Edward James "Ted" Johnson

"No professional is more popular, and deservedly so, than Johnson, who is one of the great players of the day, and at the moment has a challenge out for the championship. He is the eldest son of Edward Johnson, now professional to Lord Wimborne at Canford, formerly at Lords and Hampton Court. He was born in London on Feb. 20th, 1879, and received his first instructions in the game with his father. At the age of sixteen, he was engaged at the Prince's Club, when the foundation of his game so ably laid before was developed, and he soon showed himself a coming player. He began early to get matches with the leading players, and in 1909, at the age of thirty, he challenged Fairs, who was then holder, for the championship. The match was played in Brighton in June of that year, and although Johnson was beaten comparatively easily by 7 sets to 2, it was obvious he was a player of the highest class and that it was lack of experience in championship match play that prevented him from doing better, but since then he has decidedly improved.

Tall and splendidly built, Johnson is a fine figure of an athlete. Muscularly he is exceptionally strong, and this is one of the advantages for Tennis, provided it in no way hampers quickness of movement; height, however, has its drawbacks as well as its advantages. It is a gain in so far that it gives extra reach, but there is no question that it is more fatiguing for a tall man to get properly down to the ball than for a man of shorter and more stocky make, and this stooping tells its tale toward the end of a long match or in playing hard games two games running.

As a whole, Johnson, in my opinion, is the most attractive stylist of the very modern form of professional tennis. His stroke is well played without a long swing of the racket, but he gets down well to the ball, cuts the ball heavily, and then it just skims the net, and generally is played with the best of length and direction.

The very pace Johnson sets, and the amount he takes out of himself, sometimes mean that he gets tired at the end of a hard day's play, and certainly one has noticed that his stroke suddenly seems to lose its fire, and his game its vim, but at its best, when going at top speed, there is no one I would rather see in the court. A most courteous and generous opponent, always doing his best whatever the opposition, there is no professional who has deserved his success more."

All who knew Ted speak of his great gift of friendship, of his modesty, and of his staunch sense of fair play. When in the marker's box, his word was law, and woe to anybody who fished for compliments after the game! Almost to the end of his days Ted continued to train new members, throwing ball after ball onto the penthouse and making the court reverberate with well-timed cries of NOW! Despite his age, he continued to give his all to the game. On a bitter cold day he would insist on marking, a dangerous occupation for one of his years. What did it matter if those keen old eyes were sometimes a little inaccurate in spotting the exact chase? The set of balls would be brushed and spotless, the court and penthouse meticulously swept and clean and the rackets taut and ready: an example to all professionals.

Richard Hamilton

Ted and his wife brought up six children in the flat at the end of the Court: Edward Junior, Cecil, Charles, Neville, Albert and Ivy. The oldest sons Edward and Cecil were born in London, and were later trained by their father at Moreton Morrell. Both worked at first as real tennis professionals but later turned to squash. Cecil moved to the United States where he started as a real tennis professional at the New York Racquet Club but was later killed in a car accident. Charles also made the transatlantic crossing, worked for a while in squash but later became a chauffeur.

Ted's daughter, Ivy or "Bid", was, Neville recalled, a fine lawn tennis player. She worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company as a dresser but she too died tragically in a road accident. Albert, the youngest, was christened at the village church in Moreton Morrell as "Albert Ariel Bedwin Johnson". He was referred to less pretentiously as "Mate" by his siblings and as "Jack" by the real tennis fraternity. He was based at first in New York and then later in Chicago, and defeated Jim Dear for the World Championship in 1957 held at the Queen's Club, and despite achieving something his father had fought so hard for, nonetheless did frustrate him with his wayward lifestyle. Organisers of a Testimonial Match for Ted Johnson at Moreton Morrell in 1959 were saddened that Albert, the World Champion, was unable to take part. Moreton Morrell can claim, however, to have close associations with a Real Tennis World Champion.

Neville's introduction to real tennis started early. Born in 1910, his godfather was Fred Covey, later World Champion in 1916, 1922, 1923 and 1927, and he told me that at the age of four, his father put a racket in his hand on court and started gently hitting balls to him. Ted certainly stood no nonsense and Neville and his brothers received "a good belt more than once!" Neville remembered Charles Garland as "a fine upright fellow" who was "wickedly rich" and recalled that he had his own doctor and nurse who tended the family and retainers. Neville alleged, with a twinkle in his eye, that his father's employer enjoyed one or two extra-curricular activities with a number of local ladies, including a keen polo player from the village and a local landowner's wife.

Neville remembered with fondness that Garland and his wife and daughters were always very good to the Johnson family. He had happy memories of his upbringing and described the Court as a "fantastic place" where he enjoyed "great times". Current Club members will be interested to learn that the Court and the corridor were heated in winter. He remembered that "a fellow from Ashorne would come over and light the boiler in the cellar under the flat." Neville helped his father and sister make tennis balls from the cloth of red army coats from the Great War and he remembered racket gut coming in skeins from Swansea. His father sent him to Prince's Club in London where his first duties were as a ball boy. In 1927, aged seventeen, he joined the Leamington Tennis Court Club, which he served until 1940 when he joined the National Fire Service. After the war, the Leamington Club did not re-open for two years, and in the interim period Neville decided that his future lay elsewhere and set up his own agricultural repair business.

When Neville Johnson died, a three-generation family link with real tennis came to an end. The Johnsons had been at the heart of real tennis coaching and instruction, and could count amongst their number a World Champion and a runner-up.

Andrew Hamilton