This is Mr. Joseph Francis Devlin, and you may not have guessed it from the card, but he was a badminton player, and a jolly good one.
He was born in Dublin on the 19th of January, 1900, and at the time of writing this he remains the second most successful player ever to compete in the All England Open Championships, though his active years were relatively short, only between 1925 and 1931. Strangely his introduction to the sport came quite young, when he had a bone infection, and underwent surgery to remove part of his heel. Because he was not allowed to walk, his mother, who had been, by all accounts, a pretty decent badminton player in her youth, found one of her old racquets and some shuttlecocks, and he would play that, against the wall, to amuse himself.
During the First World War he was sent to England, where he joined the Royal Air Force. They had all kinds of sporting facilities on the bases and when he saw a mention of badminton it awakened old memories, and pleasant ones, and so he had a go. He turned out to be rather good, and took part in many on base and inter-base tournaments.
After the war he started to play in other tournaments, sometimes paired with a friend, Gordon Mack, and in 1922 he first appeared at the All England Championships, which, at that time, was held at Lindley Hall, in Vincent Square, London. His partner that time was Guy Sautter, and they won the men`s doubles title. The following year he won the same class, but partnered with Gordon Mack, who would go on to win the men`s singles title the following year. Then, in 1925 our man won the men`s singles, starting a run which would see him win it every year until 1930. He also won the men`s doubles twice during that run, with Gordon Mack, in 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, and 1931 - and he also won five mixed doubles titles, the first of these, in 1924, seeing him partnered with Miss Kitty McKane, the second, in 1926, with Eveline Peterson, and the third in 1929, with Marian Horsley
In 1925 he was invited to join an English team that was off to tour Canada, and he loved it out there. He returned in 1930, and his mind was made up, so in 1931 he turned professional and moved out there, to Winnipeg, where he became a coach and author. His daughters also shared his skills, and both were excellent players, one of them, Judy, winning the women`s singles under her maiden name in 1957 and 1958, and under her married name, of Hashman, from 1961 until 1965, and then again in 1966 and 1967.
In 1976 our man moved to Ireland, where he died, on the 27th of October, 1988, aged eighty-eight.
Oddly, he seems to have only ever been cartophilically celebrated by Churchman, in this set, which was also issued in the small size, and in the 1931 set of "Sporting Celebrities", which also tell us he was a well known lawn tennis player. All of these cards are caricatures, and curiously all by one cartoonist, "MEL".
There are actually three sets, which appear in our original Churchman reference book as :
96. 50. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT (titled series). Size 2 15/16" x 1 7/16" or 67 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-50. Front printed by letterpress, 4-colour halftone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
97. 12. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT. Similar format to (96) but size 3 5/16" x 2 9/20" or 80 x 62 m/m
98. 12. MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT. Inscribed "2nd series of 12". Other details see (97), but different subjects.
This is much truncated by our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, and only appears in the original as :
MEN OF THE MOMENT IN SPORT Nd.
A. Small - (50)
B. Large - (1) "1st Series of 12" (2) "2nd Series of 12"
In the updated version it is but a two line description, with the title at the top and A and B combined on the second, accomplished by shortening the sizes to "Sm." and "Lg".