The AELTC was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of John Curry CBE, aged 86, on Saturday 19 October 2024. Curry served as Chairman of the All England Club between 1989 and 1999, leading it through a significant period of progress and success.

John Arthur Hugh Curry was born in 1938 and spent the first 10 years of his life in Burma and India, before attending King’s College School in Wimbledon as a boarder. He first visited the All England Club as an 11-year-old, when he took part in a coaching session with Australian player Dinny Pails for the BBC’s Children’s Hour programme. A few years later, after becoming Head Boy, he played truant from school on a Friday afternoon in 1956 to watch the gentlemen’s singles final between Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall.

As a player, his achievements included winning the Public Schools Singles Championship and reaching the semi-finals in both doubles events as well as the quarter-finals of the singles at the Junior Championships of Great Britain (Junior Wimbledon), held at the All England Club.

He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at St. Edmund Hall College, Oxford, while captaining the tennis team and also receiving a Blue in rugby. He then went to Harvard, where he was awarded an MBA with high distinction.
He qualified as a chartered accountant and subsequently spent most of his business career in the electronics industry.

By his own description, Curry was offered Temporary Membership of the All England Club only so he would be allowed into the Grounds when he brought the visiting Harvard and Yale Prentice Cup team to practice at the Club, while he was captain of Oxford. He subsequently became a Full Member in 1971 and joined the Committee in 1979 before succeeding Buzzer Hadingham as Chairman 10 years later. 

During his decade as Chairman, Curry worked closely with his Chief Executive Chris Gorringe, who he respected enormously. He oversaw a crucial period of development for the Club and The Championships, the most obvious of which was the Long Term Plan, which was unveiled in 1993 and was the most ambitious improvement programme undertaken by the Club since the move to Church Road in 1922. The Plan, which saw the opening of the new No.1 Court in 1997 and ultimately the new No.2 Court in 2009, consolidated Wimbledon’s position as the world’s premier tennis tournament.

Curry was proud of the fact that the Championships Surplus, which had been little more than £300,000 when he joined the Committee, had risen to more than £30 million by the time he stood down as Chairman 20 years later.

During Curry’s tenure, significant decisions were taken that continue to benefit the Club today and into the future. In 1993, the Club purchased the freehold of Wimbledon Park Golf Course from the London Borough of Merton. The following year, the Club purchased the freehold to the Southlands College site, now home to the Club’s croquet lawns.

In 1989, Curry had also been instrumental in the purchase of the site at Raynes Park which is now the Club’s Community Tennis Centre.
Other milestones that took place during Curry’s chairmanship included play on Middle Sunday for the first time ever in 1991, and again in 1997, and the firming up of the ‘Almost Entirely White’ clothing rule in 1995.

Curry was made a CBE in the 1997 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He retired as Chairman in 1999 and was succeeded by Tim Phillips. Curry regarded it as one of his achievements as Chairman that he left behind a Committee containing several excellent candidates to replace him.

Interviewed for the Club’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2018, Curry claimed that being Chairman had been much easier for him than some of his predecessors, modestly stating: “When you’re drinking the water, remember who dug the well”.

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.

He is survived by his wife Anne, three sons and a daughter.