Harry Vardon: A Career Record of a Champion Golfer

By Bill Williams and Tommy Horton

The authors objective is to provide to the reader, as near as possible, a definitive record of the playing career of one of the best golfers who has ever lived. In addition, as happens with many researchers, it is inevitable that such a project will stray into other related areas; for example, other people or linked events. To illustrate, JFK assassination conspiracy theorists would no doubt have studied events surrounding Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King or indeed the Mafia, who some say were linked to that fateful event in November 1963. Similarly with my writings about Harry Vardon, I feel it important to illustrate to the reader how the life of a professional golfer differs in Vardons era to that of a present day PGA Tour player. How golf evolved will also provide the reader with a basis for making comparisons between players of yesteryear with those of today, and how difficult such comparatives might be. What was the norm in the late nineteenth century is quite different from today, and I believe the reader should be aware of that before making a judgment about someone like Harry Vardon. This book, therefore, is not only a diary of Harry Vardons playing career, but also a history of golf, which I sincerely hope the reader will find fascinating, of interest, and enjoyable. Any deviations from the subject matter, therefore, are intended to provide a backdrop and, hopefully, a better understanding of what golf was like in Vardons era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503535701

Bill Williams

Bill Williams is a retired Englishman residing in Florida. He is a qualified financial accountant who ran a global IT and Business Consulting company for many years. In early life he played soccer at a high level in England and was associated with three professional clubs, later, a number of semi-professional teams. After moving to the Sunshine State, his passion became golf, playing, watching and subsequently writing about the game, moreover the history of golf. He is, by his own words, a student of golf history. Since retiring from the world of business and commerce, which took him to many regions of the globe, his pursuits include an avid interest in all sports, particularly golf. When not playing golf or attending professional tournaments, his time is taken up with reading and researching from his extensive library of biographys and reference books. This latest work is Bills third published book, and he plans several other projects, all golf related.

Book preview

In the Beginning

Any book or detailed article about Harry Vardon, indeed any celebrity, will typically start with a biography of the subject. If this is a first-time read about the great Harry Vardon, it would be remiss to not include at least an overview of how life started for this extraordinary man before he became the leading golfer of his era and one of the greatest golfers of all time. Several books have been written about this iconic figure that go further into his early life than this book is intended to or delve into the character of the man himself. Harry Vardon was, however, by all accounts, a congenial person not prone to boastful outburst and magnanimous in defeat, and all in all, he is described as the perfect gentleman. Henry William Harry Vardon was born on 9 May 1870 in the parish of Grouville on the island of Jersey. Harry was one of eight children, which included younger brothers Tom and Alfred, who would also become professional golfers.

Harry was married to Jessie Bryant in 1891 when it was discovered she had become pregnant. The baby was born in 1892 but died six weeks after birth. Jessie never recovered from the tragedy and suffered bouts of extreme depression. In 1896, she further suffered a miscarriage, adding to her depression. Despite her anguish and his, they remained together until Harry’s death in 1937 but were childless throughout the remainder of their marriage. Jessie passed away in June 1946 and is buried with Harry at St. Andrews Church in Totteridge near London.

Jessie took no active interest in Harry’s golfing life, never accompanying him to any tournaments or award ceremonies. Her disinterest extended to the circle of people Harry Vardon was to become accustomed to being around—socialites and country-club types. The sadness of their losses seemingly created a gulf between them. In 1920, when Harry was fifty years of age, he became acquainted with Tilly Howell, a young Liverpool hotel worker and part-time dancer. Their affair was kept quiet although it is unknown whether any of Vardon’s closest friends and golfing companions was ever aware of the liaison. Certainly, Jessie knew nothing about it, or if she did, she made no mention of it. In 1925, Tilly became pregnant and, in 1926, produced a son, Peter Howell. Peter was Harry’s secret son that the world knew nothing about until Peter’s wife, Audrey Howell, wrote her book in 1991—Harry Vardon: The Revealing Story of a Champion Golfer. Harry would make numerous visits to see his son and Tilly, no doubt providing for his illegitimate offspring. However, when Peter became old enough to ask questions, Tilly asked Harry to keep away for fear of the scandal. Such matters of illegitimacy and illicit affairs were taboo in 1920s England, especially when it came to famous people. Peter himself was not made aware of whom his father was until some years after Harry’s demise in 1937. By Tilly’s choosing, Peter never got to know his father, and for Harry, leaving his wife, Jessie, appears never to have been an option.

Peter Howell died in December 2012. Prior to that, he wrote this:

My mother spent most of her life trying to keep it quiet because that’s what people did in those days. I would like to have thought that I could have talked to him as a young man without letting the cat out of the bag if someone had given me the chance. But it was an awkward situation. My father had a wife, of course, and he loved her as well.

Peter lived most of his life with many unanswered questions.

Jersey_Map 3 Enlarged.jpg

Image credit: Evelyn Yvonne Theriault, A Canadian Family Vintage Postcards

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands and is situated close to the French mainland with Normandy to the west and Brittany to the south. Although closer to France than England, the island is a British Crown Dependency, a part of the ancient duchy of Normandy ruled by the duke of Normandy, a title held by the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding, Jersey is not a part of the United Kingdom but moreover a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy with its own financial, legal, and judicial systems and the power of self-determination. The people of Jersey are Jersey men and Jersey women, not English, which is interesting since most all references to Harry Vardon in golf tournaments and team events are that he was English. Despite this, nowhere can it be seen that Harry objected to being referred to as English. In fact, Harry competed in many England-versus-Scotland golfing encounters that attracted great crowds from both north and south of the border. Regardless of correctness, Harry was considered among the golfing world as an Englishman or, as the Scots would say, a Sasanach, the Scottish term for an