The last ‘Irishman’ to win Wimbledon

Adam's History sale on April 15th in the St Stephen's Green, Dublin saleroom includes an 18ct gold medal awarded to "the last Irishman to win Wimbledon". The pre-auction estimate is €15,000-€20,000.

The medal was won by Harold Segerson Mahony, who was crowned Lawn Tennis Champion at the All-England Club in 1896. Mahony was born into an Irish family in Edinburgh in 1867, the son of Richard John Mahony, a wealthy barrister.

He learned to play the game at the family's Irish home, Dromore Castle, Co Kerry, where his father had built a tennis court. He studied at Trinity College Dublin, moved to London and by the mid-1890s he was a regular on the tennis circuit there. Mahony won Wimbledon in 1896, defeating the previous year's winner, Wilfred Baddeley, in a five -set final. He died, aged only 38, after a cycling accident in Co Kerry.