Austin, Henry Wilfred 'Bunny' - A Lawn Tennis Great

Henry Wilfred 'Bunny' Austin - A Lawn Tennis Great

The former pupil of Repton School 'Bunny' Austin at the start of his accomplished lawn tennis career - before he took the shocking step of becoming the first man to wear shorts on the Wimbledon Centre Court!

HENRY WILFRED 'BUNNY' AUSTIN was born in London on 26 August 1906 and died in Coulsden, Surrey, on his 94th birthday, 26 August 2000.

He was one of the all-time great figures in world tennis, and a member of the last British team to win the Davis Cup - on three occasions 1933-35 in the 'golden era' for British tennis. He remains the last British player to reach the Men's Singles Final at Wimbledon (1938) and just a few years earlier had become the first man to pluck up sufficient courage to play on Centre Court wearing shorts rather than the traditional long flannels!

His link with Derbyshire is via his school days - he was a pupil at Repton School in the 1920s and while there was National Schoolboy Tennis Champion three years running. It was also at Repton that he acquired his unusual nickname - his sharp-eyed classmates labelled him 'Bunny' after a Daily Express cartoon rabbit called Wilfred, which they had quickly noticed was Austin's second name.

Austin had dashing looks as a young man and was described in his heyday as 'the darling of the crowds and every schoolgirl's pin-up'. In his 'day job' he was a stockbroker on the London exchange, but his comfortable background enabled him to live a life of leisure in which taking time off for tennis was not considered a difficulty.

In 1931 he married the film actress Phyliss Konstam (1906-76) and together they became one of the most glamorous celebrity couples of the age.

Of all the fine sportsmen that Repton School has produced, H. W. 'Bunny' Austin was undoubtedly one of the most accomplished.

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