Between the wars
Australia · born Hammond, South Australia, 1888 · died 1936 · soldier, Wimbledon doubles champion 1919 and South Australia's first Olympian
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3
Major doubles titles with Pat O'Hara Wood, 1919 to 1920
1919
Wimbledon doubles title, won by a returning soldier
1920
Australasian singles final, lost in five sets
1922
New South Wales singles title
4
South Australian doubles titles in a row, 1920 to 1923
Ronald Victor Thomas was born at Hammond, South Australia, on 7 August 1888. He served in the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War, and after the armistice he played for the AIF tennis team in England and Europe and represented Australia at the Inter-Allied Games in Paris in July 1919. He was named in the 1919 Australian Davis Cup team but did not play a match.
In the summer of 1919 he and Pat O'Hara Wood won the Wimbledon doubles, and Thomas reached the singles quarter-finals. Back home the pair won the Australasian doubles twice within two months, at Double Bay in Sydney in January 1920 (the delayed 1919 event) and at Adelaide in March 1920, where Thomas also reached the singles final and lost to O'Hara Wood in five sets.
He played singles for Australia at the Antwerp Olympics of 1920, the first South Australian chosen for an Australian Olympic team, and won the New South Wales singles in 1922. He won the South Australian doubles four years running from 1920 to 1923. He died in Adelaide on 30 December 1936, aged 48.
| Wimbledon doubles 1919 | With Pat O'Hara Wood won the All-Comers final against Rodney Heath and Randolph Lycett 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; the holders did not defend, so the Challenge Round was a walkover |
|---|---|
| Australasian doubles finals | 1919 (played January 1920): beat James Anderson and Arthur Lowe 7-5, 6-1, 7-9, 3-6, 6-3. 1920: beat Horace Rice and Roy Taylor 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 |
| Australasian singles final 1920 | Lost to Pat O'Hara Wood 3-6, 6-4, 8-6, 1-6, 3-6 in a strong wind at Adelaide, after beating Horace Rice in a five-set semi-final |
| New South Wales singles 1922 | Beat Norman Peach 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-8, 6-3 |
| Wimbledon singles 1919 | Reached the quarter-finals |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1919 | Men's doubles | with Pat O'Hara Wood |
| Australian Championships | ||
| 1919 | Men's doubles Australasian Championships | with Pat O'Hara Wood |
| 1920 | Men's doubles Australasian Championships | with Pat O'Hara Wood |
| New South Wales Championships | ||
| 1922 | 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
The person behind the player.
England and France, 1919
After the war Thomas was a successful member of the Australian Imperial Force tennis team that played in England and Europe, and he represented Australia at the Inter-Allied Games in Paris in July 1919, the same summer he won at Wimbledon.
Source: Australian Olympic CommitteeAntwerp, 1920
Thomas played only singles at the 1920 Olympics. Just before his second-round match against Jean Washer of Belgium he received word that his father had died in Adelaide. Washer beat him in four sets.
Source: OlympediaAdelaide, March 1920
In the semi-final of the Australasian Championships he beat Horace Rice by serving well and going to the net at every opportunity, though the baseliner Rice took him to five sets. The final against Pat O'Hara Wood was played in a strong wind and also went five sets, O'Hara Wood winning.
Source: Wikipedia, citing The Register (Adelaide), March 19201919
Thomas was a member of the 1919 Australian Davis Cup team but never played a rubber.
Source: OlympediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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