- Augurio Perera
Juan Bautista Augurio Perera was a Spanish-born, English-based merchant and sportsman, credited alongside his friend Major
Harry Gem as the earliest inventor of the game oflawn tennis .Rowley, Andrew, " [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49347 Gem, Thomas Henry (1819–1881)] ", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 10 July 2007] Tyzack, Anna, [http://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/culture/article/79487/The_True_Home_of_Tennis.html The True Home of Tennis] "Country Life", 22 June 2005]Life
Born in
Spain , Perera moved toEngland in 1839, becomingnaturalized , settling in theEdgbaston area ofBirmingham and establishing a successful business importing Spanish merchandise.Osman, Arthur "Lawn tennis remembers its founding fathers", "The Times", Thursday June 10, 1982]A keen rackets player, he was a member with Gem of the Bath Row Racquets Club in
Lee Bank , a short walk from his house at 8 Ampton Road, Edgbaston. It was on thecroquet lawn of this house that Perera and Gem were to develop a game that combined elements of both rackets and the Spanish game ofpelota between 1859 and 1865," [http://www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk/lawntennis.htm Lawn Tennis and Major T. H. Gem] " Birmingham Civic Society] naming it "Lawn rackets", "Lawn pelota" or, eventually, "Lawn tennis".In 1872 Perera and Gem moved to
Leamington Spa and established a club to play their new game on the lawns of the Manor House Hotel, opposite Perera's new home in Avenue Road. Perera left Leamington three years after Gem's death in 1881 and his life after this date is unknown. [ [http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-29702 Tennis] "Encyclopædia Britannica" 2007. Accessed 11 July 2007]Tennis' true inventor?
The invention of tennis is traditionally ascribed to Major
Walter Clopton Wingfield , who published rules for a game he called "sphairistike" in 1873. It was this anniversary that was celebrated as the centenary of the game in 1973, and it is Wingfield's statue that stands at the headquarters of theLawn Tennis Association .It is now known that Gem and Perera had established an organized tennis club prior to this date, however, and had been playing the game privately for a decade or more.
In addition, much less is known about Perera than his friend and fellow tennis pioneer
Harry Gem , whose life is well documented as a prominent figure in several walks ofBirmingham society. In a letter to "The Field" in November 1874, however, Gem himself largely credited Perera with the development of the game.ee also
*
Harry Gem
*Walter Clopton Wingfield References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
