John T. Mitchell

John Templeton Mitchell (1854–1914) was born in Scotland on April 3 ^[1]1854^{[Note 1]} and emigrated to the USA in 1875, where he settled in Chicago where he found employment as a bank clerk^[2] and became a naturalised American citizen. He became interested in duplicate whist at the age of 34, in 1888, when he read of a duplicate match in his native Glasgow and was instrumental in the formation of the Chicago Duplicate Whist Club.^[3] His name is synonymous with the Mitchell Movement used in many bridge clubs today.

Whist development

Mitchell became known as the "Father of Duplicate Whist"^[4] because of the movements of boards and players he designed for tournaments, a design included in his 1891 book on Duplicate Whist.^[5] This relatively simple movement was refined in discussion with others during that decade in an attempt to truly compare skill at cards rather than pure chance.^[6] His contemporary, E C Howell, developed a different system of movements for pairs in 1897.^[7]

J T Mitchell contributed to the original Whist Reference Book,^[8] and much to discussions on tactics of the game,^[9] and the Laws of Whist.^[10] Mitchell was elected to the post of Treasurer of the American Whist League, at that time representing Chicago, Illinois.^[11]

Publications

Some books written by Mitchell have been republished in recent years^[12]

• Duplicate Whist 1897 (Classic Reprint) Paperback – Republished by Forgotten books (2018). Also by Cornell University Library (2009)
• Duplicate Whist: Its Rules and method Of Play – Being A Full Description of The New And Scientific game Which Equalizes The Strength Of Opposite Hands, Thus Reducing The Element Of Luck To A Minimum. Originally published 1891. Republished by Obscure Press (2009)

Notes

1. Caveat - an online search of National Records of Scotland has failed to come up with anyone of this name in birth or census (1861 or 1871) records of the time