Juan Bautista Augurio Perera was a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

-born, English-based merchant and sportsman, credited alongside his friend Major Harry Gem

Harry Gem

Major 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 1837, becoming naturalised, settling in the Edgbaston

Edgbaston

Edgbaston 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 Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 and establishing a successful business importing Spanish merchandise.

A keen rackets

Racquets (sport)

Rackets or Racquets is an indoor racket sport played in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada...

 player, he was a member with Gem of the Bath Street Racquets Club adjacent to the Racquet Court Inn in Bath Street, Birmingham, about two miles from his home Fairlight at 8 Ampton Road, Edgbaston. It was on the croquet

Croquet

Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden 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 pelota

Pelota

Pelota 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 Spa

Leamington Spa

Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or 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 Lambe...

 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 Wingfield

Walter Clopton Wingfield

Major Walter Clopton Wingfield was a British army officer who was one of the pioneers of lawn tennis. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997, an example of the original equipment for the sport and a bust of Wingfield himself can be seen at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis...

, who published rules for a game he called sphairistike in 1874. It is Wingfield's statue that stands at the headquarters of the Lawn Tennis Association

Lawn Tennis Association

The Lawn Tennis Association is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.As the governing body, the LTA is responsible for the coaching and development of junior players, offering courses and qualifications on coaching, as well as the...

.

It is now known that Gem and Perera had established an organized tennis club prior to this date (in Leamington Spa 1872), 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

Harry Gem

Major 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 Field

The Field (magazine)

The 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.