Walter Clopton Wingfield

Walter Clopton Wingfield ( born October 16, 1833 in Ruabon, Denbighshire, Wales, † April 18, 1912 in London, England) was the inventor of lawn tennis.

Life

Wingfield parents died early so he under the tutelage of his uncle and the brother of his grandfather, a former colonel, was at the age of 13. Also Wingfield embarked on a military career and was recorded at the First Dragoon Guards. He served in India, where he married the daughter of his general. He participated in 1860 in the Second Opium War and the capture of Peking. 1861 Wingfield returned to England and moved six years later with his family from Wales to London.

In February 1874, he presented to the public a developed from the old Jeu de Paume game that he called Sphairistike, the Greek word for ball game, or lawn tennis ( The Game of Sphairistike Or Lawn Tennis ). Developed by him lawn tennis with the new rules became popular in a very short time among the wealthy classes in Britain. Sprung up everywhere tennis courts as early as the 1880s.

Major Walter Clopton Wingfield of also come two fundamental rule books Tennis: The Book of the Game and The Major's Game of Lawn Tennis. He invented also in the 1890s, the Butterfly Bicycle.

Since 1997 he is revered in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.