and authored The Art of Badminton..

The tournament took place in Portsmouth and the defending Champion Yates came in 2nd.

Thomas won several tennis tournaments. He got his love for physical sports from his father. His chess talent, he inherited from his mother (she won the English Women's Championship 1895 in the Hastings Christmas tournament).

He is now regarded as the strongest chessplayer in London after T. F. Lawrence withdrew from the arena (<nachdem sich T. F. Lawrence aus der Arena zurückgezogen hat,>).

His performance in the City of London Chess Club Championship:

1911: 2nd place (1st Ward)

1912: 2nd place (1st Blake)

1913: 1st place (Jubilee tournament with 36 participants; 2nd Cole, 3rd Ward, 4th Ed Lasker, 5th Loman, 6th Davidson)

1914: 2nd place (1st Ed Lasker)

<The Thomas Baronetcy, of Yapton in the County of Sussex, was created in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 6 September 1766 for George Thomas, Governor of the Leeward Islands from 1753 to 1766. The third Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Arundel. The seventh Baronet was a prominent chess player. The title became extinct on his death in 1972.>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas...

"One of the games lost by Champion <Lasker> at the exhibition of simultaneous play which he gave in London recently. The winner, <George Alan Thomas>, a boy of fourteen, is a son of Lady Thomas, of Southsea, who is one of the prominent members of the Ladies Chess Club:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 exd4 7. O-O d6 8.cxd4 Bg4 9. Qa4 Bxf3 10. gxf3 Qf6 11. Bb5 Nge7 12. d5 Qxa1 13. dxc6 b6 14. Qb3 Qf6 15. Na3 Qc3 16. Qd1 a6 17. Ba4 Ng6 18. Nc2 Ne5 19. Be3 Qd3 20. Nd4 Bc3 21. Nf5 Qxd1 22. Bxd1 O-O-O 23. Be2 Kb8 24. Bxa6 Nxf3+ 25. Kg2 Nd2 26. Bxd2 Bxd2 27. Ne7 Rhe8 28. Nd5 Rxe4 29. Rb1 Ba5 0-1

"Black's last move of B to R4 is well-timed, for Lasker threatened R takes P ch and then P-B7 ch and wins if Black takes the B"."

<Source: "Bendigo Advertiser" (Victoria, Australia), Saturday 3rd October 1896, page 4. Game also reporte by "The Australasian" (Melbourne, Australia), Saturday 13th June 1896, page 45.>

Wow. This guy's done like, everything. Happy Birthday George Alan Thomas!

Per Wikipedia, he made it to the last eight/fifth round/quarter-finals in 1911, albeit 1922 was the first year when the challenge round (where the previous year's champion played the winner of the all-comers' event) was scrapped.

Here's the (London) Daily News of July 5th 1911, p.8:

<Yesterday’s programme at Wimbledon proceeded on prosaic lines. There was a dull beginning with the Dixon and Thomas match in the fifth round, which ran a monotonous course until Dixon won in the fourth set. His supposed vast superiority was never in evidence, and why he mainly contented himself with tame returns from long range and let Thomas have a field day with his one aggressive stroke—a forehand drive—it is difficult to understand. Maybe he felt the heat, and maybe he was reserving his energies for his semi-final with Max Decugis. He nearly let Thomas in for a lead of two sets to one, and it was well for him that he stayed the course against so persistent a player. Thomas is much more of a plodder than a stylist.>

https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginf... about Sir George playing in Hastings (1934/35)

A tennis-related <Thomas> anecdote by <David Bronstein> from the 1954 USSR-England chess match:

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"...Keres asked Postnikov, the head of our delegation, to phone the Soviet embassy in London and order a ticket for him for the men's final at Wimbledon. However, when we arrived in England it transpired that there was no such an opportunity! He adored tennis, he attained professional standard in it, and once he even played in the championship of his country...

[Bronstein and Keres are sharing a hotel room for the match]

...Keres, wearing a track suit.. . is glued to the old and minute television screen. There is a knock on the door. Paul gets there before me, and I watch in amazement as he stands to attention, like a schoolboy before the headmaster. I also stick my nose around the door- and adopt the same pose as Keres. Before us is <Sir George Thomas>, the living legend of English chess!... He smiles and utters the words that for Keres, evidently, seemed like a message from God himself: 'Paul, I've called for you. I am inviting you to the Wimbledon final.' And, seeing that the shocked Keres was unable to utter a word, he added: 'I have brought you my ticket.'"

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