A British Wimbledon Winner

79 years ago Frederick John Perry won his third Wimbledon title beating the German Gottfried von Cramm 6–1, 6–1, 6–0. The victory was reported in The Times on July 4, 1936, the day after the final and noted that it ‘must have been a depressing anti-climax for everybody, and not least to the scores of people who had waited through the night to see it’. The reason for the disappointing match was that von Camm had pulled a muscle in the beginning of the first set, and though von Camm tried to hide the injury, it became apparent in the second set.

The writer of the article was Robert “Bob” Cooper, who had started his career with The Times as a Shorthand Typist/telephonist in the Foreign News Department in 1924. He became the Lawn Tennis Correspondent as well as a Sporting Room Sub-editor in 1934. His work on reporting the tennis had not gone unnoticed and in a memorandum, dated November 18, 1936, Robert Barrington-Ward, the Assistant Editor, wrote to William Lints Smith, the Manager, that Cooper ‘has now made himself the best correspondent on lawn tennis writing at present.’

The photograph of Perry and von Camm shaking hands after the match was taken by Stanley Hedley Kessell who was a photographer at The Times from 1924 until 1939 when he became the official War Office photographer under the auspices of the Newspaper Proprietors Association.

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