J. F. Foulkes was an early star of Canadian tennis. Foulkes may have been a three-time winner of the Canadian national championship, today known as the Rogers Cup. He was also a member of the only Canadian team to reach the finals of the Davis Cup.
A member of the Victoria Lawn Tennis Club, Foulkes may have captured the Canadian national championship in singles 1907, 1909, and 1910 - at least one source says otherwise however.[1] His 1907 win, if it did occur, broke a string of 13 consecutive wins by an American player and only the second for a Canadian in 18 years. The source that disputes that Foulkes won his titles claims he was, instead, runner-up in 1907 and again in 1908.
Foulkes along with fellow Victoria natives B. P. Schwengers, R. B. Powell and Victoria-based Henry Mayes reached the final of the 1913 Davis Cup in the country's first attempt. (All four players were members of the Victoria LTC.[2]) With the entire tournament played at Wimbledon in June–July, the upstart Canadians, with Powell and Schwengers playing each match, beat South Africa, 4 wins to 1 and then Belgium, 4-0, to reach the final. In the final, however, they were overwhelmed by the Americans losing each set of three matches they contested.
Foulkes was also a British Columbia, five-time time Pacific Northwest champion, and two-time Washington State champion. He was ranked No. 1 singles in the USTA Pacific Northwest in 1914.[3]
Foulkes has been elected to both the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame and USTA Pacific Northwest Tennis Hall of Fame.