry Barlow in straight sets. He reached the doubles final twice at Wimbledon with Ernest Lewis in 1889 and 1890, but lost to the Renshaw brothers and Joshua Pim and Frank Stoker, respectively. Alongside Harry Scrivener, he won the doubles title at the British Covered Court Championships in 1890 and 1891. The following years, his focus shifted again to cricket, playing for Leicestershire, until 1896 when he won the singles, doubles, singles handicap and mixed doubles (with his wife) at Monte Carlo. In 1897, he won the first staging of the International German Championships at Hamburg, beating George Ball-Greene in five sets in the final. He repeated his success at Hamburg in 1900. At Wimbledon singles, early losses enabled him to win the All England Plate in 1898, and reach the final in 1899. At the 1901 Wimbledon singles, he beat Laurence Doherty in the third round before losing in the quarter-finals to Arthur Gore.

In 1905, at 41 years of age, Hillyard lost the final at the Bad Homburg tournament against Anthony Wilding. He entered the Wimbledon Championships 1906, conceding a walkover to Arthur Gore. Being assigned secretary of the All England Club in 1907, he never entered the Championships again. However, he did continue to play minor tournaments such as at Eastbourne, Yorkshire and Leicester until 1914. After the Great War, at 55 years of age, he competed at his home tournament at Leicester and even won the mixed doubles alongside Gladys Lamplough.