The First President of the Sheffield & District Lawn Tennis Association
The year 2015 marks the bi-centenary of the birth of Sir Henry Edmund Watson J.P., first President of both the
Hallamshire club, in 1886, and the now Sheffield & District Lawn Tennis Association from 1891. Hitherto all we knew
of him was that he was first on a list of 57 Association Presidents (to 2014) and that he had a ten year term of office
ended only by his death in 1901. However, access on line to many archives including newspapers, old maps, Sheffield
pictures, and others thrown up by Google, plus some ‘on the ground’ research has allowed us to gain a picture of a
major local celebrity. In this we are indebted
to tennis researcher Andy Lusis for finding
and supplying many Victorian newspaper
articles.
Sir Henry was truly Victorian in his adult
years but was born four years before the
future Queen on 19th March 1815 on the very
day that Louis XVIII escaped from Paris as
Napoleon marched in, the Battle of Waterloo
coming three months later. Am I alone in
being amazed at the thought of somebody
born then hitting at least a few balls over the
net at Hallamshire? Queen Victoria came to
the throne when Henry was twenty two; he
died only twenty four days after her. Two years when he received auspicious honours coincided with key moments
in Sheffield tennis history; he was knighted in 1886, his first full year as President of the, now, Hallamshire club, and
in 1891 the year he became our first President his portrait was presented to him by Earl Fitzwilliam at a very large
ceremony in the Cutlers hall. His active involvement with the formation of the Hallamshire club and his possibly
being instrumental in the saving of Rustlings following its forced move from the site of the new Endcliffe (Woods)
Park is told elsewhere.
He was born and died in Shirecliffe Hall, inherited by his father John in 1793 from an uncle, William W. who was the
eldest and last survivor of the twenty three children of another Wm., apparently a ‘confectioner’ who was made a
Town Trustee in 1741 and lived himself to ninety-seven in 1791. No wonder in Sheffield histories of the time
Watsons appear all over the place as inn-keepers, landlords, silversmiths and silver plate manufacturers, vintners
and property dealers, buying up property in the Hartshead area where Watson’s Chambers and Watson’s Walk
remain today as reminders of their
presence.
His father John, an attorney, bought the
whole Broomhall estate in 1800 and for
twenty years used it for agricultural
purposes, where deer roamed and it
was ‘full of glorious old timber’. In
1820, the growth of the town suggested
he put the estate to more profitable
purposes; it was cut up, and in 1829 the
first building lease was granted. He also
made considerable purchases of
freeholds from the Duke of Norfolk, and
he had those material possessions in Hartshead. Being a founder, director and solicitor of The Sheffield Banking
Company from 1831 must also have proved very profitable.
Sir Henry was obviously born with a silver spoon in his mouth and left £180,000 in his 1901 will, equivalent to a 2014
purchasing power of about £18m. Assuming much of this was as a result of his father’s will in 1853 and that he was
the youngest of four sons and four daughters, one can only speculate on the wealth of his father.
Henry was educated at Pipe's School, Norton, and Sandal, near Wakefield. After being an articled pupil at the
Sheffield Banking Company he established a firm of solicitors, the above advert from 1885 being our first indication
of his involvement in tennis; some of the land purchased from Rustlings farm became what was originally called The
Sheffield & Hallamshire Lawn Tennis Club Ltd. For thirty one years he was a Guardian of the Sheffield Assay Office,
and in 1886 followed in his father’s footsteps as a Director of the Sheffield Banking Company, the building existing
today in George St. He was Chairman of Charles Cammell & Co (later Cammell Laird) for a couple of years from 1887
until his retirement, and was elected to the Carlton Club in London for distinguished political services but declined
invitations to stand for Parliament, be Master Cutler, or become Lord Mayor of his city. But in social matters, he was
apparently always a leader and had a very long connection with the Sheffield Club (1843 to date and not to be
confused with any soccer club) and all reports speak of his hospitality and his benefactions extending over a very
wide area. He could reminisce about ‘the corn fields which, when he was a boy, extended almost all the way up to
the Hospital, the high road to London being so deep in mud that coaches stuck up to the axles, and the Wicker almost
as bad. Attercliffe, however, was a particularly pretty village, and the Salmon Pastures were then rightly so called.’
Shirecliffe Hall stood where the car park is to Parkwood Springs and its football pitches off Shirecliffe Rd. with one of
the best views of Sheffield from above the now derelict ski slope. It was gone by the 1950’s. Victorian censuses
reveal that, unusually, the four brothers and four sisters remained unmarried at home into middle age, only two of
the brothers then marrying. By 1881 Henry, the youngest sibling, was head of the household with just two older
spinster sisters still living there and six servants. By 1891 he lived on his own albeit with the comfort of those
servants.
The Appreciation on the following page by (Sir) C.E.Howard Vincent is typical of the many found.
What did he look like? A long Sheffield Evening Telegraph article of 29 December 1891, too large to be included
here, reported the presentation to him at Cutlers Hall of his portrait, the 6th Earl Fitzwilliam, from Wentworth
Woodhouse, observing during the unveiling, ‘We have met here together for the love of a man whom we must all
esteem.' Everybody who was anybody attended. Recently the archivist of the Cutlers’ Company confirmed the
portrait was still there and an invitation to view was accepted. Expecting maybe just a head and shoulders at full size
in one of the many anterooms it was a delight to find him hanging, slightly larger than life and fully intact, in the
main ballroom only two places removed from Queen Victoria, much nearer than the Duke of Wellington. See
attachment.
Barely 100 metres away the Cathedral provides a more easily accessed ‘artefact’, the 1881 window he commissioned
to commemorate his parents. From the visitors’ centre it is directly in front, and combined with the modern Lantern
Window makes a stunning introduction to the building. See attachments.
He was buried in Ecclesall Churchyard in plot X56, the ‘X’ denoting that he was as yet unfound! However, due to a
little diligence, some amazingly good luck, and the removal of much ivy the ‘X’ is now removed, and he lies in one of
four identical vaults containing all four brothers and some others; his father and mother and four sisters occupy a
single large vault nearby. All are in very prominent, and presumably expensive, positions near the main entrance in
the tower.
Shirecliffe Hall
The ‘church tower’ is a folly. Notice the cricket pitch and its roller. Little left in the modern view.
Sir Henry. The photographs were taken from ground level and from the opposite side of the ballroom, one
of them to show the size of the painting.
The Lantern window and Sir Henry’s 1881 window.
For more on this go to http://www.sheffieldcathedral.org/visiting/the-west-end.php
All Saints Ecclesall
HENRY EDMUND WATSON Kt
John Andrews Jan 2015