Walter Clopton Wingfield was a British army officer and inventor who was famous as the "father" of lawn tennis. Major Walter Clopton Wingfield did more than anyone else to establish and codify the modern game. Wingfield patented the game in Great Britain in 1874 after others had previously combined sports like court tennis and rackets.
Background
Wingfield was born on 16 October 1833 in Ruabon, Denbighshire, Wales, the son of Clopton Lewis Wingfield, major in the 66th Foot Regiment, and Jane Eliza, daughter of Sir John Mitchell KCB. He was of an English family traceable back to before the Norman conquest. His mother died in 1836 after the birth of her second child and his father died in 1846 of a bowel obstruction. Walter was brought up by his uncle and great uncle.
Education
He was educated at Rossall School, and in 1851 entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, on the second attempt through the influence of his great uncle who was a colonel.
Wingfield patented the game in Great Britain in 1874 after others had previously combined sports like court tennis and rackets to play a game similar to what Wingfield called "Sphairistike" or Greek for "ball games." Wingfield’s patent expired in 1877, allowing the game to further evolve. He secured the patent for the game in February 1874 and had it authoritatively signed by Queen Victoria. All indications point to Wingfield having the foresight to launch the game. He patented a New and Improved Court for Playing the Ancient Game of Tennis and began marketing his game in the spring of 1874. The earliest versions of modern lawn tennis consisted of a box set that included rubber balls, a net, poles, court markers, and an instruction manual. He authored two complimentary tennis books, The Book of the Game in 1873 and The Major's Game of Lawn Tennis in 1874.
As a founder of modern lawn tennis, Wingfield’s idea was to create a portable court for playing the “ancient game of tennis.” He envisioned the game being constructed on croquet courts, providing people with healthy exercise and social amusement. His version of the sport spread quickly, and commenced with the first official Major Championship commencing in 1877 at Wimbledon.
The Major Wingfield Historical Society, located in Houston, Texas, materialized in 1976, a century after the Major published his rules and obtained his British patent. The driving force was author George Alexander, who wrote Wingfield’s biography, published in 1986.
With any historical claim, there will be doubters and skeptics. In the foyer of England’s Lawn Tennis Association stands a tribute statue to Wingfield with the inscription, "Inventor of Lawn Tennis." That homage still provokes debate among sports historians who claim another British Major named Harry Gem, and his Spanish friend JB Perera, were developing tennis in 1872. Although these reports lack the substance and credibility of historical findings related to Wingfield, the Gem-Perera team supposedly named their version “pelota,” which they later changed to “lawn rackets.” In 1872, they set up the Leamington Lawn Tennis Club, later publishing the Rules of Tennis.
The official patent for the game is on display at the Museum at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, along with one of Wingfield’s uniforms.
He was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). He was also a member of the Universal Cookery and Food Association and a member of the culinary society "Le Cordon Rouge".
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
By 1877 the All England Croquet Club at Wimbledon had added lawn tennis to its title, and many croquet lawns were turned into tennis courts. Four years later, the Daily Telegraph acknowledged Wingfield’s achievement in a special editorial:
"The right medium has exactly been discovered between scientific skill and social amusement, and it would not be too much to say … that life has, on the whole been made pleasanter by lawn tennis and all that follows in its train."
Connections
Wingfield married Alice Lydia Cleveland, daughter of a general. She survived him by many years and died in an asylum in November 1934.