Walter Clopton Wingfield

 Inventor of lawn tennis (1874), which he called "Spharistike" (Greek for "ball games"). The early participants preferred to call Wingfield's game tennis-on-the-lawn or lawn tennis. He quickly seized on the potential, publishing a set of rules and marketing the basic equipment in 1874. Early recorded sales of tennis equipment were positive. Between July 1874 and June 1875 he sold 1,050 sets of tennis equipment mainly to the aristocracy. The first lawn tennis tournament took place at Wimbledon in 1877. the game was introduced into the United States by an American, Mary Ewing Outerbridge of Staten Island, New York. The first game of lawn tennis played in the United States took place on the grounds of Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club in the spring of 1874.

   

  The game was introduced into Australia in 1880, and soon spread throughout the British Colonies and the world in the last decade of the 19th century. His Military honors included, the Royal Body Guard and Captain, and the First Dragoon Guards. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.