LETTERS

The rallying reverend

May’s Q&A mentioned Vere St Leger Goold, the loser of the 1879 Wimbledon final, who eventually died on Devil’s Island [a French penal colony]. It reminded me of the story of the man who beat him in that final: John Thorneycroft Hartley, whose “preparation” for his semi-final that year was remarkable and was described in a letter to The Times a few years ago.

The letter recounted how Hartley was also the vicar of Burneston in North Yorkshire from 1874 to 1919. The 1879 semi-final was played on a Monday and, according to the letter writer, Hartley “took all his church services on the Sunday. He tended a gravely