Wednesday, June 28, 2006

"Campaign For Perry Statue" - Wimbledon website

A campaign is under way in Fred Perry's birthplace, Stockport, to commemorate the last Briton to win the Wimbledon men's singles championship with a statue in the town centre.
Perry, who completed his hat-trick of singles titles at the All England Club 70 years ago, already has a path bearing his name running through 14 miles of Stockport, and now a former mayor, councillor Eric Pyle, has pledged £9,000 from his charity fund towards a monument.
Perry, who died in 1995, aged 85, was born at 98 Carrington Road, Portwood, Stockport, on 18 May 1909. His father, Sam, a cotton spinner at a nearby mill, had political ambitions, and Fred was only a toddler when the family moved to Bolton, then to Wallasey and on to Ealing, where Sam became a Labour MP.
Although Perry spent only a brief time in Stockport, he was made a freeman of the town after winning at Wimbledon in 1934. He recounted in his autobiography: �Stockport has been good to me. When I won Wimbledon in 1934 the borough honoured me by holding a public collection. The people gave so generously that I was presented by the mayor with a silver tea service, a replica of the Louis XIV gold service in Windsor Castle. They would have liked to copy the set in gold, but they couldn�t get permission, so they did it in silver instead.


[Click the image for the full story. See also previous postings for more information and comments on this campaign.]