CHRONICLE OF A CENTENARIAN CHAMP

By Lynette De Silva

Trinidad Guardian

January 5, 2000

Page 19

ELSIE'S TRIUMPHS
Elsie Coussement played most of her matches at the Tranquillity Square Lawn Tennis Club (TSLTC) tournaments in Port of Spain.
YEAR	EVENT
1923	Immediately she returned from her honeymoon, the diminutive (five-foot) Elsie won two finals in the ladies' doubles, partnered with Gladys Glendinning and Dorrie Burslem.
1926	Won the ladies' doubles with Crystal Nye, an English girl, to whom she was runner-up in the singles.
1927	Won the ladies' singles and a beautiful cup donated by Apex Trinidad Oilfields. A few months later, played against Savannah club of Barbados, winning two singles against Kitty Haynes and Doreen Phillips. Elsie received a grand ovation.
1929	Won the ladies' doubles as well as the mixed doubles at TSLTC. Also played against Barbados, winning one match but losing the other in the singles.
1930	Won the ladies' doubles at TSLTC.
1931	Won the mixed doubles, paired with Cuthbert Thavenot, at TSLTC.
1933	Played against Barbados in the mixed doubles, paired with Geoffrey Edgehill. Won both matches.
1935	Won the cup in the TSLTC's ladies' doubles with Lily Knaggs. Also played against Barbados in the ladies' doubles, wining both her matches.

In her heyday, Elsie Coussement was virtually unbeatable on the tennis court. A champion of the 20s, 30s and up to the mid-40s, with a penchant for doubles, she won almost every match she played. That was hardly surprising, since Coussement came from a family of achievers.

Born on July 3, 1899, to Joseph and Josephine Lamy, she was the eighth of 11 children. They lived in a spacious house at 61 Dundonald Street, adjoining Albion Lane. It was a good life, for Elsie's father was Town Clerk and Treasurer of the Port of Spain City Council, a position he occupied for 32 years, from 1885 until his death in 1917.

Joseph Arnold Lamy, a barrister-at-law by profession, discharged his civic duties with dignity. In June 1916, for instance, he delivered a welcome address to the new governor on the day of his arrival in the crown colony of Trinidad. Sir John Chancellor, for whose Lady a hill and road would later be named, must have been just a tad nervous. At 46, he was the youngest governor in the longest while to have set foot on our shores.

Elsie's older sister, Rowena, a biologist, was employed at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in St Augustine. An interest in genetics led her to Scotland, where she worked as technical assistant to Prof. F. A. E. Crew.

They published jointly a series of research papers, and a book entitled Genetics of the Budgerigar.

Although Rowena had no degree, an honourary PhD was bestowed on her by the University of Edinburgh in recognition of her contribution to science. On her death in 1959, the Trinidad Guardian mentioned the several research papers she had published under her own name, which were "regarded by geneticists as being of exceptional brilliance and originality." It also noted she had for a while worked in association with 'the Nobel Prize-man' in medicine, H. J. Muller.

Elsie's brother Esmond was likewise gifted, a child prodigy, according to Michael Pocock, who included him in his book of outstanding Trinidadians. Esmond played the piano before his feet could touch the pedals. Later, his songs were published by both English and American firms.

One of them, 'Dream Again', was sung locally for the first time at a concert to raise funds for the war effort. A programme, printed by the Trinidad Publishing Company and carefully preserved by Elsie, shows the event took place on October 5, 1940 at the plush Macqueripe Beach Hotel, nestling on the 6,000-acre Huggins estate in Chaguaramas.

Though at the start of her tennis career the young and pretty Elsie Lamy must have had her fill of local admirers, it was a Belgian who won her hand in matrimony. Andre Coussement arrived in the colony in the company f monks assigned to the Abbey here. His older brother, Dom Gregoire, was a Benedictine missionary in the Belgian Congo, while his only sister was a cloistered nun. It fell to Andre's lot, as the remaining sibling, to seek out a wife in order to perpetuate the family name. Andre and Elsie went on to have four children.

It was Rowena who introduced the incredibly handsome Andre to her younger sister. A match of a different kind, which had nothing to do with tennis, was secured for the dynamic Elsie!

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