John Curry CBE, a former chairman of the All England Club who led the Wimbledon Championships through a period of expansion in the 1990s, died last Saturday (19th October) aged 86, the Club has sadly revealed.
“John Curry will be remembered as a chairman who, in the best traditions of Wimbledon, took the club forward whilst maintaining everything that is special about the club and The Championships,” the All England Club wrote on its website.
Curry served as club chairman between 1989-99 and oversaw the enactment of a long-term expansion plan that included the opening of the new No. 1 Court in 1997 and which the club said, “consolidated Wimbledon’s position as the world’s premier tennis tournament.”
He also made the decision to ban non-royal children from the Royal Box on Centre Court, which reportedly upset the Duchess of Kent, whose husband was the long-time president of the AELTC.
Debbie Jevans, the current chair, said Curry “assuredly and astutely stewarded the All England Club and The Championships through a period of significant progress and success.”
John Arthur Hugh Curry was born in 1938 and spent his childhood in Burma and India before being sent to board at King’s College School in Wimbledon, visiting the AELTC for the first time aged 11 where he participated in a coaching session for a BBC children’s programme. Whilst Head Boy of the school he played truant a few years later to go and watch the men’s final between Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall.
He loved tennis and won the Public Schools Singles Championships and made the semi-finals in the doubles. He also reached the quarter finals of Junior Wimbledon.
He captained the Oxford Tennis team whilst studying Philosophy and Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and was a rugby Blue. He later went to Harvard where he was awarded an MBA with distinction and, after qualifying as a chartered accountant, spent most of his business life in the electronics industry.
He became a Full Member of the Club in 1971 having previously been given Temprary Membership whilst captaining Oxford Tennis to cover his involvement in the Prentice Cup which involved a match between the University and a combined team from Harvard and Yale.
In 1989 he succeeded Buzzer Haddingham as Chairman having joined the Committee in 1979. He himself was succeeded as Chairman by Tim Philips in 1999 having, during his Chairmanship, launched the Long Term Plan (1993), which has, over the last few decades, transformed the Club and established it as the world’s premier tennis venue.
Under the plan the new No.1 Court was built and completed in 1997 whilst the new No.2 Court opened in 2009. In fact, much of today’s redevelopment plans can be attributed to his vision which includes the purchase of the freehold of Wimbledon Park Golf (1993) and then, a year later, the acquisition of the freehold of Southlands College which has become the home for the Club’s croquet lawns. Earlier in 1989, Curry had been instrumental in the purchase of the site at Raynes Park which is now the Club’s Community Tennis Centre.
Play on the Middle Sunday can also be attributed to him as well as the relaxation of the All-White rule to ‘Almost entirely White’ rule in 1995!
Curry was made a CBE in the 1997 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and is survived by his wife Anne, three sons and a daughter.
