Sir Norman Everard Brookes was an Australian tennis player.
Background
Brookes was born in Melbourne, to a father, William Brookes, who had become rich from gold mining in the Bendigo area. On leaving school, he went to work as a clerk at the Australian Paper Mills Company Limited where his father was managing director, and was on the board himself within eight years.
Career
Brookes was a world Number. 1 ranked player and later president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia. The Australian Open men"s singles trophy, the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, is named in his honour.
He received a private education at Melbourne Grammar School.
Brookes married 20-year-old Mabel Balcombe Emmerton, the daughter of Harry Emmerton, a solicitor, on 19 April 1911 at Street Paul"s Cathedral in Melbourne. They had three daughters.
During World War I he served as commissioner of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross in Egypt. He died in South Yarra, Victoria in 1968.
As a youth Brookes played regularly on the court of the family mansion in Queens Road, Melbourne and nearby, at the Lorne Street courts, he studied the strokes and tactics of leading players and was coached by Wilberforce Eaves.
Brookes is considered to have been a World Number. 1 player in the 1900s. Brookes was instrumental in the development of Kooyong as a tennis centre.
In 1926 he became the first president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia, a post he held for the next 29 years until his retirement in June 1955.
Brookes was also an Australian rules football player in his youth, particularly for Melbourne Grammar School. Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up) Doubles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up).