H.A.E. Scheele
28 February, 2018Herbert Scheele, the new Honorary Secretary of the International Badminton Federation, was born in Bromley, and at the age of ten went with his family to the United States of America, where he went to the Montclaire Academy, New Jersey, becoming very keen on Base Ball and Lawn Tennis, in fact, he succeeded in winning several prizes in Junior American Lawn Tennis Tournaments.
Four years later he returned to England and went to Dulwich College, where he remained for about two years: still very keen on Lawn Tennis he played in the Public School Tournament, at Queens Club. After leaving Dulwich he spent the next 3 years on the Continent learning languages. Upon his return in 1927 he started his Badminton career at the Widmore Badminton Club, Bromley. Two years later he joined Sundridge Park Badminton Club, becoming Honorary Secretary and Match Secretary in 1931, which posts he held till 1935. In 1938 he was elected Club Captain. He has represented Sundridge Park Badminton Club in Men's Doubles since 1933 and in Mixed Doubles since 1934, never missing a club match, except for illness on one occasion.
He represented Kent County in a 2nd team match in 1934, played regularly in the following season for the 2nd team until, in January, 1936, he played for the 1st team, and has continued to do so, never since then missing a match to date. His partnership with Mrs. Beales (nee Poulton) has proved to be the most successful Mixed Doubles pair in the County side for many years. He was awarded his first full County Colours in 1936.
In tournaments he has succeeded in winning not a few handicaps, and in 1933-34, he won his first Open, namely Chatham Mixed Doubles. Since then he has regularly supported this Tournament and has been in one or more finals each year. In 1937 he was runner-up in the Kent Men's Doubles Championship.
His interest in the game is not, however, confined to playing alone and he has set a very fine example of ''doing his bit'' to keep a club and an association going. Apart from his secretaryship for Sundridge Park Badminton Club, he has been Honorary Secretary, Treasurer and Match Secretary for the Kent County Badminton Association since 1935. He was elected to the Committee of the Badminton Association of England in 1936, upon which he still serves. In 1938, he became Honorary Secretary to the International Badminton Federation. Apart from all this he has run, and run very successfully indeed, the Kent Championships for the last three years and they, thanks to his untiring efforts, have, each year, attracted a bigger entry, resulting in approximately 650 spectators this year to watch the finals of a County Championship meeting.
In fact it is said and with good cause that he cannot justify his playing ability because of the tremendous amount of executive work he undertakes, and with such remarkable success.
No account of Herbert Scheele's activities would be complete without adding that he still finds time to accompany the County 2nd team on its voyages and in between whiles plays Hockey for Bromley Hockey Club, which he has represented throughout its five teams. In the summer he plays Lawn Tennis for the Bromley Lawn Tennis Club, of which he is Captain, and here again his name is nearly always to be found on the Committee list. Until 1938 he was a regular member of the Bromley Cricket Club First XI, where, as in other games, he has proved his ability to give his very best when playing for a team, rather than when playing for himself in a Tournament.
In conclusion, I would add that only when he retires from his posts of Honorary Secretary, Treasurer, and Match Secretary, of the Kent County Badminton Association, will his real worth be truly appreciated and the nearly impossible job of finding a successor prove to all what his loss means.
-- By D.L.H. Mercer, the Editor - Badminton Gazette, March 1939