Career
From 1900 to 1904 he was the private secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière. He participated in the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, where he captained Canada"s tennis delegation and placed joint-ninth in the singles tournament and, alongside compatriot James Foulkes, joint-seventh in the doubles competition. At the 1910 Wimbledon Championships he reached the All-Comers final of the men"s doubles competition partnering Kenneth Powell.
They lost in three straight sets to eventual champions Major Ritchie and Anthony Wilding.
In July 1910 Powell competed in the Surrey Championships, reaching the final in which he was defeated in fours sets by Major Ritchie. The best team result was reaching the Challenge Round in the 1913 against the United States of America at Wimbledon.
Tennis author and journalist A. Wallis Myers described Powell in his book Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis as "A sound player, using a left arm and a resourceful brain to deceive his opponent, one of the best lobbers I have ever known, an intrepid poacher and a fast sprinter.".
Powell enlisted in the Forty-Eighth Canadian Battalion of the Canadian Infantry in World War I and reached the rank of Lieutenant. He was killed in action in France during the Battle of Vimy Ridge on 28 April 1917.
In 1993 he was inducted into the Canadian Tennis Hall of fame followed in 2000 by his induction into the USTA Pacific Northwest Hall of Fame.