The early years
United States · born Brooklyn, New York, 1874 · died 1960 · US champion in 1894 after a five-set Challenge Round
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1894
US singles champion at the Philadelphia Cricket Club
5
Sets in her Challenge Round win over the holder, Aline Terry
2
US doubles titles with Juliette Atkinson, 1894 and 1895
16-8
Singles record at the US Championships
1941
Elected President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Helena Rebecca Hellwig was born in Brooklyn on 4 March 1874, the daughter of Morris and Helen Hellwig, and played as Helen Hellwig. In June 1894, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, she beat Ethel Bankson 6-2, 6-1 and the former champion Bertha Townsend, by then Mrs Toulmin, 6-2, 6-5, 6-4 to win the All-Comers' event. In the Challenge Round she beat the holder, Aline Terry, 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3. With Juliette Atkinson she also won the doubles, beating Annabella Wistar and Amy Williams 6-4, 8-6, 6-2.
In 1895 she lost the title in the Challenge Round to Atkinson, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, but the two kept the doubles, beating Elisabeth Moore and Amy Williams 6-2, 6-2, 12-10. Across her appearances at the championships she won 16 singles matches and lost 8.
She married William H. Pouch, later chairman of the Concrete Steel Company, in Brooklyn in November 1897. Their only child, Helen, died in January 1919, aged 18. Helena Pouch joined the Daughters of the American Revolution on Staten Island in 1916, held a series of national offices and in 1941 was elected the society's 18th President General, serving through the war until 1944. She died in Manhattan on 26 November 1960, aged 86.
| 1894 US Championships | All-Comers': beat Ethel Bankson 6-2, 6-1 in the semi-final and Bertha Toulmin (Bertha Townsend) 6-2, 6-5, 6-4 in the final. Challenge Round: beat the holder Aline Terry 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 |
|---|---|
| 1895 Challenge Round | Lost the title to Juliette Atkinson 6-4, 6-2, 6-1; the Hall of Fame calls it the easiest of Atkinson's three singles finals |
| US doubles finals | Both won with Juliette Atkinson: 1894 against Annabella Wistar and Amy Williams 6-4, 8-6, 6-2; 1895 against Elisabeth Moore and Amy Williams 6-2, 6-2, 12-10 |
| US Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1894 | Women's doubles | with Juliette Atkinson |
| 1894 | Women's singles | |
| 1895 | Women's doubles | with Juliette Atkinson |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"Let us make of our Congress a demonstration of our earnestness to assist our Government in united war effort."
The person behind the player.
Philadelphia, June 1894
The holder, Aline Terry, took the second and fourth sets of the Challenge Round, and Hellwig won the decider 6-3 for a 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 victory. She had earned the right to challenge by beating the 1888 and 1889 champion Bertha Townsend in the All-Comers' final.
Source: Wikipedia, citing The Bud Collins History of TennisThe Wissahickon Inn Prize
The women's challenge trophy from 1887 to 1898, made by Bailey Banks & Biddle, went to Ellen Hansell, Bertha Townsend, Ellen Roosevelt, Mabel Cahill, Aline Terry, Helen Hellwig and Elisabeth Moore before Juliette Atkinson's third win retired it. The West Side Tennis Club gave it to the Hall of Fame in 1992.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameChicago, 1942
With Washington crowded by the war, she moved the society's annual Congress to the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, telling members the move was "entirely voluntary on the part of our members and taken after careful deliberation." More than 4,000 attended what she called the Victory Congress.
Source: DAR Archives blogCincinnati and New York, 1943 to 1944
Opening the 1943 Congress in Cincinnati she told members: "This is a War Projects meeting." By the 1944 Congress in New York the society had sold more than $1 million in war bonds since Pearl Harbor, and the Treasury gave her and the DAR a special citation.
Source: DAR Archives blogJunior members
As the first national chair of the DAR's Junior Membership Committee she became a favourite of its younger members, who called her "Aunt Helen." Juniors in Chicago proposed a fund in memory of her daughter Helen, who had died in 1919 at 18; the Helen Pouch Memorial Fund still supports DAR schools.
Source: Wikipedia, citing The Wide Blue Sash (DAR, 2013)Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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