Harry Gem

Major Thomas Henry Gem (21 May 1819 – 4 November 1881), known as Harry Gem, was an English lawyer, soldier, writer and sportsman.

Alongside his friend Augurio Perera, he is credited as a lawn tennis pioneer.

Biography Gem was born in Birmingham, the son of William Gem, also a solicitor, and was educated at King's College London. From 1841 he practised as a solicitor in Birmingham, becoming a magistrate's clerk in 1856.

Lawn tennis Among Gem's sporting interests was the game of rackets, which he played at the Bath Street Racquets Club adjacent to the Racquet Court Inn in Bath Street, Birmingham with his friend Augurio Perera, a Spanish merchant based in Birmingham. Frustrated at the complex and expensive facilities required for rackets, however, the two developed a similar game that could be played outdoors and may have been played on Perera's croquet lawn at 8 Ampton Road in Edgbaston, incorporating elements of rackets alongside features of the Basque game of pelota.

This game is known to have been being played by 1865, though research has suggested that experimentation may have started as early as 1859.

Gem and Perera’s game was originally known as Lawn rackets or pelota. The Leamington Club, renamed to Leamington Lawn Tennis Club at the end of 1874, thus became the world's first tennis club, playing on the lawns of the Manor House Hotel opposite Perera's new home in Avenue Road.

Gem had also been a member of the Edgbaston Archery Society from 1864 to 1867 and, although there is no direct evidence to demonstrate that he personally introduced lawn tennis to the society, the game was certainly a fixture in the society's calendar by 1875, with the society being renamed the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society in 1877.