Bertrand Clark
Full name: Bertrand Milbourne Clark
Nickname: B. M.
Nickname: B. M.
| Born |
Subscribe now
This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet.
Please click here and get full access to the entire database! |
|---|---|
| Died | |
| Plays | |
| Bio | He was the second child and second son of Dr. Enos Edgar Clark, the prominent Kingston dentist, and Clementina Louise Sanguinetti. He attended Jamaica College, and in 1910, B.M. Clark won the high jump for his school at the first Inter-Secondary Schools Championship Sports at Sabina Park. After finishing his studies, Clark got a job in the Civil Service, but made his reputation as an excellent tennis player from the later years of World War I. B. M. dominated men’s singles tennis all through the 1920s, while also excelling in the doubles game, both men’s and mixed. He traveled to many parts of the world to compete, and was noted for unseating Black American national champion Tally Holmes for the American Tennis Association title in 5 sets in 1920.In 1927, when Prince Albert (then Duke of York and became later King George VI), who was a keen tennis player, visited Jamaica, it was arranged that on the first day of his visit, he should play tennis at King’s House with some Jamaican players; as the Jamaican champion, B.M. Clark was naturally among those invited. Prince Albert partnered with B.M. Clark playing for a doubles (which was unusual at the time) as a way of setting an example and display for equality and friendship between the races. In 1930, both he and the rising star of Jamaican men’s tennis, Donald Leahong, played in and won tournaments in England. Early in 1931, B. M. led a Kingston tennis team to play doubles matches at the St. Thomas Country Club. In April of that year, a championship match between Clark and Leahong was expected at the All Jamaica Tournament, but Clark was unexpectedly defeated in the semifinal, thus giving up his long-held championship without taking on his younger rival. As some slight compensation, he and his partner, Olive Wilson, beat Leahong and his sister in the mixed doubles. At work he was a civil servant, working as a medical secretary for the Island Board of Health. For 11 years, from 1941 to 1951, he was Secretary of the Jamaica Golf Association and - as in his retired years as well-, he devoted a great deal of his time to coaching younger players. He died on March 30 (Sunday), 1958. |
| Misc | Subscribe now |
| Tournament | AO | RG | W | US | Win-Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Subscribe now
This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet.
Please click here and get full access to the entire database! |
|||||