Here I am on a Friday afternoon
in a Birmingham cemetery; oddly it’s more like scrubland than hallowed ground. Busy
traffic hems it in on all sides and there is no church to lend the place a
sense of elegance. Smashed bottles, crisps wrappers and Walnut-Whip-style dog
dumps were more prevalent than graves. I was tramping over it as I’d read that
the grave of Harry Gem had been found there. . . no the name doesn’t mean
anything to me either but he’s known to be the inventor of lawn tennis and his
grave’s been restored. Thankfully I found it in ten minutes.
Harry’s real name was Thomas Henry Gem (he preferred
“Harry”) and he was a busy lad being a lawyer, soldier, writer and sportsman. He
is recorded as having won a bet by running 21 miles from Birmingham to Warwick
in under three and a half hours. He was born not far from this grave but by the
age of 22 was working as a solicitor in London. In his spare time he wrote
journalism and drama for several local publications while rising to the rank of
Major in the 1st Warwickshire Rifle Volunteer Corps.
Where did tennis come from? He used to play
rackets at the Bath Street Racquets Club in Birmingham with a Spanish chum
called Augurio Perera. Accessories
and court time were expensive so they developed a simpler game that could be
played at Augurio’s home in Edgbaston. The game of
lawn tennis was invented on his croquet lawn at 8, Ampton
Road in Edgbaston. It’s thought that Walter Wingfield
invented tennis in March 1874 but Harry and Augurio’s
version was being played a decade before. Theirs was played on a patch of rectangular-shaped
grass whereas Walter’s was played on hourglass-shaped grass. The game took hold
and was being referred to as “lawn tennis” by 1872.
Aged 54 Harry and Augurio
moved to Leamington Spa and formed a club specifically to play lawn tennis (it was
soon renamed the Leamington Lawn Tennis Club.) It became the world's first
tennis club. Harry died locally aged 62. I wonder what he’d think of the prize
money now being won at Wimbledon every year (£31.6 million in 2017.)
As I took a few photographs using the camera
timer some nearby workmen kept throwing puzzled looks at me (one with hands on
hips and a corrugated brow.) A coughing generator was too loud for me to shout
across that I was a sad man who loved looking for dead dudes. The grave was found
thanks to the efforts of Chris and Sue Elks from Wythall
who - with the help of a grave-digger - found the headstone beneath six inches
of soil.
I did a hearty salute and walked back to the car.
Often when someone has been watching me posing over a grave I’ll see them
stroll across to the grave to have a look. The workmen didn’t but a rangy
Shaft-lookalike dude with a mongrel did, picking up the leaflet I’d left
flapping on the grave. He put it in his pocket after examining the grave and
was perhaps one of the recent anonymous emails I receive asking to added to the
mailing list.
The link to restoring Harry’s grave is here…
http://www.theharrygemproject.co.uk/
Chris and Sue Elks who found the
grave…
The house in Edgbaston
where lawn tennis was invented…