On This Week in Sport History ~ 1860s

7^th

Born on this day 1869 in Herefordshire was British archer Sir Geoffrey Cornewall, otherwise known as the 6th Baronet Cornewall of Moccas Court.  He competed at the 1908 Olympics in London. He was educated at Eton College and then at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Pitt Club, he was also affiliated to the Herefordshire York Round Club. He entered the double-York round event at the Games in which he came 15^th, scoring 430 points, he also took part in the Continental style event, but the results of this event are unknown. He succeeded his father to the Cornewall Baronetcy on 25 September 1908. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Herefordshire, and was appointed High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1913 and Vice Lord-Lieutenant in 1934. He was an Alderman of the Herefordshire County Council. He died aged 81 on 21^st January 1951.

 

8^th

Born on this day 1867 in Paris was Arnould Pierre Henri Joseph de Ranst de Berchem de Saint Brisson 

or Joseph, Marquis de Saint Brisson. He competed in the individual sabre competition at the 1908 Olympics in which he failed to reach the final rounds. He died at the age of 59 in Paris on 4^th May 1927.

 

9^th

Today in 1864 in Quebec, Canadian trap shooter Arthur Warrington Westover. His greatest success came at the 1908 Olympics where, alongside George Beattie, Walter Ewing, Mylie Fletcher, David McMackon and George Vivian, he won a silver medal in the team event. He also competed individually and finished joint-fifth, with Great Britain’s Charles Palmer. He won the Lefever Gun Event in 1910 and was half of the duo that earned the Canadian title in the two-man team event in 1908. Living in Sutton, Quebec nearly his entire life, he was heavily involved in local affairs and was a member of the executive committee for the town’s centennial in 1902. Career-wise he was active in agriculture and dog breeding and also worked for the government as an agent for the Province of Quebec Association for the Protection of Fish and Game. He was also an active Freemason.  Arthur died aged 71 on 14^th August 1935 in Sweetsbury, Quebec.

 

10^th

American painter George Overbury “Pop” Hart was born today in 1868. Pop Hart was self-taught, except for brief periods at the Art Institute of Chicago and Acadamie Julian in Paris. His strong desire to travel around the world, led him to Mexico, Central America, North Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific, especially Tahiti, less than two months after Paul Gauguin died. As early as 18, he sailed on to a cattle boat to London, and while there began his practice as an itinerant sign painter to earn his living while traveling. His manner of using watercolour was revolutionary for its time in its loose and free application. His painting used a wide range of subjects including animals, botanical studies, nudes, and landscapes. In the 1920s he also began printmaking, working in dry point, lithographs, and etching.  He entered the Art Competition at the 1932 Olympics with two paintings – The Cock Fight and The Croquet Players. He is said to have acquired his nickname of “Pop” after growing a beard during one of his many trips, and thereafter many of his works appear with the signature “Pop Hart”. He died on 9^th September 1933 in Coytesville, where he had lived in poor health during his last years.

 

11^th

Archibald Adam Warden, Briitsh tennis player was born today in 1869 in Edinburgh.  He was a distinguished doctor who graduated from Glasgow University in 1893. His first practice was in Glasgow before moving to Paris in the latter part of the 19th century when he obtained an MD. His moving to Paris would explain his involvement in the Olympic Games. Warden moved from the French capital to the South of France and established his own medical practice in Cannes.

His first major tennis tournament was the East of Scotland championships at St Andrews in 1891. Although he lost his first-round match it took four tough sets for W Dunn to beat the Edinburgh youngster. At the Paris Olympics Warden competed in all three events and won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles with his Bohemian partner Hedwiga Rosenbaumová. The following year, 1901, he reached the men’s singles quarter-final of the Paris International championship before losing to the top French player Max Decugis. Nearly all of Archibald’s tennis was played on the Cote d’Azur and his last major tournament in 1937 saw him reach the last eight of the Cap dâ’Antibes one month before his 68th birthday. His son Kay was also a keen tennis play. He died on 7^th October 1943 in Cannes, at the age of 74.

 

12^th

German multi-sport athlete Carl Schuhmann was born in 1869. Only six athletes have competed in four Olympic sports; three of them did so at the 1896 Olympics and three participated in four different skiing disciplines. The most successful of this sextet is Carl Schuhmann. The German was first and foremost a gymnast. He won three first prizes in Athens, individually in the horse vault, and twice with the German team. With the exception of rope climbing, he competed in all gymnastic events. After their return home, most team participants were excluded from the reactionary German Gymnastics Association as they were involved in a “sporting event dedicated to internationalism.” The winning teams were banned from national competitions in Berlin.

Carl’s second sport was wrestling. In the small field of five, the native Berliner competed against home favourite – Tsitas. The final lasted for forty minutes when it had to be postponed due to darkness setting in. The following morning, Schuhmann decided the contest in his favour, but he remained very popular with the Greek public. He further competed in weightlifting and athletics, but did not place among the first three.

The 1896 Olympics were the biggest success in his career, although he had several good showings at the annual German Turnfest. He did remain involved in the Olympics, visiting Athens for a second time in 1906 as a guest of honour and German team leader. Two years later, he was Germany’s team attaché in London, the city where he had been a gymnastics teacher since 1898. One of his pupils, Otto Bauscher, represented Great Britain at the 1908 Games. His final Olympic appearance was in 1936, when he was part of a gymnastics exhibition and tribute in the Olympic Stadium, despite being well into his 60s.  Carl died aged 76 on 24^th March 1946 in Charlottenburg, Germany

 

13^th

Sumner Paine, American shooter was born on this day in Boston, Massachusetts in 1868.  Affiliations to Gastinne-Renette Galleries in Paris, his father, Charles Jackson Paine, was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and also was the older brother to John Paine. Sumner briefly attended Harvard University before ending up at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, he earned an MD but never practiced, instead he went off to Paris to work. Paine entered all three of the pistol events in the 1896 Games. He, along with his brother John Paine, was disqualified from the rapid fire pistol because their firearms were not of the appropriate calibre. The Paine brothers used Colt revolvers in the 25 metre military pistol event, these pistols were superior to the arms used by their opponents, and the brothers had little difficulty winning the top two spots. Sumner finished second with 380 points on 23 hits (of 30 shots) to John’s 442 points on 25 hits. The next closest shooter (Nikolaos Morakis from Greece) scored only 205 points.

 

After winning the military pistol, John withdrew from the 30-metre free pistol event, Sumner easily won this event as well, scoring exactly the same number of points (442) as John had to win the military pistol event, he did this on one fewer hit (24), though, in this case, the second place competitor scored 285 points. In 1901, Paine went home to find his wife in bed with his daughter’s music teacher. To ward him away from the house, he shot four times at him, missing each time. He was briefly jailed and charged with assault until the police realise who he was and accepted that he must have missed on purpose. He was then released. Paine died aged just 35 years old due to pneumonia on 18^th April 1904.