ATXtennisaddict
Hall of Fame
Andy Murray won Wimbledon and there's talk of him getting a knighthood for it. Why didn't Fred Perry get one for being such an accomplished tennis and table-tennis champion? Just wondering.
After becoming disillusioned with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, the working-class Perry moved to the United States before becoming a naturalised US citizen in 1938. In 1942, he was drafted into the US Air Force during the Second World War.
Despite his unprecedented contribution to British tennis, Perry was not accorded full recognition by tennis authorities until his twilight years.
Perry became a US citizen.Why didn't Fred Perry get one for being such an accomplished tennis and table-tennis champion? Just wondering.
Andy Murray won Wimbledon and there's talk of him getting a knighthood for it. Why didn't Fred Perry get one for being such an accomplished tennis and table-tennis champion? Just wondering.
With the information stated above, I guess the British royalty didn't like that Perry moved to the United States. I wonder if they even considered him as British anymore...
Aside from the fact that the British establishment didn't warm to Perry, it was very uncommon to award knighthoods and damehoods to sportspeople in those days.
If I'm not mistaken, the first British sportsperson to be knighted was the football (soccer) player Stanley Matthews in the mid-1960s. It's only been in recent years though, that there has been a trend to knight every British sportsperson who achieves global success, often before their careers are over. I disagree with anyone being knighted while they are still competing, by the way - it seems a bit strange to me.
Actually, there were many British sportspeople to be knighted (and damed) before that. Gordon Richards for example, the English jockey, was knighted in 1953 (and he's also the only jockey with a knighthood in world history)-
I guess the fact his father was a Labour member of parliament didn't exactly endear him to the upper classes and AELTC.
I'd love to know how he started up his clothing company.
I'm surprised i'm not a knight, they hand 'em out like sweets these days.
Rob Brydon!...... Rob Brydon!? Rob Brydon for heavens sake. Might be an honour or whatever rather than a knighthood, but still,...Rob Brydon!
ye, I wouldn't be surprised if it was offered, actually, and he turned it down (this does happen, not much, but it does)
not keen on the inference he left England to avoid fighting, though, he was a naturalised US citizen by 1938 and ended up in the US air force...
Fred Perry was a working class lad from Stockport, and the son of a Labour MP. He was also fiery and controversial at times. No wonder he was disliked by the well-to-do classes at Wimbledon. Perry was also ostracised by the British tennis establishment when he decided to turn professional and challenge Ellsworth Vines. Playing tennis for a living instead of as a past-time deserved derision, apparently.
I can't stand Royal honours, anyway.
I think the Labour fact must not be neglected
I wouldn't think so.
Perry stated in 1939 that one reason he had taken U.S. citizenship and rejected his British citizenship was the "class system" in Britain, then under Conservative government.
In 1945, with a Labour government newly elected, Perry returned to Britain and spent the rest of his life there.
However, there were plenty of opportunities for successive Labour governments to nominate him for a knighthood.
It was more than politics.
Laurence Olivier came from a strong Labour family, his uncle Sydney Olivier was a minister in the Labour government.
Yet Olivier was knighted in 1947.
Unlike Olivier, who served in a virtual suicide torpedo-bombing squad, Perry did not serve Britain in the crucial period 1939 to 1941, when they stood alone against Hitler.
Wether you are a sound conservative I don´t know.But Perry, in my humble opinion, has always been a Labour, that is quite on the left guy at heart, no matter how many millions has he made getting his % of skirts and shorts sold uner his name-brand.