It was in 1859 that lawn tennis pioneer Harry Gem and his friend JBA Perera first experimented with a game recognizably the forerunner of the modern game of lawn tennis and which they called Pelota, in homage to Perera’s Spanish…
An advanced copy of the Barber Institute’s book Court on Canvas has just arrived. It will be on sale when the Court on Canvas: Tennis in Art and A Gem of Game exhibitions open next Friday 27th May.
Today, 21st May, is the anniversary of Harry’s birth in 1819. To mark the occasion there will be a re-enactment next week of Harry’s early lawn tennis experiments with his friend Perera in the grounds of the latter’s home in…
Latest news in today’s Birmingham Mail (Thursday 12th May 2011): Councillor Osborn, Chairman of Birmingham’s Planning Committee has suggested that the new tennis centre at the Edgbaston Priory Club be named after Harry. We can think of no better way…
Harry’s grave is in section P of Warstone Lane Cemetery in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter (see yellow dot). A permanent path leads towards the area and restoration work by the Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries has unearthed its…
A seemingly unremarkable brown book, now over 120 years old, is in urgent need of conservation before it goes on display to the public, for the first time in its history, in May at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts….
There’s an exhibition coming up in May at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the University of Birmingham, which is the first ever to explore the subject of lawn tennis in art. It will feature also a large collection of…
Harry Gem is buried in Warstone Lane cemetery in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and his grave has been unmarked for many years. It is not known whether the original memorial stone has been removed and lost or laid…