James Cecil Parke

James Cecil Parke was an Irish rugby union player, tennis player, golfer, solicitor and First World War veteran, born in Clones, County Monaghan, on 26 July 1881 and died in Llandudno on 27 February 1946. He has often been called Ireland's greatest ever sportsman. He won twenty caps for Ireland at rugby between 1903 and 1909 and captained the team three times. At tennis he won the 1908 Olympic silver medal in men's doubles, the Australasian Championships singles and doubles in 1912 and the 1914 Wimbledon mixed doubles title, and he was ranked world number four in 1913 and 1920. In the 1912 Davis Cup Challenge Round he beat Norman Brookes and Rodney Heath to help the British Isles win the Cup. He served in the Leinster and Essex regiments, rose to major and was twice wounded, and he later practised law in Llandudno.