Birmingham: the true birthplace of Lawn Tennis
When I think of Wimbledon I obviously think of tennis, strawberries and cream and its perfect green grass courts. I have never thought of Birmingham. However, when I saw ‘Harry Gem’s scrapbook’ back in 2019 that changed. Within the scrapbook there was a booklet with an annotation crossing out ‘Rules’ replacing it with ‘The Laws of Lawn Tennis.’ (See Fig 1.) Having read up a bit more I realised that the tennis played at Wimbledon today was developed by Harry Gem, a Brummie!
MS 3057
Harry Gem was a Solicitor from Birmingham. Along with his friend Augurio Perera, they developed a game which became known as lawn tennis, sometime between 1859 – 1865. They formed the first ever tennis club in Leamington Spa in 1872 with a second club being set up in Edgbaston shortly after. The game Harry…
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Keith Bracey the Brummie Bard Birmingham & Black Country poet & writer 