Henry Holwell Cole (1873-1953)

[John Saunders]

I also discovered that my Chessbase file of his games is a bit scrambled as I have him playing games in 1950, when he apparently died in 1922... Any snippets of information would be useful.

No doubt mixed up with HH Cole, who did play at Southsea 1950. HH sticks in my memory because I defeated him in the decisive game for first prize in the Plymouth Premier Reserves 1948, my first adult congress at age 19....

Following on from Kevin's post about Harold Godfrey Cole, I thought it might be helpful to start another thread about the man with whom HG Cole is often confused - Henry Holwell Cole - who was the man Leonard played at Plymouth in 1948.

I came across an informative pen picture of him from the Westminster Gazette, 27 February 1897...

1897-02-27-Westminster-Gazette-H-H-Cole.jpg

... and here's a game that followed on from that piece...

[Event "County Surrey v Kent"] [Site "London"] [Date "1897.??.??"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Lewis, LW (Rev)"] [Black "Cole, Henry Holwell"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C65"] [PlyCount "90"] [EventDate "1897.??.??"] [EventType "team-match"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [WhiteTeam "Kent"] [BlackTeam "Surrey"] [WhiteTeamCountry "ENG"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bd6 5. Bg5 O-O 6. Nbd2 a6 7. Ba4 h6 8. Bh4 b5 9. Bb3 Bb7 10. a3 Bc5 11. Bg3 d6 12. c3 Bb6 13. O-O Kh7 14. Kh1 Qe7 15. Nh4 g6 16. Qe2 Rad8 17. f4 Bc8 18. f5 g5 19. Nhf3 Nh5 20. Qe1 f6 21. Bd5 Na5 22. b4 Nb7 23. Nb3 c5 24. c4 Rd7 25. cxb5 axb5 26. Bc6 Rc7 27. Bxb5 cxb4 28. axb4 d5 29. Ra6 Qd6 30. Bf2 d4 31. g3 Nd8 32. Ra1 Rc3 33. Nc5 Bxc5 34. bxc5 Qxc5 35. Bc4 Qc6 36. Qe2 Ng7 37. Be1 Rxc4 38. dxc4 Nxf5 39. exf5 g4 40. Qg2 gxf3 41. Qf2 Qxc4 42. Ra7+ Rf7 43. Rxf7+ Nxf7 44. Kg1 Ng5 45. Kh1 Bb7 {Source: Westminster Gazette, 27 February 1897} 0-1

[John Saunders]

In late December 1898, Henry Holwell Cole's life took a terrible turn for the worse when he was committed to London's Bethlem Hospital (from which the word 'bedlam' derives, of course). Those with access to the FindMyPast website will be able to read of his bout of mental health problems in some detail, but you don't have to be a psychiatrist to diagnose at least part of the poor man's problems. The casebook report tells us "his brother died suddenly, then his mother [in 1898] - his greatest friend committed suicide." His father died the following year.

HH Cole seems to have been there for some months but, happily, it would appear that he managed to get his life back on track thereafter. The 1901 census finds him lodging with his aunt and her family and working as a clerk. He married in 1910, had a family and lived quite a long life. It's possible there was some sort of hiatus in his chess career as I can't see any of his games between 1899 and 1929 but thereafter he was a tournament regular right up to 1949.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Both Coles had problems then. HH did well to score +19=1-0 on a high board for Ludgate Circus.

I was aware that both played in those Cable Matches with USA. They seemed to be active at much the same time (until HG died) which probably explains how they got confused.

[John Saunders]

I've been informed that Hertfordshire Chess Association had Henry Holwell Cole's scorebooks in its possession, as of the 1990s. Does anyone know their current whereabouts? A collection of his games would make a nice feature for Britbase.info were they to be input. Alternatively, they could be offered to chessgames.com who do a good job of showcasing historical player collections.

[Paul Dupré]

Surrey Chess Champion

1895 COLE, Henry Holwell

Also, years later played in the 1933 British Championships in Hastings, where he was born in 1873.