In an earlier book that was published by the IC of GB in 1992, I summarised the immense contribution made by the IC of GB to the rapid growth of the game in the years between the two World Wars. It was an idea born of its time. The early 1920's were lively years, when it was simply good to be alive. So many were not. A whole generation of European and Dominion manhood, totalling an estimated 5.2 million, plus a further 8.5 million Axis troops, had perished in the First World War. Among them was the popular New Zealander with the looks of a matinee idol, Anthony Wilding, who in July 1914 had seen his four-year tenure of the Singles Championship at Wimbledon ended by his Antipodean Davis Cup team-mate, the left-handed Australian, Norman Brookes. Captain Wilding, serving in France, had fallen on 19 May 1915 during the battle of Aubers Ridge in Neuve Chapelle.
The post-war era was the age of the flapper and the Charleston, a time when chivalry was re-born in the almost conscious effort to banish the painful memories of conflict. Among those most concerned to restore faith in the value of international friendships and the essential goodness of man was the respected tennis journalist and keen tennis player Arthur Wallis Myers who had been the lawn tennis correspondent of the Daily Telegraph since 1908. Myers was also the lawn tennis editor of The Field magazine at that time. It was that magazine's generosity in providing a silver trophy for competition in 1877 that had led to the holding of the world's first lawn tennis Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club's ground in Worple Road, Wimbledon. That site had been purchased in 1869 following a meeting the previous year in the office of The Field's editor, J. H. Walsh, when the All England Croquet Club had been founded. It was at Worple Road in 1875 that Major Wingfield's new game of 'Lawn Tennis or Sphairistike' (a Greek word meaning ball game), patented in 1874, had first been introduced. The new game, equally appealing to men and women and more physically strenuous than croquet, had quickly become the more popular game among the members.
However, perhaps the greatest contribution of Wallis Myers to the game (he never used Arthur in his by-line) was the publication of the Ayres Lawn Tennis Almanack which he had launched in 1908 and edited annually until his untimely death in 1939 at rhe age of 61 during his return journey from covering Britain's losing Davis Cup tie against Germany in Berlin. The Almanack recorded in meticulous detail the events of the previous tennis year and was eagerly awaited by all writers and tennis aficionados every Spring. Myers was also a keen competitor at the many annual tournaments held each Spring on the French Riviera. He was a steady but unspectacular player with a keen sense of strategy who loved to mix in the distinguished company present at these tournaments which included King Gustav V of Sweden who competed as Mr. G to preserve a degree of anonymity.
In 1909 Myers had teamed up with the American Davis Cup player Frederick B. Alexander who, the previous year, had travelled to Sydney to capture the Australian singles title. Together they won the Riviera Doubles Championship in Menton. The same year Myers played in several mixed doubles tournaments with a certain Miss J. Tripp. Their successes included victory at the Monte Carlo evemt where in the final they beat the eight-time Wimbledon doubles champion Laurie Doherty and the Countess Schulenburg. It was that sort of era.
In addition to his interest in tennis Myers was also a respectable golfer who realised how much pleasure his friends derived from hitting the small white ball from tee to green. Accordingly, in 1913 he instituted The Lawn Tennis Golf Cup, an annual competition for all past and present tennis players which survives to this day as The Desborough Cup.
When war broke out in 1914 Myers was 36, too old for active duty. Nevertheless he spent a productive war. In 1916 he was attached to The Department for Information, a natural fit for a professional writer, especially one who had a wide knowledge of European countries. His role as Director of Publications led him to create the war periodical "Reality" and led to his attachment to the National War Aims Committee on which he served from 1917 until the end of the war. For his contribution to the nation's affairs Wallis Myers was awarded the C.B.E. The post-war period at Wimbledon saw a sudden surge in interest as a flood of new overseas stars appeared.
In 1919 the captivating young Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen, with her graceful balletic game and her peerless accuracy, set off on a run of seven singles victories in eight years that lifted interest in the game to new heights. Furthermore Suzanne's daring diaphanous dresses which gave tantalising glimpses of her shapely figure, together with her coloured cardigans and distinctive bandeaux perfectly expressed the post-war feeling of female liberation.
So great had been the crush at the Worple Road ground in 1920 that the police had been forced to close the road to traffic. Clearly something would have to be done. Already the far-sighted Wimbledon committee had been searching for new premises and had made arrangements to purchase farmland opposite Wimbledon Park just over a mile away in Church Road. In 1922 the first Championship was held at the new ground which was officially opened by King George V. He was accompanied by Queen Mary who became an ardent tennis fan and was often to be seen in the front row of the Royal Box. This royal connection, which continues today through the staunch support of the Kent family, was another factor which helped to increase the stature of the fast-growing sport.
Equally important to the growth of world interest in the game was the win at Wimbledon in 1920 of the majestic American Bill Tilden who won again in 1921 and returned in 1930 to capture the title for a third time. Tilden, with his seven US singles titles between 1920 and 1929, plus his five US men's doubles and four in mixed, alongside his contribution to seven winning Davis Cup finals, became an immense international figure in the sport as much for his dominating, theatrical personality as for his powerful and versatile game. Also in the men's game, the French 'Musketeers' Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra and Henri Cochet who each won two Wimbledon titles, plus the doubles expert, Jacques Brugnon, dominated the scene until the arrival of Britain's Fred Perry whose three wins in 1934, '35 and '36 restored national prestige. In the women's game it was Kitty Godfree who brought joy to British supporters. Her two wins came in 1924 and 1926, the second occasion in the fmal against the 18-year-old American Helen Wills who would later amass eight singles titles at Wimbledon.
It was during this period that an idea began to crystallise in the mind of Wallis Myers. The idea had developed out of earnest conversations between Myers and Dwight Davis, the donor of the Davis Cup. Surely, thought Myers, there should be some way of nurturing and preserving the camaraderie that existed between the young gladiators of so many countries who met in serious but friendly rivalry at tournaments around the world each year.
Another who influenced him in this direction was Lord Balfour, the former Prime Minister (1902-1905) who was a nephew of the previous holder of that office, the Marquis of Salisbury. Balfour was keenly interested in tennis and believed that the nations should come closer together.
Balfour had been Foreign Secretary from 1916-1919 in Lloyd George's wartime coalition government and had been responsible for the Balfour Declaration on November 1917 which had expressed official British support for a national Jewish homeland in Palestine. The first Zionist settlement had been established in 1882 but Balfour's initiative gave impetus to the eventual formation of the State of lsrael in 1948.
It was fortunate for tennis that this distinguished statesman should have been so interested in the game. He had often been seen at The Championships at Worple Road and there is a delightfully informal photograph of him relaxing on a grassy bank with Wilding during the last pre-war Championship in 1914. Myers knew Balfour quite well and had expressed his intention of forming some sort of club or society to cement the informal ties which bound together the young tennis players af all lands. Balfour persuaded him to act.
So it was that early in November 1924 Myers finally put physical expression to his idea. "A fortnight before the inaugural meeting I sent out letters to some 50 British players who had crossed the seas as members of touring teams. All that were in London at the time attended a gathering over which Sir Leonard Lyle presided." This was an historic occasion. To an attentive and sympathetic audience Myers explained his ideas for an International Club. He began by underlining the contribution Britain had made to international sport by inventing a game some 50 years earlier that had grown to become the most popular ball game in the world.
"We are in some measure compensated for the temporary loss of supremacy on the courts by the reflection that our early pioneers, through their skill and enthusiasm, had sowed the good seed abroad. Acclaiming overseas champions at Wimbledon (Brookes had been the first male to win in 1907) he continued ... "we are in reality reaping the fruits of our own spadework. The IC is intended to acknowledge good fortune as well as to extend it. We are seeking to extend the ties that bind us to all international players, to exchange greetings with them from time to time, to offer them hospitality when they come in our midst. Hands across the net, in fact, means hands across the ocean."
Myers had his audience enraptured. They had all experienced hospitality abroad and were fully in tune with his sentiments as he continued ... "The IC will pay fealty to constitutional authority and will not seek to usurp or overlap the functions of other organisations. We should, in principle and in spirit, be a society of players who have toured in and been educated by overseas countries, co-operating in the course of time with offshoots of the parent, which might be founded abroad for the same object. Our purposes are social, not political, of a masonic nature."
It was a broad concept and the response was immediate. All the leading men in Great Britain, eligible by the rules, accepted the invitation to join. At the first count there were 75 Members and 25 Honorary Members. In the latter category the committee, as a first instalment, had invited the Davis Cup captains and distinguished players who had visited these shores from the Dominions, the United States, France, Belgium, Spain and Romania to join.
The reader will have noted that in these early years the IC was an exclusively male preserve - another example of social attitudes in the 1920's. Not until 1989 were women invited to become members. It is significant that Myers, in his address, did not even feel it was worth mentioning the fact that in 1905 the British-born American, May Sutton, had become the frrst overseas man or woman to become the champion at Wimbledon, two years before Brookes. Furthermore, even the three women who became Wimbledon champions in the post World War II years - Angela Mortimer (1961), Ann Jones (1969) and Virginia Wade (1977) had to wait until 1992 before being invited to join. However, it is pleasing to note that the IC of GB has become a much more vibrant and meaningful club since 1992 and now even boasts its first female Chair in Anne Clark.
In conclusion we should all now celebrate the fact that Wallis Myers' vision has resulted in the creation of 41 more IC Clubs around the world in the last 100 years, led by France in 1929 and the USA the following year. At present, however, the Russian IC is under temporary suspension. It is estimated that, as of 31st December 2022 there are 4,250 IC members worldwide - 70% men and 30% women. The men and women of every Club are proud to wear their grey ties and grey silk scarves - all with pink stripes that differ in number and width.