As we enter the channel hopping part of the summer trying to keep up with the exploits of Euan and Andy Murray just imagine if you had the ability to be both---- a British Lion and playing tennis at Wimbledon.--what a combination--a combination the very few could aspire to
One such athlete was J.P.R Williams of Wales and the Lions who once beat a certain David Lloyd at Wimbledon and another was suprisingly a Glasgow Accie who played his rugby on both sides of the Anniesland fence- a certain Louis Greig a quite remarkable sportsman for any generation

Louis a half back played his rugby for Glasgow Accies in the decade leading up to the First World War and was capped many times for Scotland including their historic 6-0 defeat of the mighty Springboks at Hampden Park in 1906. He toured with the British Isles Team( the term Lions was only introduced in the 1920s) to South Africa in 1903 playing 17 times. During this period Accies who had played at Old Anniesland since 1883 were in the process of moving to New Anniesland which was officially opened in 1905.

To understand how this rugby player from Anniesland ended up playing at Wimbledon in the Mens Doubles as a partner of the future King George V1 read on ;

"Group Captain Sir Louis Leisler Greig, KBE, CVO (17 November 1880 – 1 March 1953) was a British naval surgeon
The son of a Glasgow merchant, Greig was educated at Glasgow Academy and Merchiston Castle School before studying medicine at Glasgow University. Academically gifted, Greig was also an excellent rugby and tennis player. After a few years practicing as a junior doctor in the Gorbals, he joined the navy in 1906
In 1909, Greig entered officer training at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, where he met Prince Albert, later George VI. and the two served together in HMS Cumberland, where Greig was posted as a surgeon. He was transferred to the Royal Marines in 1914, and was captured at the fall of Antwerp, spending eight months as a prisoner of war.
Released by a prisoner exchange,Greig joined the company of HMS Malaya in June 1917, rejoining Prince Albert, and helped cure the prince of the severe peptic ulcers from which he suffered. During the next seven years, he was extensively in attendance on the Prince, receiving an appointment as an equerry to the Prince in 1918. Prince Albert and his Equerry both joined the Royal Air Force in 1919 (Greig rising to the rank of Wing Commander), and the two were partners at Wimbledon, an event which brought Greig's influence with the Prince into public light.
"When in 1922 King George V, accompanied by Queen Mary, opened the Church Road ground, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor) and Prince Albert (later Duke of York and King George VI) were present. In 1926, on the occasion of The Jubilee Championships, the latter competed in the Gentlemen’s Doubles event in partnership with Louis Greig (later Sir Louis Greig, Chairman of The All England Lawn Tennis Club), but they were well beaten in the first round by H.R. Barrett and A.W. Gore.

The Anniesland/Wimbledon story doesn't end with this epic and there is more to be told and our longstanding regular readership will not have to rehearse the fact that Brian Simmers grandmother Charlotte Cooper won the Ladies Singles on five occasions between 1895 and 1908 because the new angle uncovered by our reporting sleuths refers to the father of a current Hawks player who also played at Wimbledon--but more of which later

This article was originally posted on 18-Jun-2009, 10:12 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 18-Jun-2009, 10:17.