Juan Bautista Augurio Perera was a
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
-born, English-based merchant and sportsman, credited alongside his friend Major
Harry GemMajor Thomas Henry Gem , known as Harry Gem, was an English lawyer, soldier, writer and sportsman.Alongside his friend Augurio Perera, he is credited as the earliest inventor of the game of lawn tennis.-Biography:...
as the earliest inventor of the game of lawn tennis.
Born in Spain, Perera moved to England in 1839, becoming naturalised, settling in the
EdgbastonEdgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
area of
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
and establishing a successful business importing Spanish merchandise.
A keen
racketsRackets or Racquets is an indoor racquet sport played in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada...
player, he was a member with Gem of the Bath Row Racquets Club in
Lee BankLee Bank was an inner city area of Birmingham, England. It was part of the Edgbaston ward, inside the Middle Ring Road, near to the centre of Birmingham...
, a short walk from his house at 8 Ampton Road, Edgbaston.
Juan Bautista Augurio Perera was a
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
-born, English-based merchant and sportsman, credited alongside his friend Major
Harry GemMajor Thomas Henry Gem , known as Harry Gem, was an English lawyer, soldier, writer and sportsman.Alongside his friend Augurio Perera, he is credited as the earliest inventor of the game of lawn tennis.-Biography:...
as the earliest inventor of the game of lawn tennis.
Life
Born in Spain, Perera moved to England in 1839, becoming naturalised, settling in the
EdgbastonEdgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
area of
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
and establishing a successful business importing Spanish merchandise.
A keen
racketsRackets or Racquets is an indoor racquet sport played in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada...
player, he was a member with Gem of the Bath Row Racquets Club in
Lee BankLee Bank was an inner city area of Birmingham, England. It was part of the Edgbaston ward, inside the Middle Ring Road, near to the centre of Birmingham...
, a short walk from his house at 8 Ampton Road, Edgbaston. It was on the
croquetCroquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport, which involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
lawn of this house that Perera and Gem were to develop a game that combined elements of both rackets and the Spanish game of
pelotaPelota can refer to the popular and shortened names for a number of ball games:* Baseball* Basque pelota* Bocce* Jai alai* Valencian pilota...
between 1859 and 1865, naming it
Lawn rackets,
Lawn pelota or, eventually,
Lawn tennis.
In 1872 Perera and Gem moved to
Leamington SpaLeamington Spa, properly Royal Leamington Spa, commonly Leamington or "Leam" to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr...
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.
Tennis' true inventor?
The invention of tennis is traditionally ascribed to Major
Walter Clopton WingfieldMajor Walter Clopton Wingfield was a Welsh inventor of lawn tennis , which he called Sphairistikè .-Biography:...
, 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 the
Lawn Tennis AssociationThe Lawn Tennis Association is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Its objects are to prevent students from playing tennis and to develop tennis among the elite exclusively. it is renowned for basing 96% of its funding towards the...
.
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 GemMajor Thomas Henry Gem , known as Harry Gem, was an English lawyer, soldier, writer and sportsman.Alongside his friend Augurio Perera, he is credited as the earliest inventor of the game of lawn tennis.-Biography:...
, whose life is well documented as a prominent figure in several walks of Birmingham society. In a letter to
The FieldThe Field is the world's oldest country and field sports magazine, having been published continuously since 1853.The famous sportsman Robert Smith Surtees, the creator of Jorrocks, was the driving force behind the initial publication...
in November 1874, however, Gem himself largely credited Perera with the development of the game.