Seen as an upstart from the wrong side of the tracks, Fred Perry's success was hardly celebrated for 50 years
A statue of Fred Perry at Wimbledon, London, the UK. Picture: REUTERS/ANDREW COULDRIDGE
It was not until 1984, however, that an elegant statue of Perry, forehand at the ready, was placed in the All England Club grounds as a reminder of his 1934, 1935 and 1936 triumphs. Perry broke the mould at a time when tennis was for the privileged few. Born in 1909 in a working-class neighbourhood in Stockport, his father was a cotton spinner turned Labour MP.
“I asked dad if all those big Daimlers and MGs belonged to the players and he said they did. ‘Then that’s for me,’ I said,” Perry later recalled. “Some elements in the All England Club and the Lawn Tennis Association looked down on me as a hot-headed, outspoken tearaway rebel, not quite the class of chap they really wanted to see winning Wimbledon,” he later wrote in his autobiography.
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