Did you know that Frank Hadow was a tea planter in Ceylon and also won the Wimbledon? facebook

Did you know that Frank Hadow was a tea planter in Ceylon and also won the Wimbledon? This is mainly from the History of Ceylon Tea (Anura Gunasekara’s article on the connection between Ceylon Tea and the Wimbledon)

tea planter in Ceylon 1

The Sidelines

What does Ceylon Tea and the Wimbledon have in common? Frank Hadow, a planter from Ceylon who won the 2nd Wimbledon in 1878 while on holiday!

Born on the 2nd of January 1855, Patrick Francis Hadow was one of seven brothers and attended Harrow School, where five of his brothers also attended and they were known as the “Harrow Hadows.” Soon after his days at Balliol College, he settled in Ceylon as a planter.

He and his brother C.M. Hadow together started “P.F. & C.M. Hadow” where they started with Coffee planting and later moving into Tea planting, during the transitional stage. At present the company ownership belongs to Serendib. He was also a first class cricketer having played for Middlesex, MCC and others while in Ceylon, he played for the Dimbula Athletic and Cricket Club, the oldest sports club outside Colombo and it was an exclusive planters sports club.

It was in 1878 as a 23 year old when he went on holiday to England and played in the Wimbledon. He managed to defeat the winner of the Inaugural event, Spencer Gore and was highly recognized for his style of serving where he lobs the ball deep down the opponents end. Thus made him the pioneer of the tennis technique “lobbing.” Given that this was his only appearance and match, he goes in history as the only male player to have never lost a single set in Wimbledon.

Most of his later life was spent in Tea planting and he died at the age of 91 when he was back in the UK. This article could have ideally been posted on his birth anniversary but was originally written by Anura Gunasekara which is featured in History of Ceylon Tea titled “The Wimbledon Championship and the Plantation Connection” (source)

https://www.historyofceylontea.com/…/the-wimbledon…