Harry Gem

Harry Gem (1819 – 1881) was an English solicitor and sportsman who is widely credited as being one of the originators of lawn tennis.

Gem, along with his friend Augurio Perera, developed a game called "lawn rackets," which combined elements of rackets, pelota, and Basque pelota. They played this game on Perera's croquet lawn in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, starting around 1859. Their innovation involved using a somewhat wider court than used for rackets, a net, and rackets to hit the ball, all played on a grass lawn.

In 1872, Gem and Perera founded the world's first lawn tennis club, the Edgbaston Archery and Croquet Society (later renamed the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society). Their game, though predating the formal rules established by the All England Croquet Club in 1875 for lawn tennis, is considered a crucial precursor to the modern sport. While the codified rules formalized in 1875 largely eclipsed Gem and Perera's original version, their contribution to the development of lawn tennis is significant and historically important.