Full Names of 1950s Players (1956 BCF Grading List)

[Roger de Coverly]

But hold the front page... is this our guy?

1972-01-27 Coventry Evening Telegraph - Peter J Harrison.png

A Diploma in Mathematical Statistics at Cambridge University is or was a one year post graduate course.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It does look very much like that is the right P. J. Harrison, particularly as he is listed as "Bradford and Nottingham University". That Peter Jeffrey Harrison was at both Nottingham University and then Bradford University. Does the grading list refer to Bradford University, or could it also be interpreted as residence in Bradford?

EDIT: Ignore the "Bradford and Nottingham University" bit above. That is me mixing up Bolton and Bradford...

[GrahamStuart]

With so many great investigators on this post I wondered if anyone had additional details on:

Leslie Edward Vine (Hampshire; 5a) (n.b. the original omits the second initial 'E')

Squadron Leader Leslie Edward Vine was a regular participant in the Hampshire Individual Chess Championship from 1939 to at least 1971 and won the title in 1952. He represented Hampshire from 1936 to 1972 approx. 100 times and held various Hampshire Officers roles during his chess career.

He is certainly not the strongest Hampshire player in the list as we can claim 1a (Conel) Hugh O'Donnel Alexander who played 20 times for Hampshire (w13, d6, l1) from 1932 to 1946 and 3b Wilfred Henry Pratten. But I would certainly be interested in knowing more about Squadron Leader Leslie Edward Vine.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I wondered if anyone had additional details on:
Leslie Edward Vine (Hampshire; 5a) (n.b. the original omits the second initial 'E')

An SCCU Bullitin from 1962 (https://sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SCCUBu ... _24-25.pdf) contains the following:

Mr L.E. Vine is No.3 in county chess personalities. He started to play as a boy and owes no little of his ability to games played with his mother. He joined Hampshire after World War 1 and became President of the Southampton University Chess Club. He likes Congresses and is almost a life-long correspondence player and has been Hampshire Individual Champion twice.

See also https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html where his mother, Lizzie Vine, played in a tournament at the 1925 British Chess Championships.

[GrahamStuart]

I wondered if anyone had additional details on:
Leslie Edward Vine (Hampshire; 5a) (n.b. the original omits the second initial 'E')

An SCCU Bullitin from 1962 (https://sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SCCUBu ... _24-25.pdf) contains the following:

Mr L.E. Vine is No.3 in county chess personalities. He started to play as a boy and owes no little of his ability to games played with his mother. He joined Hampshire after World War 1 and became President of the Southampton University Chess Club. He like Congresses and is almost a life-long correspondence player and has been Hampshire Individual Champion twice.

See also https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html where his mother, Lizzie Vine, played in a tournament at the 1925 British Chess Championships.

Thanks Jon - I should have known about the Hampshire Bulletin as I have that on my site.
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/wp- ... n-No-5.pdf

This does state that we was Hampshire Individual Champion twice, but I had him down as a single winner. It could be that one of the years which is states not being held it actually was? This includes the two years following his win. There is certainly nothing on the Silver Rook Trophy for those years.

The Britbase details his birth and death years (1892-1978) and again he was obviously still strong enough to play in the championship when pushing 80.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The Britbase details his birth and death years (1892-1978) and again he was obviously still strong enough to play in the championship when pushing 80.

I've enetered his exact birth and death dates on the Family Search site:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/perso ... s/G717-T44

He married the 18 year old Muriel Grace Clench in 1927. There don't seem to have been any children.

Leslie's death was registered in Nottingham in Q1 1978, but he must have been visiting someone because his probate gives his residence at the time of death as 61 Passfield Avenue, Eastleigh, Hampshire.

I can't find out much about Leslie's chess-playing mother, Lizzie Vine (nee Goring). She was born in 1867 or possibly the end of 1866, but there are no obvious death records. Some family trees have tied her to a death of a Lizzie Vine in Ealing in 1952, but that looks wrong to me as the probate of this Lizzie Vine mentions someone called William Vine, who is not her only son or husband (the latter died years previously).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Those names still left or needing more work (maybe not now, but for anyone picking this up later) are:

E(dgar?) Brown (Middlesex)
E(dward?) C Hughes (Civil Service)
A Hirsch (Finchley)
E Jesty (Athenaeum)
J S Parker (Wimbledon)
T(erence?) Goodhill (West Ham)
D Hardin (Sale)
J B Harmer (West London)
David Armstrong (West Ham)
B Howard (Blackpool)
H W Calvert (Ilford)
D J Collins (Harrow)
I(saac?) Goldberg (Leeds)
D Gowler (West Ham)
L G Green (Birmingham)
S G Hill (Civil Service)
H P James (Wimbledon)
S Jezewski (Polish Y.M.C.A.)
N(eil?) E Lewis (Birmingham)
P W Parkes (Wimbledon)
M R Porter (Ilford)
A(nton?) Weber (Clapham Common)
R(obert?) Beevers (Sheffield)
S Dean (West Ham)
G E James (Leicestershire)
R H King (Civil Service)
J E Smith (Birmingham)

See the notes on the page here:

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pdfs/ ... glist.html

And earlier in this thread for some of the ideas for some of the above. P. W. Parkes may be known, but no definite chess connection, for example. Some appear not to have been possible to find (e.g. Green and Smith).

[Richard James]

I'm sure GE James (Leicestershire) was George Edwin James (born 31 August 1894 in Brighton, died 5 May 1979: death registered in Leicestershire Central).

He originally played for Brighton, then moved to Leicester, playing for NALGO (Local Government Officials) alongside Alfred Lenton in the 1930s and is described as a Leicester Corporation Official in the 1939 Register.

My other, Wimbledon, namesake looks like Harold Percy James, born in Glasgow 8 April 1895, died in Bexhill 28 December 1987 (leaving £228463).

He played for the Civil Service as well as Surrey, described as a Higher Executive Officer in the 1939 Register, before retiring, like all good chess players, to Hastings, for whom he played in the 1960s.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

That is great dedective work, Richard.

It is slightly odd that the other 4 Polish YMCA players have their forenames deducible, but not Jezewski.

[Richard James]

That is great detective work, Richard.

It is slightly odd that the other 4 Polish YMCA players have their forenames deducible, but not Jezewski.

Possibly this Jezewski. There's also a Naturalization notice from 1958. I don't remember him, although I remember (and played) several of the other Polish YMCA players in the 1970. There's also an online tree with someone of that name born 22 December 1909: no place of birth or death details given.

I'd researched GE James before, just in case he was related to my Leicester James family (he wasn't).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

There is a slight possibility that the R. H. King I found in Hansard upthread is the same R. H. King who was a son of Charles Montague King who was born in Calcutta in 1872 and became CIE in 1915 and CSI in 1922 for his services in the Punjab. His son (R. H. King) came tenth in what was presumably some civil service exam in 1925, and may have followed his father into the Civil Service. The dates might be right. No forenames for the son yet, and no chess connection found, but can anyone take this further?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I found a Leonard George Green (1904-1975) who spent his whole life in Birmingham. However I can't find anything to tie him to chess.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/perso ... s/GRGH-P61

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I got distracted reading about the chess players at the BBC, who including the Hungarian George Tarjan (originally Gyorgy Tarjan).

You wonder if there is any relation to the US chess grandmaster James Tarjan (born 1952), the son of Hungarian-US child psychologist George Tarjan (1912-1991). The BBC George Tarjan held several roles, including "Assistant Head of Central European Service", which also involved listening to broadcasts during the Hungarian Uprising. It is not surprising, of course, to see Hungarians playing chess.

Miss Joan Frances Doulton (1913-1992, later Hay - according to BritBase) is another BBC player on this 1956 grading list, with her chess career documented on BritBase (e.g. "joint British women's champion with Rowena Bruce in 1955").

The relatively mysterious "P. J. Unway" is also a BBC player, but appears to be only on one grading list (5b in 1961). He also played for Hertfordshire in the 1960s.

It is good to see people like Roger John Tayler popping up in the 1961 Grading List (he is listed for the "Atomic Energy Research Establishment"). Nothing really new here, but the other government workers and scientists yield stories such as that for J.C. Thompson (Beckenham, Government Chemists) who appears in the 1961 grading list.

This thread (from 2008), has information and a lovely congress photo (Stevenson Memorial Tournament, Bognor Regis 1954) from Paul McKeown's research, states that "John Crittenden Thompson, born 24-1-1889 (location unknown), died in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 22-7-1971" was the inventor of the Hippopotamus Opening!

(Sorry to jump forward to the 1961 grading list! I am sure John will want names from other grading lists that he has uploaded to BritBase dealt with in different threads that he may get to later when he has done the preliminary work, otherwise it will all get rather confusing.)

[Richard James]

This thread (from 2008), has information and a lovely congress photo (Stevenson Memorial Tournament, Bognor Regis 1954) from Paul McKeown's research, states that "John Crittenden Thompson, born 24-1-1889 (location unknown), died in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 22-7-1971" was the inventor of the Hippopotamus Opening!

JC Thompson was born in Travancore (now part of Kerala), India. He died in Beckenham/Bromley in 1973, not in Newcastle in 1971. The probate administration was in Newcastle. One of his brothers, Alfred Oakley Thompson (1891-1975), played chess in Leicester. His other brother was Bernard Latham Thompson, who doesn't appear to have been a competitive player. There's a lot more to say about the Thompson family, perhaps in one of my Minor Pieces.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The relatively mysterious "P. J. Unway" is also a BBC player, but appears to be only on one grading list (5b in 1961). He also played for Hertfordshire in the 1960s.

The first port of call for anyone who has an unusual surname and whose initials are known is freebmd as it has some limited support for wildcards. In this case a search for births, marriages or deaths for "p* j unway" comes up with just one match - a Peter John Unway whose death was registered in Wallingford in 1988. His date of birth is given as 29th January, 1912.