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He was the son of Hannah and Samuel, a local cotton spinner. Samuel was a deeply political man, who was involved with the Labour Co-operative Movement.

It was his father’s politics that would eventually allow the young Fred the opportunity to spend time playing tennis, but not before his family had moved around the North-West following Samuel’s political career.

Leaving Stockport

They moved from Stockport to Bolton and, from there, onto Wallasey, with Sam being involved with the local co-operative society in each town.

His commitment to the cause didn’t go unnoticed at a national level and when the Co-operative Party was formed in 1917, Samuel was appointed national secretary.

Portwood in 1907

The appointment meant the family had to move to London, where they lived on the Brentham Estate in Ealing. The estate had tennis courts and a cricket pitch and the nine year old Fred was soon regularly playing tennis.

Fred’s future seemed set and his path turned away from the North-West and towards Wimbledon – but things could have been different.

A slight return

In 1920, Samuel decided to try and return to his home town of Stockport via a political route. He ran in the Stockport by-election of that year, but was unsuccessful, before repeating his defeat two years later in the 1922 general election.

The defeat kept Fred in the south and on the path to tennis glory, but it wasn’t quite the last that Stockport saw of one of its most famous sons.

Fred Perry playing at Wimbledon

Some years later, after he had won his world titles, the tennis great returned to Stockport and to Woodbank Park, not far from where he was born, to play some exhibition matches on the park’s tennis courts.

Walking the Fred Perry Way

Fred’s early life in Stockport is remembered in a walk opened by Stockport Council in 2002.

A 14 mile walking route, it passes through the Portwood area where he spent his childhood, taking Houldsworth Mill and Square, the start of the River Mersey at the confluence of the River Tame and River Goyt, Stockport Town Centre, both Vernon and Woodbank Parks and the Happy Valley.