The early years
Great Britain · born Munich, 1864 · died 1941 · Wimbledon doubles champion 1887 and later chairman of the All England Club
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1887
Wimbledon doubles champion with Patrick Bowes-Lyon
1883
Northern Championships singles title
1886
All-comers singles semi-final at Wimbledon, his best singles run there
1888 to 1891
Honorary secretary of the All England Club
1929 to 1936
First permanently elected chairman of the All England Club
Herbert William Wrangham Wilberforce was born in Munich on 8 February 1864, the son of the judge Edward Wilberforce and a grandson of Archdeacon Robert Wilberforce; the physicist Lionel Wilberforce was his brother. He first played at Wimbledon in 1882 and reached the singles quarter-finals that year and the next. In 1883 he won the Northern Championships singles, and in 1884, partnering Patrick Bowes-Lyon, he helped Cambridge beat Oxford at lawn tennis for the first time.
Doubles suited him best. With Bowes-Lyon he reached the all-comers final at Wimbledon in 1886, and in 1887, with the Renshaw twins not defending, the pair won the title. In 1888 they led the Renshaws by two sets to love in the Challenge Round and lost in five. He also won the Northern doubles in 1886 with J. F. P. Rawlinson. His best singles run at Wimbledon was the 1886 all-comers semi-final, which he lost to Ernest Lewis in five sets. He played the doubles for the last time in 1896.
He was called to the bar in 1888 and spent his working life on the bench: stipendiary magistrate in Bradford, a Metropolitan magistrate from 1914 and deputy chairman of the County of London Quarter Sessions from 1926 until he retired in 1938. He stood for Parliament as a Liberal in 1900 and sat on the London County Council from 1901. At the All England Club he was honorary secretary from 1888 to 1891, a vice-president from 1911, president from 1921 to 1929 and the first permanently elected chairman from 1929 to 1936. He was knighted in 1931 and died in Kensington on 28 March 1941.
| Wimbledon doubles | 1884 with Herbert Lawford: lost in the first round to Ernest and William Renshaw 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. 1886 with Patrick Bowes-Lyon: all-comers final, lost to Claude Farrer and Arthur Stanley 7-5, 6-3, 6-1. 1887: beat Ernest Barratt-Smith and James Crispe 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in the all-comers final and took the title by walkover. 1888: Challenge Round, lost to the Renshaws 2-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon singles | Nine appearances, 1882 to 1891, seven wins. Quarter-finals 1882 (lost to Lawford) and 1883 (lost to Donald Stewart 6-5, 3-6, 5-6, 6-5, 6-4). Semi-final of the all-comers in 1886, lost to Ernest Lewis 3-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Quarter-final 1888, lost to Ernest Renshaw 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-0. In 1889 he beat the future three-time champion Arthur Gore 6-0, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round |
| Northern Championships | Singles champion 1883; doubles champion 1886 with J. F. P. Rawlinson |
| A trophy in his name | The Gentlemen's Doubles trophy used at Wimbledon since 1937 was presented to him by the members on his retirement as chairman, and he gave it back to the club as a companion to the Oxford University Cup |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1887 | Men's doubles | with Patrick Bowes-Lyon |
| Northern Championships | ||
| 1883 | Men's singles | |
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
"having played in a good number of matches in the past ten years, I have only twice succeeded in winning when all five sets were played, and on one of those occasions I should infallibly have been beaten had not rain intervened and caused the last set to be postponed to the next day."
The person behind the player.
Cambridge, 1884
The Badminton Library's history of the game records that in 1884 Cambridge "for the first time were able with the powerful assistance of Messrs. Wilberforce and Lyon to defeat Oxford". Three years later the same two men won the Wimbledon doubles.
Source: Badminton Library, Tennis; Lawn Tennis; Rackets; Fives (1890)Wimbledon, 1888
In the 1888 Challenge Round Wilberforce and Bowes-Lyon, the holders, took the first two sets from Ernest and William Renshaw 6-2, 6-1. The twins won the next three 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 and took back the title they had not defended the year before.
Source: Wimbledon archive, player recordAll England Club, 1888
When J. Marshall resigned as honorary secretary of the All England Club in 1888, the Badminton Library noted that "Mr. H. W. Wilberforce had assumed the burden of management". He ran the Championships until 1891 while still entering them as a player.
Source: Badminton Library, Tennis; Lawn Tennis; Rackets; Fives (1890)On the grip
Writers of the day argued over whether to change grip between forehand and backhand. The Badminton Library's instructional chapter settled it by citing "the great authority of Mr. Wilberforce", who had written: "The time taken up by changing the grip is infinitesimal, and with practice becomes purely mechanical."
Source: Badminton Library, Tennis; Lawn Tennis; Rackets; Fives (1890)Bradford to London
Called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1888, he became a stipendiary magistrate in Bradford, joined the Metropolitan bench in 1914 and was deputy chairman of the County of London Quarter Sessions from 1926 to 1938. He was knighted in the 1931 New Year Honours, while chairman of the All England Club.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon, 1937
When he resigned as chairman in 1937 the members presented him with a silver challenge cup. He handed it straight back to the club to be played for as the Gentlemen's Doubles trophy, alongside the Oxford University Cup, and it is still engraved with every champion since 1879.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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